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Journal of Ecological

Volume 12 Issue 1 Volume 12, Issue 1 (2008) Article 5

2008

Putting Back into Historical : Some Perspectives on the Recent Ecology of the Amazon Basin

Louis C. Forline University of Nevada, Reno

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Recommended Citation Forline, Louis C.. "Putting History Back into Historical Ecology: Some Perspectives on the Recent of the Amazon Basin." Journal of 12, no. 1 (2008): 69-74.

Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jea/vol12/iss1/5

This Crib Notes is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Ecological Anthropology by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Vol. 12 2008 Forline / Historical Ecology of the Amazon Basin 69

Crib Notes

Putting History Back into Historical Ecology: Some Perspectives on the Recent Human Ecology of the Amazon Basin

Louis C. Forline

Introduction and Overview Historical ecology examines the way that anthropogenic areas are gaining recognition as and their natural surroundings mutually influence an artifact of past human activity, one omission has one another. In recent years, new issues have been been to assess the time scale of these transformed incorporated in this area of study and have implica- areas. This oversight has led some scholars to incor- tions for management, ethnohistory, interdisciplinary porate areas that were transformed within the last 500 studies and land rights. In terms of management years. What this implies is that the speed, velocity regimes, recent studies raise the distinct possibility and intensity of globalization have left their mark that indigenous peoples are competent managers of during the last half millennium leaving in its wake natural resources. Traditional peoples are not merely other distinct areas often confused with “indigenous” adapting and responding to selective pressures of areas. Yet indigenous areas have indeed created the , but also thoughtfully creating areas purpose- basis for European settlements and, often, incoming fully designed for their own benefit (Balée 2006). Not European colonists and their descendents displaced only are plants encouraged, directed and manipulated many indigenous groups by settling on land already (Alcorn 1981), they are also planted and protected occupied and transformed by them. to form new favoring the growth and In light of these reflections, I examine a few regrowth of economic species. instances in the Historical ecology of the Brazilian Similarly, even from the alternative view that Amazon and recommend a few approaches that could indigenous peoples are not as conscientious as some help fine tune this area of research. observers would argue, peoples’ activities over the course of human history have certainly left a distinct A Closer Look at Some Scenarios in the footprint (Balée 1994). Even if merely regarded as Brazilian Amazon “ people” (Dasmann 1988), perceived as but one more biological organism in a myriad of The Guajá species, human agency would still create noteworthy To better illustrate some of these points, I briefly landscapes. turn to the Guajá Indians of the eastern Amazon While many works on indigenous human region, where I have worked since 1990. The Guajá are laudable in their effort to elevate the refer to themselves as Awá and were foragers until status of indigenous peoples and their knowledge of contacted by Brazil’s Indian Service (FUNAI) in natural resources, what is often left out of the equa- 1973. The Guajá were settled into four different tion is the time-depth of observed landscapes and semi-nucleated communities and have embraced the complex series of interactions between swidden horticulture since coming into contact. The vis-à-vis their environment. While there is little doubt Guajá perhaps practiced in the past, but 70 Journal of Ecological Anthropology Vol. 12 2008 the encroaching frontier and local conflicts forced cultivation and, later, in the 20th century, to cattle them to flee and disperse. As would-be wreckages of ranching and big development projects such as the an erstwhile agricultural , observers speculate Carajás Railway. Thus, babaçu forests are primarily an whether the Guajá retained any or some of their artifact of recent