Indigenous Trust and Readiness towards Development

The primary consumption of indigenous people across the world is related mostly to the jungle and its produce. The consumption practices that stem from this primary consumption and its relatedness to the jungle are vivid in most indigenous culture and practices. In other words, consumption is demonstrated by the active social clustering (Coleman & Williams, 2013)—the dynamics of the interactions between individuals and dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The interaction of these will jointly develop the social identity and attachment. According to Lichrou, O’Malley, and Patterson (2014) sense of place integrates place attachment and place meanings. The jungle becomes their sanctuary and living sources. The reliance on the jungle becomes inseparable from their lives. Scannell and Gifford (2017) asserted that most people have at least one place to which they are emotionally attached. Place attachment refers to the experience of long-term affective bond to a specific geographic area and the meaning assigned to that bond (Ramkissoon, Weiler, & Smith, 2012) and that place becomes one anchor of identity (Anton & Lawrence, 2014; Hay, 1998) and to regulate affect (Schmalz & Orth, 2012). But with the new developments, the urge to modernize the internal and remote areas becomes one of the development agendas. The objective of this study is to explore the influence of place attachment (the emotional and functional ties that connect the indigenous communities to their home), trust towards development and the readiness of the community to embrace change. The study areas are non-tourist areas.