-
Tipit: Journal of the Society for theAnthropology of Lowland
South
AmericaVolume 2, Issue 2 2004 Article 2
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Steven L. Rubenstein
Ohio University, [email protected]
Copyright c2004 by the authors. Tipit: Journal of the Society
for the Anthropol-ogy of Lowland South America is produced by The
Berkeley Electronic Press
(bepress).http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Steven L. Rubenstein
Abstract
Many recent studies of Amazonia have documented the ways in
which agents of the state orcapital seek to colonize not only
indigenous land and labor, but indigenous desires as well.
Thiscolonization of the third kind has disastrous consequences:
recently, William Fisher asked, Why... did it seem that Xikrin
would sell their grandchildrens environmental birthright just at
themoment when reservations were finally being demarcated and
boundaries guaranteed for genera-tions to come? Here I argue that
this sort of question must become one of the central concernsof
Amazonian ethnology. Drawing on work by Fisher and others, I review
the value of politicalecology approaches to answering such
questions. I argue that political ecology must be informedby a
broad notion of politics, one that centers on complex operations of
power, especially the re-lationship between power and desire. Such
a political ecology, informed both by poststructuralistconcerns, a
commitment to grounded ethnography, and a sophisticated theory of
agency is well-equipped to make a serious contribution to our
understanding of this problem, and is especiallytimely for
Amazonian ethnography.
Muchos estudios recientes de Amazonia han documentado las
maneras a traves de las cualesagentes del estado o del capital
procuran colonizar no solo la tierra y el trabajo indgenas
sinotambien los deseos de los indgenas. Esta colonizacion tiene
consecuencias desastrosas: recien-temente, William Fisher pregunto
por que . . . pareca que los Xikrin venderan los
patrimoniosambientales de sus nietos justo en el momento en que las
reservas estaban finalmente siendo de-marcadas y sus fronteras
garantizadas para las generaciones por venir? En este ensayo,
propongoque esta cuestion debe convertirse en una preocupacion
central de la etnologa amazonica. Uti-lizando el trabajo de Fisher
y otros, repaso la importancia del enfoque sobre ecologa
polticapara responder a preguntas como la de Fisher. Propongo que
la ecologa poltica debe incluir unconcepto amplio de la poltica,
uno que se centre en las operaciones complejas del poder,
espe-cialmente en la relacion entre poder y deseo. Una ecologa
poltica que incluya preocupacionespos-estructuralistas, una
etnografa bien fundamentada, y una teora sofisticada de la agencia,
seadecuara para hacer una contribucion seria a nuestro
entendimiento de este problema, y seraespecialmente oportuna para
la etnografa amazonica actual.
Acknowledgments: I am grateful for the comments and suggestions
of a number of colleagues asI was working on this article: Michel
Alexiades, Claire Cesareo, Kirk Dombrowski,
AnnCorinneFreter-Abrams, Brad Jokisch, Chris Kyle, Matthew Lauer,
Leda Leitao Martins, Daniela Peluso,Paul Robbins, and Angela
Torresan. I also wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of
twoanonymous Tipit referees.
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
STEVEN L. RUBENSTEINDepartment of Sociology and Anthropology,
Ohio [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
In 1892, when Franz Boas served as assistant to
FrederickWardPutnam,theheadoftheDepartmentofEthnologyandArchaeologyforthe
ChicagoWorlds Fair and the Columbian Exposition, he
broughtfourteenKwakiutlindividualsfromFortRupert,BritishColumbia,alongwiththedisassembledvillageofSkidegatefromQueenCharlotteIsland,toputondisplay.ThereassembledvillagewassituatednexttotheLeatherand
Shoe Trades Building, providing visitors with an opportunity
toreflectonwhatthemorefashion-orientedmighttodaycallapostmodernjuxtapositionbetweenthetraditionalandthemodern.Nevertheless,whenBoascommissionedphotographsoftheIndians1performingvariousrituals,heplacedawhitesheetbehindtheperformerstomaskthesurroundingexhibits(Hinsley1991:350).
