Amazonian Indigenous Peoples Research Articles

El buen vivir como alternativa al desarrollo

En este artículo se aborda de forma sistemática el concepto del buen vivir como alternativa al concepto de desarrollo característico de la modernidad occidental, tomando como punto de partida que el mismo deriva de la cultura ancestral de los pueblos indígenas andinos y amazónicos. Para ello se define el concepto, se indaga sobre su origen, se identifican sus denominaciones y sus significados, se elabora una concepción sintética del mismo y finalmente se plantea que dicho concepto pertenece a una categoría superior de análisis que sería el paradigma del bienestar denominado trans-desarrollo, propio de una nueva cosmovisión denominada trans- modernidad.

El sumak kawsay genuino como fenómeno social amazónico ecuatoriano

En este artículo se indaga sobre el origen del concepto de sumak kawsay. Partiendo de la constatación de su existencia como fenómeno social: se muestra cómo surgió como alternativa al desarrollo sustentable en la Organización de Pueblos Indígenas de Pastaza en los años noventa; se explica cómo su emergencia en el ámbito intelectual occidental es consecuencia de la divulgación que realizó Carlos Viteri a finales del siglo XX y comienzos del siglo XXI; se explica que dicho fenómeno es la forma de vida cotidiana y la aspiración vital de los pueblos indígenas amazónicos; y se describe cómo el concepto llegó a las constituciones de Ecuador y Bolivia referido ya a las sociedades andino-amazónicas.

The co-constitution of neoliberalism, extractive industries, and indigeneity: Anti-mining protests in Puno, Peru

In June 2011, over 25,000 protesters congregated in Puno, Peru to demonstrate against a recent mining concession to a multinational mining corporation. Protesters employed an ‘eco-ethno’ rhetoric that centered around the potential for the mine to contaminate local water sources and made explicit their indigenous identity. The mobilizations eventually provoked the central government to revoke of the mining license and temporary halted all new extractive industry projects in the Puno region. The Puno protests present a case study to explore the impacts of neoliberal economic policies on indigenous peoples, the factors contributing to the emergence of a national indigenous movement in a country where previously ethnic activism was absent, and the utility of eco-ethno narratives for indigenous movements. The paper is composed of three main sections and arguments: (1) that while overall the acceleration of extractive industry investment caused by neoliberal policies threatens indigenous livelihoods, international governance structures and communication technology provide important new methods for indigenous peoples to secure international allies and legal support (2) that an indigenous movement centered around opposing resource extraction is emerging in the Peruvian Andes (3) that the eco-ethno narratives that won Amazonian indigenous peoples first-world environmentalist allies may not be successful in the Andes, but that a different variant of ecological rhetoric has proved useful in challenging state policies.

“Adaptive Resistance,” Conservation, and Development in the Brazilian Amazon: Contradictions of Political Organization and Empowerment in the Kaiabi Diaspora

Indigenous peoples have been active players in the process of securing land rights and conserving about 21 percent of the Brazilian Amazon. In this article, we examine advances and contradictions in the process of “adaptive resistance” by Amazonian indigenous peoples in terms of their seeking alliances and funding from outside allies, adapting institutions and social organization, and reconstructing self-representations for securing and managing their territories. Drawing from long-term research among the Kaiabi (Tupi-Guarani) indigenous people, we compare the process of formation of indigenous leaders and indigenous political organizations among three Kaiabi groups—Xingu, Teles Pires, and Rio dos Peixes—following the relocation of the majority of Kaiabi to Xingu Park starting in the 1960s. New models of leadership emerging from interaction with other indigenous groups—from the history of the creation of Xingu Park in Brazil and from access to resources brought by the alliance between indigenous peoples and environmentalism—were important factors enabling political empowerment among the displaced Xingu Kaiabi in contrast with the other two groups. We discuss contradictions of political empowerment and strengthening of indigenous organizations in the Amazon, which may also lead to trade-offs and to the risk of dependence on outside funds and agents. Multicultural organization and alliances provide important platforms to the adaptive resistance and empowerment of diverse Amazonian indigenous peoples.