migration and settlement and must former knowledge of cultivated plants (Balée 1994; be viewed more in terms of recent history (Anthony Gomes 1988). Linguistic evidence would indicate Anderson: personal communication). that they are knowledgeable to some degree about Other claims about the Guajá utilization of domesticates as they share similar words with neigh- resources must be reassessed too. Cormier (2006), boring indigenous communities. Yet these cognates for example, claims that the Guajá rely more on the do not necessarily indicate that the Guajá practiced anthropogenic areas created by other indigenous agriculture in the past. We cannot discount the groups and that they currently exhibit a preference possibility that other indigenous groups may have for hunting. However, time allocation studies and loaned this vocabulary, nor underplay the fact that dietary data reveal a different scenario (Forline 1997, the government’s Indian Service agents could have and recent fieldwork). While Guajá men, indeed, passed this nomenclature to them while introducing engage more of their productive activities in hunt- swidden agriculture to the Guajá. As such, the Guajá ing, the bulk of the Guajá diet now comes from their may have been a satellite group of foragers raiding crops. Thus, nearly 60 percent of their caloric intake the fallows or horticultural plots of their Tupí-Guar- stems from food sources grown on their swidden aní neighbors. Whether relations with neighboring plots and orchards. groups were hostile or symbiotic, or both, is still an The story of two Guajá men is also illustra- open question, but in either case knowledge would tive. In 1978, Karapiru Guajá and his family were have been exchanged and familiarity with cultivated foraging near a farm in the vicinity of Porto Franco, plants would have transpired. Maranhão. They were spotted by the estate’s security One of the resources frequently used by the personnel (jagunços) and, in turn, were ambushed. Guajá is the babaçu palm (Attalea speciosa). This palm Karapiru fled and was isolated for 10 years, heading serves a multitude of uses for the Guajá and regional southwards towards the state of Bahia. His relative, peasants and its presence in the eastern Amazon and Yakarechim, wandered even farther and was en- elsewhere is remarkable (Forline 2000). Babaçu and countered in the south-central Brazilian state of others of the Attalea alliance are widespread in the Minas Gerais. Both were eventually repatriated to eastern and north-central Amazon, and the large their people and currently reside on the Caru Indian stands encountered in this region appear primarily Reserve of Maranhão state. in the wake of human disturbance. In times past, These brief accounts show that indigenous indigenous peoples of the eastern Amazon utilized peoples can adapt to a series of variegated ecosystems babaçu for fuel, food and fiber (Anderson 1983). and habitats. Their odyssey also raises the possibility Balée (1989) estimated that approximately 12 that indigenous peoples of the Amazon trekked and percent of Brazil’s Amazon region is occupied by migrated over long distances and perhaps were inter- anthropogenic landscapes. Topping the list of this linked in a series of intricate trails and networks, be figure is an area corresponding to the presence of it through conflict, resource acquisition strategies or babaçu. Over half of the babaçu stands are located political and ideological reasons. In the wake of these in Maranhão state, roughly equivalent to the U.S. activities they would have invariably left a distinct state of Virginia, or 103,035 km2 (Hecht et al 1988). mark on landscapes. Yet we still have to be mindful While this figure is impressive one key fact has been that while Karapiru’s and Yakarechim’s experience left out of this calculation; that is, the presence can mimic dispersals of the past, their journeys of babaçu is mainly the result of activities which must also be examined in a modern context, more occurred during the last 500 years. Most babaçu within the confines of indigenous groups vis-à-vis stands developed primarily in response to swidden state players. Vol. 12 2008 Forline / Historical Ecology of the Amazon Basin 71 The Kayapó and the Apêtê Indian Service also fostered marriages