Arguably,whathaschangedinthelastonehundredyearsisnottheproliferationofsuchjuxtapositions,butratherourwillingnesstoseethem.Indeed,sometimebetweentheendoftheVietnamWarandtheendoftheColdWar,thistaskofexaminingthemeaningofsuchjuxtapositionsbecameacentralpreoccupationamonganthropologistswhorespondedwithavarietyofnewapproaches,suchaspoliticaleconomy,poststructuralism,andpostmodernism.2
Someof the issues central to political
economy,suchastherelationshipbetweenregionaltradeandlocalinequality,wereanticipated
by cultural ecologists using a Boasian notion of culture
asfluidinthe1940s(Mishkin1940;Lewis1942;Jablow1951;andSecoy1953).Theirworkstilloffersvaluablemodelsfortheethnographicstudiesof
indigenouspeopleswhosehistoriesareshapedby
largerpoliticalandeconomicforces.Inthemid-tolate-1980s,severalscholars(e.g.,SchminkandWood1987)arguedforanddevelopedapoliticalecologyapproachthatdrewonboth
cultural ecology andpolitical economy, but
inmanycasesthewordpoliticalsignaledaconcernforpublicpolicy.Thisarticlearguesforabroadernotionofpolitics,onethatcentersontheoperationsofpower.
Tipit(2004)2(2):1311762004SALSA 131ISSN1545-4703PrintedinUSA
1
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
132 Steven L. Rubenstein
Moreover,Iarguethatsuchapoliticalecologycanandshouldarticulatewithpoststructuralism.Itshoulddosoinawaythatwouldfurtherexposeso-calledpostmodernjuxtapositionsandfurthertheanalysisoftheproductionandtheoperationofpersistentbinariesespeciallynature/cultureanditsproxies
(suchas savageorprimitive/civilizedand traditional/modern)that
often color our understandingof both indigenouspeoples and
theenvironmentsinwhichtheylive.Althoughsomeopposepoliticalecologyand
poststructuralism in terms of this binary (through another
proxy,materialist/idealist),Ibelievethatbothprovidecomplementarystrategiesfor
transcending this opposition. On the one hand, political
ecologyprovides a single language for describing an environment
that
includesabiotic,biotic,andsocialelements.Ontheotherhand,poststructuralismprovidestechniquesfordeconstructingbinaryoppositions.Together,theseapproachesrevealthatsuchoppositionshavepowernotbecauseideashaveepistemologicalprimacyovermatter,butbecausetheseparticularideasaretheeffectsofpoliticaldynamics,andhavethepoliticaleffectofdisguisingtheverydynamicsthroughwhichtheyareproduced.
Therearereasonsthisapproachtobinaryoppositionsisnotmerelyanacademicexercise.First,suchbinariesareoftenusedagainstindigenouspeople,suchasthosefoundinlowlandAmazonia.ThiswasthecasewiththeKayapintheearly1990s.Inresponsetomegadevelopmentprojects(Fisher
1994), the Kayap leadership organized a heroic, and
largelysuccessful,struggleagainsttheBrazilianstate(seealsoTurner1991;1992).WhenjournalistsandenvironmentalistsdiscoveredthatKayapwerealsowilling
to profit from the commercializationof lumber, these
leadersandtosomeextent,theKayapingenerallosttheirheroicstature(seeConklinandGraham1995).
Second,suchbinariesdisguiseordisplacepoliticalhierarchiesthatareoftenspatiallydistributed,forexampleperiphery/core(seeendnote13,intra,formorespecificdefinitionsoftheseterms).Someanthropologistshaveanalyzedthedilemmasfacingindigenousleaderswhomustrepresenttheirpeoplestothestateorcapital(e.g.,seeMurphy1974;Brown1993).Others(e.g.,Rubenstein2002)havefocusedonthedailycontradictionsfacingordinarymembersofsmall-scalesocietiesastheyareincorporatedinto
the capitalist economy, along with the kinds of internal
politicalconflictsthatoftenensue.Suchpeoplearenotonlyforcedintothemarketeconomy,theyarealsoseduced.
