Hybrid Natures?: Community Conservation Partnerships in the Kayapó Lands

Abstract

This article analyzes a more than two-decade long partnership between the Kayapó, an Amazonian indigenous group, and a large environmental NGO. Drawing from political ecology and science and technology studies and building upon the literature concerning community-conservation partnerships, I examine the outcomes of an ecological research program near one village in Brazil. While scholars have posited that hybridized forms of knowledge, landscapes, and practice result from such interactions, I explore the applicability of hybridity in such contexts. Interpersonal relationships, storied events, and the practice and production of knowledge emerge as key elements to consider when examining the outcomes of this partnership. Results suggest new ways of framing the co-constituted nature of bio-cultural environments in ways that are attentive to the formation and expression of social relationships over time.