Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Amazonia

Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Amazonia
Author: Leslie Elmer Sponsel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 336
Release: 1995
Genre: History
ISBN:

This timely book provides the first examination of the relationship between cultural and environmental variation in the Amazon, with special reference to the survival and welfare of indigenous societies. The particular strength of this collection is that it emphasizes ongoing changing elements rather than static ones in Amazonian human ecology in the context of colonization. Leslie Sponsel and twelve other contributors, including archaeologists, biological anthropologists, cultural ecologists, and nutritionists, review traditional and changing adaptations of indigenous societies to Amazonian ecosystems; they analyze the challenges presented to indigenes by the massive cultural and environmental impact of Westernization. They also discuss the applications of research results to the needs, interests, and priorities of indigenous societies. In his concluding chapter, Sponsel calls for anthropologists to contribute through their research to the empowerment of indigenous communities and organizations. "In the Amazon the only people who already know and practice ecologically sound economies are most indigenous societies. Documenting their ecologically sound values, knowledge, and technology is one of the most important tasks for cultural ecology".

Indigenous Amazonia, Regional Development and Territorial Dynamics

Indigenous Amazonia, Regional Development and Territorial Dynamics
Author: Walter Leal Filho
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030291537

This book brings together a valuable collection of case studies and conceptual approaches that outline the present state of Amazonia in the 21st century. The many problems are described and the benefits, as well as the achievements of regional development are also discussed. The book focuses on three themes for discussion and recommendations: indigenous peoples, their home (the forest), and the way(s) to protect and sustain their natural home (biodiversity conservation). Using these three themes this volume offers a comprehensive critical review of the facts that have been the reality of Amazonia and fills a gap in the literature.The book will appeal to scholars, professors and practitioners. An outstanding group of experienced researchers and individuals with detailed knowledge of the proposed themes have produced chapters on an array of inter-related issues to demonstrate the current situation and future prospects of Amazonia. Issues investigated and debated include: territorial management; indigenous territoriality and land demarcation; ethnodevelopment; indigenous higher education and capacity building; natural resource appropriation; food security and traditional knowledge; megadevelopmental projects; indigenous acculturation; modernization of Amazonia and its regional integration; anthropogenic interventions; protected areas and conservation; political ecology; postcolonial issues, and the sustainability of Amazonia.

Indigenous Peoples in Isolation in the Peruvian Amazon

Indigenous Peoples in Isolation in the Peruvian Amazon
Author: Beatriz Huertas Castillo
Publisher: IWGIA
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9788790730772

"This book offers a historic and anthropological perspective from which to understand the fragility of isolated indigenous groups in the face of contact with outside society. It helps us appreciate the importance, in terms of cultural and biological diversity, of safeguarding their territories for both their future and that of the human race." "Drawing on scientific and legal principles, international agreements, and primarily from the perspective of human rights, Beatriz Huertas Castillo presents solid arguments concerning the urgent need for national and international efforts to defend the territories, cultural integrity and life ways of isolated indigenous peoples."--BOOK JACKET.

Cultural Forests of the Amazon

Cultural Forests of the Amazon
Author: William Balée
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2013-08-20
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0817317864

Winner of the Society for Economic Botany's Mary W. Klinger Book Award. Cultural Forests of the Amazon is a comprehensive and diverse account of how indigenous people transformed landscapes and managed resources in the most extensive region of tropical forests in the world. Until recently, most scholars and scientists, as well as the general public, thought indigenous people had a minimal impact on Amazon forests, once considered to be total wildernesses. William Balée’s research, conducted over a span of three decades, shows a more complicated truth. In Cultural Forests of the Amazon, he argues that indigenous people, past and present, have time and time again profoundly transformed nature into culture. Moreover, they have done so using their traditional knowledge and technology developed over thousands of years. Balée demonstrates the inestimable value of indigenous knowledge in providing guideposts for a potentially less destructive future for environments and biota in the Amazon. He shows that we can no longer think about species and landscape diversity in any tropical forest without taking into account the intricacies of human history and the impact of all forms of knowledge and technology. Balée describes the development of his historical ecology approach in Amazonia, along with important material on little-known forest dwellers and their habitats, current thinking in Amazonian historical ecology, and a narrative of his own dialogue with the Amazon and its people.

Radical Territories in the Brazilian Amazon

Radical Territories in the Brazilian Amazon
Author: Laura Zanotti
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2016-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816534608

Indigenous groups are facing unprecedented global challenges in this time of unparalleled environmental and geopolitical change, a time that has intensified human-rights concerns and called for political and economic restructuring. Within this landscape of struggle, the Kayapó, an indigenous nation in the central Brazilian Amazon, emerge as leaders in the fight. Radical Territories in the Brazilian Amazon sheds light on the creative and groundbreaking efforts Kayapó peoples deploy to protect their lands and livelihoods. Now at the front lines of cultivating diversified strategies for resistance, the Kayapó are creating a powerful activist base, experimenting with nontimber forest projects, and forging strong community conservation partnerships. Tracing the complex politics of the Kayapó’s homeland, Laura Zanotti advances approaches to understanding how indigenous peoples cultivate self-determination strategies in conflict-ridden landscapes. Kayapó peoples are providing a countervision of what Amazonia can look like in the twenty-first century, dominated neither by agro-industrial interests nor by uninhabited protected landscapes. Instead, Kayapó peoples see their homeland as a living landscape where indigenous vision engages with broader claims for conservation and development in the region. Weaving together anthropological and ethnographic research with personal interactions with the Kayapó, Zanotti tells the story of activism and justice in the Brazilian Amazon, and how Kayapó communities are using diverse pathways to make a sustainable future for their peoples and lands. The author interweaves Kayapó perspectives with a political ecology framework to show how working with indigenous peoples is vital to addressing national and global challenges in the present time, when many environmentally significant conditions and processes are profoundly altered by human activities.

Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Amazonia

Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Amazonia
Author: Leslie Elmer Sponsel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 336
Release: 1995
Genre: History
ISBN:

This timely book provides the first examination of the relationship between cultural and environmental variation in the Amazon, with special reference to the survival and welfare of indigenous societies. The particular strength of this collection is that it emphasizes ongoing changing elements rather than static ones in Amazonian human ecology in the context of colonization. Leslie Sponsel and twelve other contributors, including archaeologists, biological anthropologists, cultural ecologists, and nutritionists, review traditional and changing adaptations of indigenous societies to Amazonian ecosystems; they analyze the challenges presented to indigenes by the massive cultural and environmental impact of Westernization. They also discuss the applications of research results to the needs, interests, and priorities of indigenous societies. In his concluding chapter, Sponsel calls for anthropologists to contribute through their research to the empowerment of indigenous communities and organizations. "In the Amazon the only people who already know and practice ecologically sound economies are most indigenous societies. Documenting their ecologically sound values, knowledge, and technology is one of the most important tasks for cultural ecology".

A Future for Amazonia

A Future for Amazonia
Author: Michael L. Cepek
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2012-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0292745729

Blending ethnography with a fascinating personal story, A Future for Amazonia is an account of a political movement that arose in the early 1990s in response to decades of attacks on the lands and peoples of eastern Ecuador, one of the world’s most culturally and biologically diverse places. After generations of ruin at the hands of colonizing farmers, transnational oil companies, and Colombian armed factions, the indigenous Cofán people and their rain forest territory faced imminent jeopardy. In a surprising turn of events, the Cofán chose Randy Borman, a man of Euro-American descent, to lead their efforts to overcome the crisis that confronted them. Drawing on three years of ethnographic research, A Future for Amazonia begins by tracing the contours of Cofán society and Borman’s place within it. Borman, a blue-eyed, white-skinned child of North American missionary-linguists, was raised in a Cofán community and gradually came to share the identity of his adoptive nation. He became a global media phenomenon and forged creative partnerships between Cofán communities, conservationist organizations, Western scientists, and the Ecuadorian state. The result was a collective mobilization that transformed the Cofán nation in unprecedented ways, providing them with political power, scientific expertise, and a new role as ambitious caretakers of more than one million acres of forest. Challenging simplistic notions of identity, indigeneity, and inevitable ecological destruction, A Future for Amazonia charts an inspiring course for environmental politics in the twenty-first century.

Landscapes of Inequity

Landscapes of Inequity
Author: Nicholas A. Robins
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2020-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1496221419

The natural wealth of the Amazon and Andes has long attracted fortune seekers, from explorers, farmers, and gold panners to multimillion-dollar mining, oil and gas, and timber operations. Modern demands for commodities have given rise to new development schemes, including hydroelectric dams, open cast mines, and industrial agricultural operations. The history of human habitation in this region is intimately tied to its rich biodiversity, and the Amazon basin is home to scores of indigenous groups, many of whom have populations so small that their cultural and physical survival is endangered. Landscapes of Inequity explores the debate over rights to and use of resources and addresses fundamental questions that inform the debate in the western Amazon basin, from the Andes Mountains to the tropical lowlands. Beginning with an examination of the divergent conceptual interpretations of environmental justice, the volume explores the issue from two interlocking perspectives: of indigenous peoples and of economic development in a global economy. The volume concludes by examining the efficacy of laws and policies concerning the environment in the region, the viability and range of judicial recourse, and future directions in the field of environmental justice.

Human Impacts on Amazonia

Human Impacts on Amazonia
Author: Darrell Addison Posey
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2006
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0231105886

Of late, religion seems to be everywhere, suffusing U.S. politics and popular culture and acting as both a unifying and a divisive force. This collection of manifestos, Supreme Court decisions, congressional testimonies, speeches, articles, book excerpts, pastoral letters, interviews, song lyrics, memoirs, and poems reflects the vitality, diversity, and changing nature of religious belief and practice in American public and private life over the last half century. Encompassing a range of perspectives, this book illustrates the ways in which individuals from all along the religious and political spectrum have engaged religion and viewed it as a crucial aspect of society. The anthology begins with documents that reflect the close relationship of religion, especially mainline Protestantism, to essential ideas undergirding Cold War America. Covering both the center and the margins of American religious life, this volume devotes extended attention to how issues of politics, race, gender, and sexuality have influenced the religious mainstream. A series of documents reflects the role of religion and theology in the civil rights, feminist, and gay rights movements as well as in conservative responses. Issues regarding religion and contemporary American culture are explored in documents about the rise of the evangelical movement and the religious right; the impact of "new" (post-1965) immigrant communities on the religious landscape; the popularity of alternative, New Age, and non-Western beliefs; and the relationship between religion and popular culture. The editors conclude with selections exploring major themes of American religious life at the millennium, including both conservative and New Age millennialism, as well as excerpts that speculate on the future of religion in the United States. The documents are grouped by theme into nine chapters and arranged chronologically therein. Each chapter features an extensive introduction providing context for and analysis of the critical issues raised by the primary sources.