Amazonian Context Research Articles

Adornos corporais em Carajás: a produção de contas líticas em uma perspectiva regional

Resumo O sítio arqueológico MMA-02, encontrado na Serra dos Carajás, Pará, e associado à variante amazônica da tradição Tupiguarani era um local especializado na produção de adornos corporais em uma matéria prima lítica, a caulinita silicificada. Principalmente, contas discoides estariam sendo produzidas, o que está evidente na predominância de suas pré-formas e restos brutos de debitagem. Para o presente artigo, foi feita a análise tecnológica de uma amostra do material, centrada no estudo da cadeia operatória das contas, com o objetivo de acessar as escolhas feitas por aqueles que frequentaram o sítio: quais as técnicas utilizadas e como se encadeavam em sucessivas operações no trabalho do material. Ao mesmo tempo, procuramos entender o sítio, tanto dentro do padrão observado para as ocupações Tupiguarani no sudeste amazônico, quanto no contexto mais amplo da região amazônica durante a Nossa Era, na qual a referência à circulação de adornos corporais é uma constante.

Histoplasmosis or tuberculosis in HIV-infected patients in the amazon: what should be treated first?

Histoplasmosis or tuberculosis in HIV-infected patients in the amazon: what should be treated first?

Subsídios para a gestão de jardins botânicos no Brasil - o caso do Jardim Botânico Adolpho Ducke de Manaus

Independente de sua forma de administração, para atingir seus objetivos, os jardins botânicos precisam estar amparados em instrumentos de gestão que orientem as ações a serem implementadas, e traduzam as expectativas e necessidades de seus visitantes em programas e projetos. O estudo se propôs a apresentar subsídios para nortear a gestão do Jardim Botânico Adolpho Ducke de Manaus, baseado na percepção, nas demandas e expectativas através de um levantamento de informações junto aos diferentes atores que se relacionam com o jardim, buscando assegurar o alcance efetivo dos seus objetivos, bem como seu fortalecimento institucional, ponderando suas características peculiares e importância no contexto amazônico. A pergunta central deste estudo é como deverá ser administrado para atender às expectativas e demandas de seus usuários. Para isso foram estabelecidos três objetivos principais, que deverão auxiliar no estabelecimento de uma gestão mais adequada ao jardim. Atualmente, o documento que norteia sua gestão é o seu regimento interno, no qual está estabelecido a sua missão, seus objetivos e estrutura de gestão, sendo este um primeiro norte, contudo ainda falta um instrumento que contemple um planejamento de futuro.

POTENCIALIDADES E LIMITES DA APLICAÇÃO DO MONITORAMENTO COMUNITÁRIO NAS UNIDADES DE CONSERVAÇÃO DA AMAZÔNIA: UMA REFLEXÃO A PARTIR DO PROBUC.

The ProBUC - monitoring program of biodiversity and the sustainable use of natural resources in protected areas of the Amazonas state - is an innovation in the community monitoring process within the Amazon. It is, in large measure, a consequence of the evaluation process and management of protected areas worldwide. Its purpose is to support the management of these protected areas through information obtained by local communities monitoring. In this work, we exposed the methodological details of the operating system of the program and its objectives as the official description made by the government of the Amazonas and the way it was implemented three protected areas. First, the aspects that precede and inspire the creation of ProBUC are presented, starting from the theoretical framework that discusses the conventional monitoring until the appearance of the proposed community monitoring in tropical countries, emphasizing the limitations of both modalities. Secondly, the limitations and potentials of this Amazon program are exposed within a critical evaluation of its functioning. This analysis stems from readings of international authors who discuss the issue of community monitoring direct observations made during field works and interviews with inhabitants of the conservation units within the program in question was established. Our analysis is also reinforced by taking part in in technical review meeting held by the ProBUC´s crew in 2013. It was noted that the viability of this program depends on overcoming key challenges such as financial dependence on international institution, the absence of a permanent technical staff, the huge gap in the treatment of data collected, the limited participation of the community in the daily development of the program-, among others. These limitations mean that the work done by local inhabitants is not located within a government strategy for local development. Furthermore, adaptive and participatory aspects of the program are potentials that need to be valued for its improvement. We conclude that it is very urgent that the state government take ownership of this program and equipped it with the necessary means in order to see its appropriation by the local communities and to encourage the proliferation of other similar regional initiatives-. The construction of ProBUC in this way would be of great value to the consolidation of alternative community monitoring in the complex Amazonian context.

