Abstract
The Amazon Rubber Boom (1885-1930) has long been known by its worst outrage: Julio Cesar Arana’s brutal enslavement of 13,000 Indians around 1904 in Peruvian-held territory along the lower Putumayo River. In contrast, where indigenous people were not driven by the whip, researchers have argued that they remained largely unaffected by rubber collection. Archival evidence and a reexamination of older ethnographies suggest a different conclusion: debt peonage and forced labor, not brutality, drove most native workers to gather rubber. Few if any Indian households in western Amazonia escaped from this commerce. As the Rubber Boom receded, survivors often constructed new ethnic identities in what James Scott has called “shatter zones.” Such findings call for a revised, historically grounded scholarship that problematizes commodity booms and their impact on native communities.
Highlights
Where indigenous people were not driven by the whip, researchers have argued that they remained largely unaffected by rubber collection
A few years ago, one of my colleagues was looking for historical documents about forced labor in Tena, former capital of the Ecuadorian Amazon
Slavery in Ecuador had been outlawed for more than a century; debt servitude and Indian tribute had been prohibited for years; minimum wage laws had been enacted and communal lands were protected by law
Summary
A few years ago, one of my colleagues was looking for historical documents about forced labor in Tena, former capital of the Ecuadorian Amazon. During her lunch break, a middle-aged Kichwa woman asked what she was doing there. Usually based on debt, emerged around the world as international demand for industrial commodities rose during the 19th century. Usually based on debt, emerged around the world as international demand for industrial commodities rose during the 19th century2 In constructing this analysis, I have tried to draw connections between the massive disruption of indigenous societies—equivalent to the fur trade in North America—and their subsequent “retribalization” later on. A clear-eyed view of the recent past remains essential if we are to understand the origins and trajectory of indigenous groups in Amazonia today
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