Apoststructuralistpoliticalecologywouldanalyzenotonlythelargerpolitical
and economic forces that shape their local interests, but
theproductionofdesireaswell.Thisproductionis,Isuggest,simultaneouslymaterial
and discursive. The lynchpin of this production is not the
2
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 133
oppositionbetweenmaterialanddiscursivecauses(oramaterialistversusidealist
epistemology), but rather is the reciprocal relationship
betweenstructureandagency.Thus,aneffectivepoststructuralistpoliticalecologymustalsoincorporateatheoryofpractice.InthisessayIdrawonseveralrecentethnographiesthatrepresentimportantfirststepstowardsapoliticalecologyofAmazonia.
AttentiontosuchworkisparticularlytimelyforAmazonia, where struggles
occur in indigenous communities hand-in-hand with indigenous
complicity in desiring and supporting
westernmechanismsthatunderminetheverylivelihoodofthesecommunities.
THE RISE OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL POLITICAL ECOLOGY
One of the main objectives of both Boasian and
Malinowskianethnographywastorenderindividualbehaviorintelligible.Theyproposedthat
individual action be understood in the context of culture,
andonefunctionofBoaswhitesheetwastoisolatecultureasanobjectofstudy.
Nevertheless, Boas insisted that culture is dynamic and
subjecttohistoricalchanges,especiallyas traitspass
throughthewhitesheet.Moreover, Boasian anthropology established the
importance of culturefor an idiographic, rather than a nomothetic,
science. Boas was notpositing culture as a cause (in opposition to
noncultural, or material,causes), but rather as a context in which
human action is
meaningful.Onceanthropologistsestablishedtherealityofcultureinthissense,theycould
explore why cultures varied without resorting to speculative
andethnocentricexplanations. By the 1930sAlexander Lesser
andWilliamDuncan Strongwereencouraging their students to remove the
white sheet by
presentingindigenousAmericansocietiesandculturesinbothregionalandhistoricalcontexts
(seeVincent1990:231241). ThisapproachwaspioneeredbyBernardMishkin
(1940),who studied the effect of the introduction ofhorses on Kiowa
political organization and warfare, and Oscar
Lewis(1942),whoexploredtheinfluenceofthefurtradeonBlackfootculture(relying
heavily on historical sources). Later, Joseph Jablow
(1951)documentedhowCheyennesocialorganizationandsubsistencestrategybetween
1795 and 1840 were determined by their position in
tradenetworkslinkingwhitesandotherIndians,andFrankSecoy(1953)arguedthatGreatPlainsIndianssocialorganizationandmilitarytacticschangedashorses,introducedbytheSpanishinthesouth,diffusednorth,andguns,introducedbytheBritishandFrenchintheeast,diffusedwest.Althoughtheirfocusontheflowoftechnologiesacrossculturalboundariesgreatly
3
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
134 Steven L. Rubenstein
broadenedourunderstandingofNativeAmericansashistoricalsubjects,theypaidlessattentiontotheflowofdiscourses(e.g.,aboutculture,history,or
colonialism) and to the roleofhumanagency in theseflows.
TheirapproachwasneverinstitutionalizedinAmericananthropology,perhapsbecauseitsemphasisonWesterncolonialismwasuncongenialtocold-waraudiences.