Bride‐service and the absent gift

Building on a previous experiment to apply Strathern's discussions of Melanesian gift exchange to ethnography relating to Tukanoan societies in Northwest Amazonia, this essay asks why other authors should repeatedly affirm that the gift has no relevance in the Amazonian context. Two answers are proposed. Firstly, the authors concerned tend to assume that a particular type of social formation is characteristic of Amazonia as a whole. The Tukanoans, who engage in ceremonial exchange of food and goods, do not fit this rubric. Secondly, despite their differences, these authors assume that Amazonian societies are bride‐service societies where, axiomatically, there can be no gift. The Tukanoans are not bride‐service societies and, if anything, tend towards the bride‐wealth alternative. This Tukanoan exception serves to re‐emphasize the diversity of Amazonian social formations, one that would have been even greater in the archaeological past. It also warns against the dangers of over‐hasty theoretical closure.

Intimidade com estranhos: uma perspectiva Kaxinawá sobre confiança e a construção de pessoas na Amazônia

Este artigo reexamina distintas abordagens que tratam da constituição da socialidade em contextos indígenas amazônicos, as quais diferem no que diz respeito ao valor heurístico atribuído à "confiança" e à "intimidade", à luz da etnografia dos Huni Kuin (Kaxinawá) sobre o corpo, a noção de pessoa, a confiança e o pensamento. Para os Huni Kuin, o pensar e o confiar são processos incorporados e constitutivos da socialidade vivida. Partindo de uma apreciação crítica dos usos de esquemas analíticos que emergem das discussões sobre o "perspectivismo amazônico" e a "fractalidade", desse modo colocando em relevo ontologias indígenas em ação, o artigo mostra que é necessário ir além de uma ênfase ontológica para considerar sua interface com a epistemologia e a fenomenologia indígenas. Concluo que o entendimento perspectivista huni kuin da dinâmica entre socialidade virtual e socialidade vivida em um universo multinatural se apoia nesta interface.

Experiência formativa mediatizada por ambiente virtual de aprendizagem: formação de professores de ciências e matemática na Amazônia

Este artigo expressa resultados de uma pesquisa de natureza qualitativa, na modalidade narrativa. Foram investigadas experiências formativas de professores de Ciências e Matemática a distância na Amazônia, vividas em um curso via Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem (AVA). Objetivamos investigar em que termos essa experiência formativa foi catalisadora de reflexões docentes sobre o contexto amazônico de ensino de Ciências e Matemática. Ao utilizarmos a Análise Textual Discursiva, emergiram as categorias: Formar-se no contexto amazônico: obstáculos e enfrentamentos; Tecnologias e AVA: sentido(s) da experiência formativa; e As repercussões da experiência nas percepções da prática e da formação docente. Os resultados das análises revelam os obstáculos para formar-se nesse contexto. A dinâmica vivenciada por meio das tecnologias de um AVA e do coletivo de professores repercutiu em percepções metodológicas quanto ao uso das tecnologias nas práticas docentes, apontando também o AVA como alternativa de (auto) formação diante da realidade amazônica.

