Bioregions and Spirit Places: Taking up Jim Dodge’s Long-Lost Suggestion

aspect of knowing one’s bioregion1. However, since that time, this provocative concept has not been taken up with much vigor; in fact, it seems to have been dropped altogether2. This paper, drawing on two research trips among the highlanders3 of Northeast Cambodia, concludes that a bioregional theory that does not include spirit places is myopic. Taken in the highlander context in Cambodia, such a theory is utterly meaningless. Dodge is reluctant to define bioregionalism precisely (5); he does, however, offer us several “elements ” that can help delineate bioregions, one of which is “spirit places.” According to Dodge, certain mountains or bodies of water function as “the predominate psychophysical influence where you live ” (7). Cambodia’s highlanders, with their animistic beliefs in such spirit places, can help shed light on Dodge’s intuition. In this paper, the Brao and other tribes of Ratanakiri province show us that knowing where spirits dwell and having a framework to deal with them is an equally and quite possibly more important dimension of living sustainably and fruitfully in one’s local ecosystem for it i