between com- Another factor which must also be pointed munities, thus these recent interactions also influence out is that many of the anthropogenic areas of the the socioecological dynamics of the region. Amazon have been created by actors other than their present occupants. A case in point would be the for- Brazil’s rubber booms and urban landscapes est islands that Posey (1985) and others claimed to Time compression of history has also made have been created by the Kayapó. These forest islands, some observers remiss in assessing other details of called apêtê in Kayapó, are generated in the course historical ecology. For one, the impacts of globaliza- of their treks, once termed by Posey as “nomadic tion have reached far and wide during the last 500 agriculture.” The presence of apêtês is remarkable, years. Brazil experienced many boom-bust cycles yet what most observers overlook is that some of which transformed many ecosystems. During the these areas can contain pottery and other artifacts rubber booms of the 19th and 20th centuries, many from previous occupations. The Kayapó traditionally indigenous communities were forced to succumb did not make pottery or manioc graters, implements to new political-economic regimes and this venture they acquired recently through neo-Brazilians or by ushered large-scale migrations into the Amazon and raiding settlements and other indigenous groups miscegenation with local populations. In addition to (Fisher 2000). Thus, many areas presently occupied rubber tapping, this emerging class of mixed-blood by them could have been acquired through conflicts peasants (caboclos) created and intensified exist- or settlement on abandoned sites. ing and newly formed land-use schemes. Swidden agriculture spread as did the introduction of new Brazil’s upper Xingu Region crops into these areas. Links to local, regional and Another similar scenario occurs in the upper international markets were instituted and the flow Xingu region of Brazil which suffered a large de- of goods and services intensified with the introduc- mographic decline in the shadow of the expanding tion of new technology and expanding populations. Portuguese empire. Heckenberger et al. (2003) reveal As these rubber ventures waxed and waned, new that the Xinguanos were compressed into an area landscapes emerged. presently delimited as the Parque Indígena do Xingu. Undoubtedly, many areas occupied by colonial An extensive network of trails leading out to other regimes effectively removed the original inhabit- settlements reveals a long history of occupation and ants from their land, or forcibly assimilated them, an adaptation to local environments. Many of these replacing them with other land use schemes. Many areas reconstruct to a time that could have reached Amazonian cities, for example, were born from out far wider than their present day occupation. Yet missions and trading posts that were established on other groups were also drawn into this area, such as or near indigenous settlements. While ecologists some Gê and Tupian groups, newcomers to the up- formerly refrained from examining cities from an per Xingu, revealing a recent history of contraction ecological perspective, many now regard these areas and interethnic contact. Similarly, what was left out as ecosystems in their own right. The flow of goods in this analysis is that the establishment of the in- and services in and out of urban areas extends to digenous park brought newer groups into the fold of them the same parameters of ecological imports and Xinguano culture. In the first instance, direct and in- exports, thus attributing to them the same mecha- direct contact established by colonial encroachment, nisms encountered in “natural ecosystems.” forced Xinguanos to begin retreating to their current locations. Later, Brazil’s moving frontier also pushed Untangling the Past both the Xinguanos and their new neighbors defini- In view of the foregoing, a few more final con- tively into this new area. With the establishment of siderations can illuminate some directions that can Parque Indígena do Xingu these groups were brought be taken in the study of historical ecology. This brief under the tutelage of the federal Indian Service. The reappraisal does not intend to diminish the percep-