Critical distances: Comparing measures of spatial accessibility in the riverine landscapes of Peruvian Amazonia

Quantitative measures of accessibility are increasingly used in land cover change modeling and in assessing human pressure on the environment. In riverine Amazonia the significance of physical accessibility for biodiversity, land use patterns and economic livelihoods is widely acknowledged, but attempts to quantify accessibility in practice have been few in number. In this study we compare different distance- and frequency-based measures of spatial accessibility and develop a quantitative model of accessibility patterns for the north-eastern Peruvian Amazonia where rivers form the core of the transportation network. We model accessibility between the rural areas of the Loreto region and the capital city of Iquitos, using different distance algorithms in a geographic information system, and complement the distance model with information on river boat frequencies and transport capacities. Patterns of accessibility are visualized in terms of potential production zones for different types of agricultural and non-timber forest products. This study demonstrates how results from different accessibility measures vary considerably. The mean Euclidean distance to Iquitos is almost 270 km, the mean network distance nearly 760 km and the mean travel time 70 h. Observed network distances from validation points to Iquitos are on average 1.6 times longer than Euclidean distances, and for the whole study area, the average ratio between modeled network distances and Euclidean distances is 3.1. The correlation between network distances and time distances is very strong, but time distances are relatively shorter along the major channels where boat traffic is considerably faster than along narrow, tightly meandering rivers. Measures of boat frequency and transport capacity show that availability of transport possibilities is highly varying across the region. These measures provide insights into the ’thickness’ of trade, indicating the level of market integration for riverine settlements. We conclude that quantifying accessibility in an environment like Peruvian Amazonia requires measures that take into account the spatial structure and dynamic nature of the riverine transportation network. Time as a unit of distance provides the most relevant measure of accessibility in the Amazonian context, where many human actions and traditional livelihoods are controlled by travel times between the regional core and the hinterland.

Desde la Amazonía peruana: aportes para la formación docente en la especialidad de educación inicial intercultural bilingüe

La política de universalización de la educación inicial debe ir acompañada de un serio análisis y reflexión sobre el impacto que puede tener en los procesos de socialización primaria de niños y niñas de pueblos originarios. En este contexto es indispensable garantizar la existencia de programas de formación docente conscientes de la relación entre cultura y aprendizaje que ofrezcan a sus estudiantes insumos para valorar, complementar y enriquecer la formación que se da en el hogar y en la comunidad. Este artículo presenta algunos temas medulares de dos lineamientos curriculares diseñados «desde y para pueblos indígenas Amazónicos».Si bien ambos lineamientos han sido pensados desde la Amazonía, y responden a las necesidades y demandas de organizaciones indígenas de esta región, los temas incluidos en este documento podrían ser utilizados como referentes para examinarla manera cómo se está abordando la formación de docentes en la especialidad de educación inicial intercultural bilingüe en otros contextos.

Local environmental governance, public policies and deforestation in Amazonia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the problem of deforestation in Amazonia and the role of the Brazilian government with regard to the capitalist demands and development needs for the region. It offers a brief historical review of public policies and programs for Amazonia, and critically analyzes their conflicting aspects. Local environmental governance (LEG) is proposed as a conceptual framework and a participatory forest management strategy for dealing with the forest destruction.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a qualitative‐based study which provides a systemic analysis of the process of occupation and the key public policies for Amazonia from over the last decades, particularly during thecoup d'étatregime. Based on a literature review and official documents, descriptive data are produced which helped in understanding the political phases of the Brazilian government administrations.FindingsThe study identified some participatory‐based, decentralized models of forest management and existing forest regulatory frameworks which can serve as an illustrative sketchy arrangement on how local environmental governance can become operative and serviceable for a sustainable balance between the use of natural resources, conservation and regional planning. These findings can help future investigations on governance models. The research also shows how the Brazilian government has perceived Amazonia throughout the decades and how this perception influenced the implementation of development and settlement policies for the region.Originality/valueThe main focus of this article is the debate on the concept of local environmental governance (LEG) as a tool for empowering the local communities through the decentralization of decision making as well as the attempt to find implemented normative and institutional structures within the Amazonian context which can translate aspects of LEG.