Los awajún y wampís contra el Estado: una reflexion sobre antropología política

Los paros indígenas amazónicos de 2008 y 2009 han revelado un tipo de sociedad poco conocida en el resto del país. Se trata de sociedades igualitarias y acéfalas inmersas en un Estado burocrático y rodeadas de una sociedad estratificada. Para comprender las motivaciones y principios de organización del movimiento se realizaron entrevistas a algunos líderes awajún y se examinó la historia de este pueblo.

History of natural resource use and environmental impacts in an interfluvial upland forest area in western Amazonia

Much of the research done on environmental impacts by Amazonian indigenous peoples in the past focus on certain areas where archaeological remains are particularly abundant, such as the Amazon River estuary, the seasonally inundated floodplain of the lower Amazon, and various sites in the forest-savannah mosaic of the southern Amazon The environmental history of interfluvial upland areas has received less attention. This study reconstructed the history of human use of natural resources in an upland area of 1400 km2 surrounding the indigenous Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon, based on oral history elicited from local elders as well as historical source documents and some modern scientific studies. Although data is scarce, one can conclude that the impacts of humans on the environment have varied in time and space in quite intricate ways. Hunting has affected, and continues affecting, basically the whole study area, but it is now more concentrated in space than what it has probably ever been before. Also forest clearing has become more concentrated in space but, in addition, it has gone from affecting only hilltops forests to affecting alluvial plains as well as hilltops and, lately, also the slopes of the hills.

Cacería de subsistencia de distintos grupos indígenas de la Amazonía ecuatoriana

De la Montaña, E. (2013). Subsistence hunting of indigenous people from Ecuadorian Amazon. Ecosistemas 22(2):84-96. Doi.: 10.7818/ECOS.2013.22-2.13 Hunting is an essential component of culture and survival strategy for many Amazonian indigenous peoples. Moreover, hunting is an important threat to the biodiversity of many areas. In this paper we compiled data on game harvests from 14 tribal settlements in Ecuadorian Amazon. The age and size of hunting settlements were correlated with key parameters of harvest profiles. Harvest volumes were compared with those considered sustainable for each species. Results show that mammals are the most important group in terms of biomass and number of animals harvested. We indicate that as hunting persistence increases there is a predictable shift from vulnerable to more hunting resilient species. Overexploited species in most settlements were woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha and Lagothrix poeppigii), lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) and salvin’s curassow (Mitu salvini). However, these species continue being hunted even though effort required to track these down is greater. Our study demonstrated that hunting by indigenous communities in Ecuador responses to species availability, and cultural changes of indigenous people could cause unsustainable exploitation of hunting resources if recruitment possibilities on population under pressure diminish.

Initiation rites at menarche and self-reported dysmenorrhoea among indigenous women of the Colombian Amazon: a cross-sectional study

ObjectivesTo investigate the association between self-reported dysmenorrhoea and patterns of female initiation rites at menarche among Amazonian indigenous peoples of Vaupés in Colombia.DesignA cross-sectional study of all women in seven...

Transforming power in Amazonian extractivism: historical exploitation, contemporary "fair trade", and new possibilities for indigenous cooperatives and conservation

Cooperatives have been widely supported as vehicles for community-based conservation and development. However, these organizations are often developed around specific income-generating projects rather than broader considerations of how relations of power and ecological exploitation might be transformed. This article uses the case of AmazonCoop—a cooperative dedicated to the supposedly fair trade of Brazil nuts between Amazonian indigenous people and the multinational corporation The Body Shop—to illustrate how historical political ecology might facilitate the design of more radically transformative cooperatives. Contextualizing AmazonCoop within the history of Amazonian extractivism, and particularly the extraction of wild rubber, reveals the specific mechanisms and processes through which indigenous people have gained and lost power. This analysis thus creates opportunities for thinking more creatively about how contemporary conservation–development schemes might pursue ecologically sustainable and socially just social transformations.Keywords: cooperatives, fair trade, conservation, development, indigenous people, Brazil

