自然資源管理與保育的現代物神信仰，是一種關注於生物物種使用或不使用的當代欲求，往往能與土著生活中深信這些物種能控制人類生活的物神信仰傾向相契合。自然資源管理與保育的全球論述介入蘭嶼雅美族的生活世界，並提倡著一種機械論式的理性計量世界觀。當商品流入與保育概念強加在原有雅美的物神信仰時，在不同性別與年齡層引發多重宇宙觀相嵌的混合激盪。年輕男人與貧窮女性能更藉由現代性計畫中新商品的力量來操弄或挑戰傳統物神。許多土著生活中的物種因而在國族資本主義的當代脈絡中汲取嶄新意義，成為當代族人認知與身體體現的新工具。挪用的現代技術與概念要是能有效地被施展在反制鬼靈的拜物生產上，但卻不必與全球保育論述的生態關懷同步同調。當傳統認知中重要的感知載體轉變成現代意義下的科學物種時，雅美人經歷了雙重抽象性的世界觀轉換，從人與靈界的延遲交換轉變到著重市場通貨的可計量性與稀有性之錙珠必計。生物物種作為雅美人重要的物質想像因而成為他們體驗現代性的繁忙場域與再現窗口。
Modern conservationism and natural resource management (NRM) can be portrayed as contemporary forms of fetishism, of using or not using certain biological species; these articulate with indigenous ideas or ＂traditional＂ fetishisms, which hold that these species control human beings. With their shared mechanistic worldview, the global discourses of conservation biology (CB) and natural resource management have promoted the rational use of key material resources among the Yami fetishisms, under the influences of ever-expanding global commodification and conservationism, have become a hybrid that expresses contested worldviews and social relations between genders and across generations. Through the introduction of new commodities and modern projects, young men and poor women gain access to the means to challenge traditional ideas or rituals about indigenous species. Many indigenous species, already powerful elements in Yami epistemology, have acquired new meanings under Taiwan’s national capitalist agenda. Borrowed modern techniques have proved useful in local fetishist practices against spirits of the dead, but are not fully in sync with the ecological concerns of conservationists. Furthermore, the transition of Yami fetish species from traditional ＂sensuous beings＂ to scientific species has meant that they have gone through a dual conversion, first from a vehicle of the human-Otherland engagement to modern market commodity; then, from materialist inventory to the object of scarcity tracking. In this sense, natural species constitute a busy conjuncture of the materialist imaginary through which the Yami have experienced modernity.
