Indigenous Peoples And The Future Of Amazonia

This timely book provides the first examination of the relationship between cultural and environmental variation in the Amazon, with special reference to the survival and welfare of indigenous societies. The particular strength of this collection is that it emphasizes ongoing changing elements rather than static ones in Amazonian human ecology in the context of colonization. Leslie Sponsel and twelve other contributors, including archaeologists, biological anthropologists, cultural ecologists, and nutritionists, review traditional and changing adaptations of indigenous societies to Amazonian ecosystems; they analyze the challenges presented to indigenes by the massive cultural and environmental impact of Westernization. They also discuss the applications of research results to the needs, interests, and priorities of indigenous societies. In his concluding chapter, Sponsel calls for anthropologists to contribute through their research to the empowerment of indigenous communities and organizations. "In the Amazon the only people who already know and practice ecologically sound economies are most indigenous societies. Documenting their ecologically sound values, knowledge, and technology is one of the most important tasks for cultural ecology".

This book brings together a valuable collection of case studies and conceptual approaches that outline the present state of Amazonia in the 21st century. The many problems are described and the benefits, as well as the achievements of regional development are also discussed. The book focuses on three themes for discussion and recommendations: indigenous peoples, their home (the forest), and the way(s) to protect and sustain their natural home (biodiversity conservation). Using these three themes this volume offers a comprehensive critical review of the facts that have been the reality of Amazonia and fills a gap in the literature.The book will appeal to scholars, professors and practitioners. An outstanding group of experienced researchers and individuals with detailed knowledge of the proposed themes have produced chapters on an array of inter-related issues to demonstrate the current situation and future prospects of Amazonia. Issues investigated and debated include: territorial management; indigenous territoriality and land demarcation; ethnodevelopment; indigenous higher education and capacity building; natural resource appropriation; food security and traditional knowledge; megadevelopmental projects; indigenous acculturation; modernization of Amazonia and its regional integration; anthropogenic interventions; protected areas and conservation; political ecology; postcolonial issues, and the sustainability of Amazonia.

"This book offers a historic and anthropological perspective from which to understand the fragility of isolated indigenous groups in the face of contact with outside society. It helps us appreciate the importance, in terms of cultural and biological diversity, of safeguarding their territories for both their future and that of the human race." "Drawing on scientific and legal principles, international agreements, and primarily from the perspective of human rights, Beatriz Huertas Castillo presents solid arguments concerning the urgent need for national and international efforts to defend the territories, cultural integrity and life ways of isolated indigenous peoples."--BOOK JACKET.

Radical Territories in the Brazilian Amazon sheds light on the creative and groundbreaking efforts Kayapó peoples deploy to protect their lands and livelihoods in Brazil. Laura Zanotti shows how Kayapó communities are using diverse pathways to make a sustainable future for their peoples and lands. The author advances anthropological approaches to understanding how indigenous groups cultivate self-determination strategies in conflict-ridden landscapes.

Contrary to ingrained academic and public assumptions, wherein indigenous lowland South American societies are viewed as the product of historical emplacement and spatial stasis, there is widespread evidence to suggest that migration and displacement have been the norm, and not the exception. This original and thought-provoking collection of case studies examines some of the ways in which migration, and the concomitant processes of ecological and social change, have shaped and continue to shape human-environment relations in Amazonia. Drawing on a wide range of historical time frames (from pre-conquest times to the present) and ethnographic contexts, different chapters examine the complex and important links between migration and the classification, management, and domestication of plants and landscapes, as well as the incorporation and transformation of environmental knowledge, practices, ideologies and identities.

There are few topics so large yet so uncovered in the academic literature as the Amazon Basin. Much of the area that connects nine South American countries, hundreds of indigenous peoples, and dozens of multinational corporations - as well as being "the world's lungs" - remains unexplored and includes a demographic density that is still low. But, development throughout the Basin has occurred with a ravaging appetite: loggers have decimated parts of the region with their fishbone patterns of extraction; large-scale agribusinesses have moved into a power vacuum; and the region has witnessed an increase in the coffee, sugar, and mining industries, along with ranching. All of these have resulted in significant deforestation, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The booms and busts of traditional commodities - such as rubber latex, nuts, and turtle eggs - impact negatively on the social and economic structure of the basin. In the background to these developments, there is a resurgence of economic nationalism as countries prepare their futures around a pending crisis over food security and global climate change. Hydrocarbon potentials - the possibility of oil and gas fields underground in Amazonia - complicate the situation as indigenous communities, sharecroppers, landless peasants, and others advocate for their respective rights, using ancient methods of protest, as well as digital activism through the Internet. This important book examines how the Amazon Basin's indigenous self-determination meets corporate profiteering, where the future of natural resource stewardship is hotly debated, and where subsistence living, extreme poverty, and the vagaries of the international commodities markets are revealed. The environment and the law are seen to be at the heart of the intersection of sustainable development and unfair trading practices.

Blending ethnography with a fascinating personal story, A Future for Amazonia is an account of a political movement that arose in the early 1990s in response to decades of attacks on the lands and peoples of eastern Ecuador, one of the world’s most culturally and biologically diverse places. After generations of ruin at the hands of colonizing farmers, transnational oil companies, and Colombian armed factions, the indigenous Cofán people and their rain forest territory faced imminent jeopardy. In a surprising turn of events, the Cofán chose Randy Borman, a man of Euro-American descent, to lead their efforts to overcome the crisis that confronted them. Drawing on three years of ethnographic research, A Future for Amazonia begins by tracing the contours of Cofán society and Borman’s place within it. Borman, a blue-eyed, white-skinned child of North American missionary-linguists, was raised in a Cofán community and gradually came to share the identity of his adoptive nation. He became a global media phenomenon and forged creative partnerships between Cofán communities, conservationist organizations, Western scientists, and the Ecuadorian state. The result was a collective mobilization that transformed the Cofán nation in unprecedented ways, providing them with political power, scientific expertise, and a new role as ambitious caretakers of more than one million acres of forest. Challenging simplistic notions of identity, indigeneity, and inevitable ecological destruction, A Future for Amazonia charts an inspiring course for environmental politics in the twenty-first century.

A title that sets out how the Amazon Basin's indigenous self-determination meets corporate profiteering, where the future of natural resource stewardship is hotly debated, where subsistence living, extreme poverty, and the vagaries of the international commodities markets are revealed.