Ogy As Applzed Anthropology in Amazonian Development
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INSTITUTO SOC!OM,-':BiHJThL . ..• data··-·-··········/ / _ e o d • ' '1> . .1> (2) © 1 _ '-/ 1 . Ethnoeco!Ogy as Applzed Anthropology in Amazonian Development DARRELL A. POSEY, .JOHN FRECHIONE, .JOHN EDDINS, LUIZ FRANCELINO DA SILVA, with DEBBIE MYERS, DIANE CASE, and PETER MACBEATH Social and ecological devastation in Amazônia necessitates alternative strategies for sustained, ecologically sound developrnent, The study of indigenous ecological knowledge (ethnoecology) is shownto offer the bases for these new strategies, Six categories of folk knowledge are explored: gathered products, game, aquaculture, agriculture, resource units and cosmology, A set of recommendations for systematic ethnoecological research is offered, the application of which will not only identify new categories of resources, but also offer altemative resource management strategies to bring the benefits of development to ali residents of Amazônia. Key words: ethnoecology, economic development, subsistence strategies, Amazônia To find altemative paths for the development ofhintedand regions in two problems that, by the 1970s, were commonly shared that lead to greater human riches for more people, we need to begin by the South American countries whose national tenitories with a less arrogant view of the superiority of our world of shiny encompass portions of Amazônia. First, these nations had hardware, a greater appreciation of the wisdom -and the potential power-ofthe villagers we would teach and guide (Keesing 1980:6). ali become net food importers (World Bank 1980); and sec• ondly, they all had developed severe balance of payment deficits {Hecht 1981 :62, Table 1 ). ln order to rectify these AMAZÔNIA {SEE FIGURE 1) IS CONSIDERED to be problems, these nations turned to their Amazonian hinter• one of the last terrestrial frontiers of the planet. Tre• Jands with a variety of developmental goals. These goals mendous ecological and social devastation has followed in were: the wake ofrecent attempts to "develop" this region (Davis 1977; Denevan 1973, 1981; Foweraker 1981; Sioli 1980; ... 1) to increase basic food production; 2) to expand exports; 3) to Smith 1982). The early history of economic exploitation in alleviate population and political pressures in non-Amazon regions Amazônia was characterized by enterprises based upon the of the countries; 4) to improve access to non-agricultural resources such as timber, minerais, hydropower, etc.; 5) to promote economic promotion of sirnple technology, de-centralized, extractive integration; and 6) to secure national boundaries. (Hecht 1981 :63). activities that relied upon the knowledge and labor ofindig• enous peoples who were most often subjected to a system of To achieve these goals, the Amazonian countries instigated "quasi-slavery" (Barbira-Scazzocchio 1980:xv; Reis 1974: large-scale development projects such as road-building, col• 34). Little natural environmental degradation occurred, al• onization programs, monocrop agriculture, cattle ranching, though the indigenous population appears to have been dev• and mining in their Amazon tenitories. astated (Denevan 1970; Dobyns 1966; Morey 1978; T. P. From a purely economic viewpoint, the performance of Myers 1978). Gradually, however, changes in world market these development projects in Amazônia has been poor. demand, the structure of capital in vestment and returns, and Highly proclaimed commercial forest schemes, like the Jari general social, economic, and política! developments resulted Project, have proven unprofitable (Hecht 1981 :78). Cattle ranching, the major vector for development funds and en• terprise in the Brazilian Amazon during the Iast decade Darrell A. Posey is Director of the Laboratorio de Etnobio• (Goodland 1980: 18), has similarly failed to generate long• logia, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luis, Brasil. John Frechione is at the Center for Latin American Studies, term, fiscally sound development (Hecht 1982:27-28). For University of Pittsburgh. John Eddins is a Ph.D. candidate. example, in the Brazilian Amazon approximately 95% ofall in anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. Luiz Fran• cleared land is used for cattle ranching; yet, in the Parago• celina da Silva is Professor of Education, Fundação Univer• minas region of Para alone, 85% of the recently established sidade do Amazônas, Manaus, Brasil. Debbie Myers, Diane cattle ranches are now unproductive due to pasture degra• Case, and Peter MacBeath are undergraduate students as• dation (Hecht 1981:96). sociated with the Center for Latin American Studies, Uni• From a social standpoint, the results ofdevelopment proj• versity of Pittsburgh. This research was made possible by the ects in the