No Word for Worry. Sacred and Environmental Concerns in the Social Transition between Sea and Land of the Moken and Urak Lawoi of Thailand

In the documentary on the life of the Moken people, sea nomads of Thailand (Wiik 2014), the protagonist of the film states that in the Moken vocabulary there are no words that describe the feeling of worry about the future: “No word for Worry” (which is also the title of the documentary). Living in a symbiotic relationship with the ocean, a true total social fact (Mauss 1925), tomorrow is not a concern as it depends on a larger and uncontrollable dimension capable of ordering life and giving it meaning. In this regard, it is worth noting how Luhmann (1993) mentioned that ancient people had more tools than us to protect themselves from misfortunes. We moderns are exposed to chance and aware of it, but at the same time overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility for choices regarding an uncertain future that nevertheless depends on us. As a matter of fact, the future of modernity is contingent, not accidental (Aristotle) compared to a necessary reality, because it is given as creatum, already existing. For Luhmann, the result is the modern splitting of the future, indicating a tension between society and time, where society self-describes as future, with no observable present, inher- ently elusive, and the past no longer existing. This transposition of society into the future coincides with the decline of the sacred (Durkheim 1912; Douglas 1966, 1992) and the weakening of social bonds in favour of the society of the individual. Indeed, the profane dimension of global society is continuous and is produced through a spatial-temporal dis-embedding that lacks festive suspen- sion and regenerative expenditure as even the celebration becomes an individual choice, hyper-cultural (Han 1923) and commercial. Accordingly, this contribution addresses the relationship between the temporal dimension, the sacred, and ecological concerns within the specific context of the social transition from maritime nomadic life to sedentary terrestrial life among the sea nomads of Thailand (Moken and Urak Lawoi). It discusses the importance of the risk-oriented 30 description of the future in the contemporary society, as opposed to the way sea nomads express environmental concerns, to conclude with a reflection on the perspective of a sacred ecology to reconnect social relations with the environment in present day society. As a matter of fact, in present time we are no longer facing the ontology of the Lascaux caves (Bataille 1955): a powerful reality that mani- fests as artistic-religious experience, capturing the fleeting nature of becoming in the hic et nunc, in the “aura” (Benjamin 1935). We no longer deal with a strong ontology, with a presence of being capable of leading to the belief, as with the Moken and the Urak Lawoi, that there are no words to express concern about the future. However, even in the modern era, the sacred sets but does not disappear. The dimension of the sacred remains as an ineffable latency that accom- panies, like an unexpressed double, the grotesque (phantasmatic) description of the future social. Its manifestations are different from those of ancient communal communities, falling within the realm of individual action, individual attribution and search for meaning, risk-taking. Simultaneously, the sacred dimension revitalizes social bonds, and forms of communal experience, linked to the sea, persist and shape the social life of populations such as the Moken and the Urak Lawoi, who experience the risk of losing that deep connec- tion under the pressures of modern life. As a result, they lack words for worry, but also a risk semantics. Therefore, the condition of the Moken, exposed to the risks of climate change, over-tourism, natural disasters (Tsunamis), security segregation, and intensive fishing, suggests a critical reflection on the relationship between fear and social innovations in relation to environmental concerns viewed through the lens of sacred ecology.