Religious Matrices of the União do Vegetal

This article analyses the relations between the União do Vegetal (UDV) and other religious traditions. Narratives provided by early members and biographical details of the founder of the UDV since his childhood, reveal the presence of elements within the cosmology and rituals of this religion that are originated in various sources. These span from popular Catholicism, Allan Kardec's Spiritism, Masonry, Jewish tradition, and Afro-Brazilian religions, to popular Amazonian beliefs. The text shows how the combination of aspects of these different traditions is important in the constitution of the new religious system of the União do Vegetal. The article situates this ayahuasca religion within the field of Brazilian religiosity, indicating, for instance, parallels in its formative process with the history of other religions, such as Umbanda. The article also highlights relationships between elements of the mythology, doctrine and rituals of the União do Vegetal and the Amazonian context linked to the use of ayahuasca.

Biomarkers of selenium status in the amazonian context: Blood, urine and sequential hair segments

Selenium (Se) is an essential element and deficit or excess of dietary Se is associated with health disorders. Relatively elevated Se levels have been reported in the Brazilian Amazon, where there are also important annual variations in the availability of different foods. The present study was conducted among six riparian communities of the Tapajós River to evaluate seasonal variations in blood and sequential hair cm Se concentrations, and to examine the relationships between Se in blood and hair, and blood and urine. Two cross-sectional studies were conducted, at the descending water (DWS, n=259) and the rising water (RWS, n=137) seasons, with repeated measures for a subgroup (n=112). Blood Se (B-Se), hair Se (H-Se) and urine Se (U-Se) were determined. Match-paired analyses were used for seasonal comparisons and the method of best fit was used to describe the relationships between biomarkers. B-Se levels presented a very large range (142-2447 microg/l) with no overall seasonal variation (median 284 and 292 microg/l, respectively). Sequential analysis of 13 cm hair strands showed significant variations over time: Se concentrations at the DWS were significantly lower compared with the rising water season (medians: 0.7 and 0.9 microg/g; ranges: 0.2-4.3 microg/g and 0.2-5.4 microg/g, respectively). At both seasons, the relationships between B-Se and H-Se were linear and highly significant (r(2)=67.9 and 63.6, respectively), while the relationship between B-Se and U-Se was best described by a sigmoid curve. Gender, age, education and smoking did not influence Se status or biomarker relationships. Variations in H-Se suggest that there may be seasonal availability of Se sources in local food. For populations presenting a large range and/or elevated Se exposure, sequential analyses of H-Se may provide a good reflection of variations in Se status.

'The Commons' in an Amazonian Context

The tropical rainforest houses a wealth of both ecological and cultural diversity, and the species richness, ecosystem services, genetic wealth, and repository of indigenous and local environmental knowledge stored in this endangered region represent a global commons at risk. As articulated by Donald Nonini in the introduction to this forum, ‘the commons’ refers to those assemblages and ensembles of resources that human beings hold in common or in trust on behalf of themselves, other living human beings, and past and future generations of human beings, and that are essential to their biological, cultural, and social reproduction. In the Amazon, many ecological resources lend themselves to being held in a commons because of practical reasons, such as the difficulty of dividing it into smaller pieces (e.g., due to resource unpredictability, mobility, or the loss of ecological functioning if broken into pieces), and/or the costliness of excluding potential users. But social reasons and values foster the communal management of resources as well: various commons exemplify shared identity, provide economic buffering, mitigate subsistence risk, foster cooperation and conflict resolution, and serve as a pillar in the edifice of societies supporting socialization and social reproduction.

Traditional knowledge and areas of biodiversity in Brazilian Amazonia*

The loss of biodiversity, one of the environmental problems with an acknowledged planet‐wide impact, has been addressed by a convention which highlights the need to take into account the “knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities” in a context of sustainable development. This rehabilitation of the traditional practices and knowledge of communities undermined by several decades of development raises a number of problems as to its relevance, forms, and procedures. The multidisciplinary research we have carried out in Brazilian Amazonia on the management of the varietal diversity of cassava by various local groups provides a good illustration of this. After presenting the Amazonian context in which cassava is cultivated, we look at the institutional and organizational environments in which the communities concerned live before taking up the question of emerging political configurations involved in preserving local knowledge. Non‐governmental organisations play a significant role politically, as intermediaries between the local level and the state's political and administrative institutions. The dynamics observed testify to a far‐reaching change in the way “indigenous communities” relate to the society around them.