Amazon are equally poor, Indigenous populations Center for Latin American Studies, University of Pittsburgh, in Amazônia have sutfered significantly from etforts to de• and the Section of Man, Carnegie Museum of Natural His• velop and "conquer" the region. Entire groups have been tory. The authors wisn to express their gratitude to Carol Jones and Mary Ann Schmidt for their help in the prepara• eliminated (Davis 1977; Indígena 1974). At Ieast 87 Amer• tion of this manuscript. indian societies have become extinct in the Brazilian Amazon alone over the past 75 years (Ribeiro 1970:238). Caboclos Human Organization, Vol. 43, No. 2, 1984 Copyright © 1984 by the Society for Applied Anthropology 0018- 7259/84/020095-13$ l .80/ I V O L. 4 3, NO. 2 S U M M E R 1 9 8 4 95 '.\ .• ' ,. Colombi,,, / // / Brazil .. ··: t .. ·"'····· · · .. j Boliv ia /.. '"'"': - .•........ __ _,,. .... FIGURE 1. APPROXIMA TE LIMITS OF AMAZONIA and colonos' have fared little better even though one of the tially due to the adverse envíronmental and social effects of major justifications for varied development projects in Ama• Iarge scale developments, Brazíl (the country with sover• zônia has been the provision of new lands for settlement and eígnty over the largest section of Amazônia) has reduced the srnall-holder farming which would contribute to relieve pop• rapíd pace of some forros of Amazonian development (Good• ulation pressure, poverty, and unemployment (Bunker 1981; land 1980:22). Formulation of a new polícy of development Schmink 1981). However, colonízation projects frorn the in the Brazilian Amazon was supposed to begin ín 1979 Tocantins to the Trans-Arnazon Highway have abysmal so• (Goodland 1980:9). However, Brazilian Amazonian devel• cial success records (Moran 1981; Smith 1982). opment still appears to be dírected towards large-scale proj• Development projects are also accelerating rates of defor• ects (currently concentrating upon rnining and hydroelectric estation, soil destruction, and desertification in Amazônia dam construction) that retain many ofthe unsound ecological (Cultural Survival Inc. 1982; Feamside 1979). Amazônia and social aspects associated with the developrnent projects constitutes the largest tract of'tropical rain forest in the world, ofthe last two decades (Wright 1983). over 55 million hectares. Despite controversy over the cur• Failure of the bulk of Amazonian development projects rent amount of deforestation in Amazônia (see Feamside underscores the necessity for radically different strategies if 1982; Hecht 1981 :65-66), authorities agree that land clearing development is to be humane, productive, and ecologically is occurring at an alarrning rate that threatens the viability sound. This paper argues that indigenous systems ofresource of the entire region. Deforestation destroys the ecosystern perception, utilization, and management can contribute sig• nutrient cycle, and inevitably and rapidly leads to Ieeching, nificantly to these alternative strategies and are the logical soil compaction, soil erosion, and flooding (Goodland and products of applied ethnoecological research. Irwín 1975:23-36; Sioli 1980). This is followed by water It must be noted, however, that a criticai aspect of alter• pollution, changes in water turbidity, and changes in pH that native strategy development as proposed herein is the for• reduce or destroy aquatic life (Lovejoy and Schubart 1980: mulation and implernentation of equitable indigenous rights 23-24; Schubart 1977). It is estimated that continued de• policies throughout Amazônia. Respect for the cultural in• forestation in the Amazonian rain forests, one of the most tegrity of Amazonian indigenous and peasant populations species-diverse regions in the world (Goodland and Irwin has been growing, In reality, rnany Amazonian nations al• 1975:78-111; Sioli 1980:264-265), will push to extinction ready have laws guaranteeing indigenous populations rights up to 90% ofthe natural inventory of organisrns before even to their lands and to the retention oftheir particular cultural basic taxonomic descriptions, rnuch less scientific evaiua• practices {for exarnple, for Brazil see Ramos 1980:228; and tions oftheir value, ca.n be made (Gottlieb 1981 :23). for Venezuela see Frechione 1981: 139-142). Generally these Largely because of poor econornic performance, ánd par- laws have been ignored or have been diffi.cult to enforce due 96 HUMAN ORGANIZATION :> ,_ to the rernoteness of Amazônia withm the infrastructure of fibers, to name a few (e.g., Prance et ai. 1977; Steward 1948; the region's nations. The continuing integration of Amazônia Verdoorn ! 945). Many plants also have medicinal value (cf. into national and international systems has rnade it more Kreig 1964; Poblete 1969), but ethnopharmacology is a re• difficult for these laws to be ignored,