ABSTRACT
The study of territoriality is a new area of focus for political ecology and environmental anthropology. At the same time, many subfields of cultural anthropology have only marginally addressed notions of territory as fundamental aspects of social analysis. This chapter recognizes the discursive dynamics of symbolic representations of territory and how these representations interface with actual territorial space as a site of activism and of cultural and political identity. It shows in which the concept of territoriality may be interrogated in the experience and actions of Slovakias environmental movement. It looks at both the divide between the state and tradition and the rapidly changing coordinates of what constitutes traditional perspectives and practices. The chapter focuses on three cases to examine different aspects of the juncture between territory and place and environmental activism. The first two cases are based on field research conducted in Slovakia in the mid-1990s. The third case draws both from field research and from contemporary Internet sources.