Agriculture familiale en front pionnier amazonien : la sédentarisation en question

In the Amazonian context, some authors analyze the evolution of the agricultural frontier as a pre-determinated dynamic: the stabilization of the frontier, which has been colonized by family farmers, would repeat the Brazilian model of land tenure, with the domination of big properties and the marginalization of family farming. This paper is based on the hypothesis that the stabilization of the frontier depends on sedentarization strategies of the farmers: alongside public politics and the economic context, examining migration choices of family farmers is essential to understand the type of frontier stabilization occurring. Those strategies can not be seen as an economically rationalistic behaviour, but depends on the reproduction logics of the families. This paper focuses on the migrations of the farmers’ sons in the Transamazonian frontier in order to reveal the strategies of their families’ mobility, and their complex relations with the space and the society. Concluding with a statistical analysis showing that there is no factor explaining the whole migrations of the sons, I present a qualitative analysis in order to establish a typology of farmer families according to their mobility practices; and I attempt to map this typology to show its importance in different localities over 30 years. Finally, I point out that the stabilization of the frontier is closely linked with the families’ strategies, and that the debate on sedentarization requires a more complex model of the relations between social organization and land.

Richard Spruce, botânico e desbravador da América do Sul

Between 1849 and 1864, the English botanist and explorer Richard Spruce carried out a detailed study of the Amazon flora and the costumes of the peoples who inhabited the region. To date a large part of the existing knowledge about several botanical families in the region stems from this scientist's efforts. His comprehensive interests, his detailed and precise descriptions were outstanding: nothing seems to have been left out of his scrutiny and recording aptitude. Not only was Spruce a remarkable botanist but he was also a distinctive anthropologist, linguist (he knew French, Spanish and Portuguese), geologist and geographer, as well as an acute sociological observer of the political systems and habits of the Amazonian and Andean trips in which has has been. He could thus make a considerable contribution to the understanding of indigenous beliefs and practices, as well as to the knowledge and uses of plants within the Amazonian context. Also important was his participation in the economic exploration of local species, particularly as regards the Hevea and the Cinchona genera.

Estimating timber depreciation in the Brazilian Amazon

This study estimates depreciation values for timber extraction activities in the Brazilian Amazon for 1990 and 1995. A generalized approach following Vincent and Hartwick (1997) is applied enabling us to calculate depreciation based on all three methods proposed in the literature. We also calculate Hotelling rents for timber as a whole and for mahogany alone. Apart from the expected differences in the results for each method, the results show substantially low depreciation estimates as a direct consequence of the high timber stocks and scarcity perception by economic agents due to the lack of property rights in the region. For mahogany alone we obtain substantially higher values. We conclude that if scarcity rents are not fully perceived, or they really do not exist in such huge supply conditions as our estimates may suggest, charges related to other forest services are fundamental to make environmental accounting an useful tool for planning in the Amazonian context.

Transforming the Traditional: Indigenous Amazonian Resource Regimes and Resource Capture by External Actors -The Case of Brazil's Kayapo

The indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon are often viewed as the inevitable losers in the ongoing struggle over the fate of the region's natural resources. This article examines a recent case of conflict over resource use between the Gorotire Kayapo and external interests seeking to develop gold, timber, and hydroelectric resources on traditional Kayapo territory. The case is explored in terms of four hypotheses regarding patterns of conflict between indigenous peoples and external interests in the Amazonian context. It is argued that ifan indigenous group gradually develops links to the external political economy prior to experiencing large-scale resource capture by external actors, it may be able to successfully assert authority over its traditional resource base. However, this success is dependent on transformation of the traditional indigenous resource regime, which, in turn, tends to undermine the cohesion of the indigenous group.