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jea/vol12/iss1/5 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/2162-4593.12.1.5 72 Journal of Ecological Anthropology Vol. 12 2008 tive findings of scholars engaged in historical ecology fine-tuned approach to linguistic studies in examin- in the Amazon. Yet to untangle the past we have to ing migration routes and land management regimes integrate and synthesize a number of theoretical and would be coupled with studies in physical anthropol- methodological approaches to evaluate past and pres- ogy. Linguistic analysis should also reexamine some ent activities. New goals and research priorities can of the assumptions used in reconstructing languages be established to determine which objectives research to elicit would-be protowords for plants that would should strive to obtain. Were historical ecology in the serve as “cultivars.” Sociolinguistics should also be New World to prioritize activities prior to 1492, then incorporated in these analyses as many of the words much information will be lost in understanding the are borrowings from other groups and state agents. historical forces transpiring during the last half-mil- Not only are the iffy cognates introduced, in many lennium. Also, current ethnographic fieldwork gives instances some would-be cognates are transformed us shreds and patches of the past, but in order to in the process of contact. Indigenous pronunciations reconstruct past practices and understand and words may yield to impositions of mainstream signatures, the gap of the last 500 years should be actors, thus undermining the assumptions made by examined in light of interethnic contact, expanding linguists in reconstructing protolanguages. Moreover, states and nation building. linguists inadvertently fall into the same trap encoun- First, this approach requires a fine-grained ap- tered in DNA studies that attempt to trace human proach to ethnohistory and archaeology. Second, re- origins. That is, both studies work best with live searchers should endeavor to examine historical records populations. As many indigenous groups perished thoroughly to inform themselves about the recent past. in the wake of first encounters, little was recorded Third, myth analysis should be incorporated in eth- of their languages, leaving few written records, save nographic fieldwork, as it helps raise questions about for the efforts established by Jesuits in crafting the migration routes, interethnic contact and the origins colonial Lingua Geral, which is itself based on a of the indigenous players and their descendents. As transformed version of Tupi. Invariably, many studies Bruce Albert (2002) points out, indigenous narratives which reconstruct to times past can often be based on of contact should be fleshed out and not subordinated an attenuated version of the Lingua Geral. As bor- to the historical themes of mainstream society. This ap- rowings crisscrossed, new words were incorporated in proach, coupled with text analysis (Bernard and Ryan indigenous languages, often creating false cognates. 2000) can help identify themes to fine tune questions Additionally, new words could indicate more recent of historical ecology and build models that would help usage in resources among some groups. integrate contact history, creation of landscapes, and Fifth, an important dynamic for those engaged time scale. A fine toothed comb should be run through in studies among indigenous and peasant groups is indigenous narratives not only to double check on cor- to review the history of land use schemes established rect language reconstruction but to also incorporate by mainstream actors. Land areas set aside for rural their own narratives into the processes surrounding peasants and indigenous groups often have a manage- historical ecology. These narratives, of course, should ment agenda set out for them whereby these actors be couched in the context of environmental issues, are oriented in terms of managing resources. Thus, which would better help in retracing the formation, in addition to attending to their own subsistence use and meaning of landscapes. needs, indigenous players are often tasked to engage Fourth, these techniques can be better framed in other types of resource utilization by coercion, within the parameters of language and environ- manipulation and patron-client relations. ment (Maffi 2001). Similarly, some techniques that Finally, historical ecology ought to be engaged examine farming and language dispersal may help by scholars before they head to the field. As it hap- build better models for archaeologists and linguists pens, many of the findings fleshed out by historical attempting to explore links between the near and ecology are accidental and often subordinated to distant past (Bellwood and Renfrew 2002). Or a other research agendas. Vol. 12 2008 Forline / Historical Ecology of the Amazon Basin 73 Ultimately, it would also be incumbent upon of history and emphasize land transformations vis- funding organizations to support long term research. à-vis cultures in contact. While studying the remote Most funding only embraces short term periods that past should stay on course, it is equally important to can only piece together fragments of space and time. ascertain the origin and signatures of anthropogenic Many of the anthropogenic areas in question, for landscapes as a way of assessing ownership, land rights example, are not as apparent and require a greater and cultural-historical heritages (Forline 2004). investment in time to uncover the details of their With the assistance and guidance of local indigenous genesis and formation. Funding agencies would peoples, researchers working in the area of historical then need to prioritize multi-year projects and more ecology could also lobby local governments to com- longitudinal studies and be mindful of the lengthy mission more work in this direction. Yet for present procedures in unearthing the dynamics of historical purposes, teasing out the intermeshing of times past ecology, as would be the case in examining all socio- and present remains our biggest challenge. This will ecological dynamics and processes. enable us to better understand historical processes Much debate has been generated about pristine and accurately portray land use regimes in motion. management regimes, and scholars are still groping for a definitive definition of management, properly speaking. The loci of those engaged in historical Louis Forline, Department of Anthropology, ecology should embrace a multi-pronged definition University of Nevada, Reno, [email protected]

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https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jea/vol12/iss1/5 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/2162-4593.12.1.5 74 Journal of Ecological Anthropology Vol. 12 2008

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