Territorio y Poder: La reivindicación territorial de los indígenas de la amazonia boliviana

The article shows that the territory and the territorial claims are two key issues for the amazonianindigenous peoples in Bolivia. The territory has an important role in cultural reproduction and politicalorganization. The research was conducted in Mojos (Beni). We explain how the itinerant way of territorialoccupation has changed since the implementation of land policies from the state. Nowadays, indigenouspeoples claim the legal recognition of their old territories to face the “white men” illegal occupations.So that conception of an unlimited territory has changed. Today, they perceive a limited territory,surrounded by private properties. However, the territory has became one of the central demands of theindigenous organizations and so, allows them to position themselves politically in local and national stage.

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.

PROPOSAL FOR A SHARED CLASSIFICATORY TREE FOR DOBES LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATIONS AND OTHER SOCIO-CULTURAL DATA BASES.

This article proposes a classification for socio-cultural and linguistic data bases, especially those that document society, culture and language of Amazonian indigenous or rural mestizo people. The proposal was elaborated in the context of a DOBES language documentation project about the language use of the “People of the Center” (Bora, Witoto, Ocaina, Nonuya, and Resigaro). The basic principles of this proposal are derived from Bakhtin's/Vološinov's theory of the proposition.

Matis y Korubo, contacto y pueblos aislados: narrativas nativas y etnografía en la Amazonia brasilera

This article is about isolation, contact, and relations between two Amazonian indigenous peoples: the Matis and the Korubo. Both groups, of the Panoan linguistic family, live in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. The Matis were contacted by the Funai (the Brazilian agency for indigenous affairs) in 1976, and they worked as intermediaries helping the Brazilian government to make contact with the Korubo in 1996. Since then, the Matis have been the main translators and mediators between the Korubo and the rest of the world (indigenous and non-indigenous). Based on my investigation, I propose to classify “isolation” in different ways and to relate the Matis’ own narratives about their contact with their neighbors the Korubo in order to approximate a native conception of what “isolation” and “isolated peoples” mean—if they mean anything at all.

From the Ground, Looking Up: Report on the Video nas Aldeias Tour

ABSTRACT This report compares two recent media events centered on the iconography of Amazonian indigenous peoples to highlight the cultural activism of the collaborative video project, Video nas Aldeias. [Keywords: Amazonia, Video nas Aldeias, indigenous media, cultural activism]

Governing relations between people and things: Citizenship, territory, and the political economy of petroleum in Ecuador

Ecuador is the fifth largest producer of petroleum in Latin America. Petroleum has brought prosperity to many Ecuadorians, effectively becoming the nation's most important natural resource. It also has inspired intense political mobilizations. While the best known of these are led by Amazonian indigenous peoples, petroleum has also generated other important but not as well-recognized mobilizations. This paper focuses on the political mobilization of Amazonian agricultural settlers and petroleum workers in relation to petroleum. While these actors do not share common livelihood or cultural struggles, the discourses that frame their mobilizations in relation to petroleum have common elements. Their dissatisfaction with the political economy of petroleum in the 1990s and 2000s, for example, generated high profile protests and civil unrest that centered not on stopping production, but on demanding a more ‘responsible management’ of petroleum by the state. The paper brings together political economy, mechanisms of subject formation, and the material qualities of petroleum to explore how petroleum production in Ecuador has shaped common views on citizenship among these actors that center on petroleum as a site of regulation of social life.

Opportunities for transnational indigenous eco-politics: the changing landscape in the new millennium

Abstract In the late 1980s, Amazonian indigenous peoples captured the imagination of northern policy circles and the larger public by strategically representing themselves as the solution to the environment-development quandary. They accomplished this in part through linkages to northern environmental and human rights organizations. The formation of such transnational networks was made possible by a uniquely favourable cultural, political and economic climate that increased indigenous peoples’international visibility. Since that time, however, the landscape has changed and constricted earlier opportunities. Salient shifts include the ideological and financial polarization of the rainforest movement, a relative absence of Amazonian issues from international mass media and, overall, a devaluing of indigenous identity. The Amazon Alliance, a coalition formed out of a 1990 meeting between Amazonian indigenous groups and northern non-governmental organizations, is the point of departure for a larger discussion of the changing landscape of opportunities for transnational indigenous eco-politics.

Conservation Alliances with Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon

Abstract: Ongoing alliances between indigenous peoples and conservation organizations in the Brazilian Amazon have helped achieve the official recognition of ∼1 million km2 of indigenous lands. The future of Amazonian indigenous reserves is of strategic importance for the fate of biodiversity in the region. We examined the legislation governing resource use on indigenous lands and summarize the history of the Kayapo people's consolidation of their >100,000 km2 territory. Like many Amazonian indigenous peoples, the Kayapo have halted the expansion of the agricultural frontier on their lands but allow selective logging and gold mining. Prospects for long‐term conservation and sustainability in these lands depend on indigenous peoples' understandings of their resource base and on available economic alternatives. Although forest conservation is not guaranteed by either tenure security or indigenous knowledge, indigenous societies' relatively egalitarian common‐property resource management regimes—along with adequate incentives and long‐term partnerships with conservation organizations—can achieve this result. Successful initiatives include Conservation International's long‐term project with the A'ukre Kayapo village and incipient large‐scale territorial monitoring and control in the Kayapo territory, and the Instituto SocioAmbiental (ISA) 15‐year partnership with the peoples of the Xingu Indigenous Park, with projects centered on territorial monitoring and control, education, community organization, and economic alternatives. The recent agreement on ecological restoration of the Xingu River headwaters between ranchers and private companies, indigenous peoples, and environmentalists, brokered by ISA, marks the emergence of an indigenous and conservation alliance of sufficient cohesiveness and legitimacy to negotiate effectively at a regional scale.

Territorios indígenas: tocando a las puertas del derecho

This article provides an introduction to «territories», the Amazonian Indigenous Peoples’ basic demand and to discussions on indigenous territoriality. To make this notion intelligible it contrasts it with current legal figures while demanding an intercultural approach from Law. However it concludes that because of its political genre it requires a constitutional treatment. This article also reviews steps taken by some American countries to improve their response to multiethnic realities.

The use of medicinal plants by the Yanomami Indians of Brazil, Part II

The results of ethnobotanical fieldwork among two Yanomami communities are presented, and the knowledge of medicinal plants and fungi among those communities is discussed in the light of recent evidence that the Yanomami possess, contrary to previous assumptions, an extensive pharmacopoeia. In addition to the 113 species already known to be used by the group, a further 85 species are documented. Twenty-three species are named and discussed in detail. Considerable overlap is found between the uses of medicinal species by the upland Yanomami and those of the lowland Yanomami, but considerable differences are also apparent. The new data raise the currently recorded total to a level comparable with or greater than that recorded among other Amazonian indigenous peoples. Many of these plants are used in the same way by other indigenous and non-indigenous groups, supporting the hypothesis that their use is based on pharmacological activity. The origins and significance of this knowledge are discussed, with particular reference to the use of plants in the treatment of malaria.

Regional Socio-Political Chances and Amazonian Indigenous Peoples. New Social Spaces of the Manchinery Youth.

The article was originally published without an abstract
 From introduction:
 In my article l discuss how recent regional socio-political changes in Brazilian ”Amazon have opened new social spaces for the Amazonian indigenous youth, and a possibility to acquire symbolic capital. l have studied young generation of the Manchinery, who live in the state of Acre, Brazil. This topic has been in center of my Ph.D. thesis tailored as a comparative study of worldviews and social actions of the Manchinery youth, between
 14 and 24 years of age, in two different contexts, in the indigenous territory and the capital of Acre, Rio Brando. In cities the encounter of new beliefs, habíts, technology, and social realities is different than in indigenous territories, where the new ideas are expressed through the state health services, environmental agencies and education politics of the state (…)
 
 Adapted from introductory paragraph