Contemporary anthropological political ecology suggests a
returntotheprojectbegunbyLesserandStrong.3
Thismaybeaccomplishedthroughattemptstobringtogetherculturalecologyandpoliticaleconomy(e.g.,
Little 1999:225; see Bryant 1998, Blaikie 1999, andWatts 2000for
slightly different genealogies and discussions of current trends
bygeographers).4
Itisdifficulttoreconstructanaccurategenealogyoftheconjunction of
cultural ecology andpolitical economy. EricWolf
usedthetermpoliticalecology(1972),butanthropologistMarianneSchminkandsociologistCharlesH.Wood(1987:39),andanthropologistThomasE.Sheridan(1988:xvi)separatelyclaimtohavedevelopedthisapproach,while
geographers Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) explicitly called for
aregionalpoliticalecology
thatwouldsynthesizepoliticaleconomyandhumanecology.5 However,
earlierworksbygeographerMichaelWatts(1983)andPeterLittleandMichaelHorowitz(1987)havethenecessaryelements,
as does sociologist Stephen Bunkers ecological model
ofunequaldevelopment(1985).6
A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF AMAZONIA
Space considerations leave no room for a review of the
importantcontributions that cultural ecology has made to our
understanding ofrainforest ecologies and the ways different
societies adapt to such
anenvironment,orofongoingdebatesamongpoliticaleconomistsconcerningtheorganizationoftheglobaleconomy.7Myintentionisonlytoopenupdiscussiononanissueunderrepresentedintheliterature.Whereasmanypoliticalecologistsareconcernedwithproposingandanalyzingtheeffectsofpoliciespertinenttotherelationshipbetweenapopulationanditsbioticandabioticenvironment,thisessayismeanttocallattentiontothepoliticstheformationanddeploymentofdifferentkindsofpower,includingthepowertoincitedesirebehindnewrelationshipsbetweenbothstatesandindigenouspeopleandtheirbioticenvironment.Moreover,suchaprojectrequires
a political ecology defined not in terms of its consideration
ofthenaturalenvironmentandhumanactionasindependentvariables,butrather
in its attention to human/environmental interaction at
different
4
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 135
scales.8
Amazonian Cosmographies and Territorial Disputes
PaulLittlehasrecentlyarticulatedavisionofsuchapoliticalecology,which,he
argues, should focusontheoccupationof and struggleovergeographic
space as well as the definition of, rights to, and use of
theresourcescontainedbythisspaceandthebiophysicaleffectsofthatuse(2001:4).CitingBoas(1940:639647),Littleunderstandsthisstruggleintermsofaclashofcosmographies,whichhedefinesasdistinctcollective,historicallycontingentidentities,ideologies,andenvironmentalknowledgesystemdevelopedby
a social group to establish andmaintain a
humanterritory(2001:5).Littlefurtherarguesthatdifferentcosmologiesclashatdifferentfrontiersfordifferentdurationsoftime,largelytiedtowhatHennessy
(1978:12, quoted in Little 2001:8) calls cyclical booms indifferent
commodities. Consequently, human
territoriesaredispersedacrossscalesinoftenirregularandunpredictableways(2001:8).
Little identifies various cosmographies of Amazonia that havebeen
of importance in different places at different times:
missionarycosmologies;mercantilecosmographiesofrubber,brazilnuts,agave,andcattleexploitation;nationaldevelopmentcosmologiesthatcreatedwoodpulp,mining,andpetroleumenclaves;
andmost recentlyenvironmentalcosmologies that have created
wilderness preservation territories andsustainableuse territories.
Eachof thesecosmologieshasclashedwith,and on many occasions have
transformed, indigenous
cosmographies.Littlepresentshisapproachtopoliticalecologyasausefulwaytoanalyzeterritorialdisputes
among indigenousgroups, caboclos, representativesofcapital and the
state, andNGOs that continue to shape the economic,political, and
social landscape of Amazonia (2001:410). There is
noquestionoftheimportanceofunderstandingterritorialdisputes,ofsharingsuchresearchwith
thepeoplewithwhomanthropologistswork,andofassistingtheminappropriateways(cf.Medina2003;Vidal2003).Littlesinsightthatnotonlyindigenouspeoplebutalsomerchantsandheadsofstatehavecosmographies,andthatunderstandingtheircosmographiesiscrucialforasophisticatedanalysisofland-disputes,islaudable.
Amazonian Cosmographies and Economic Articulations
As Little makes clear, however, the superimposition of
differentcosmologiesnotonlyleadstoterritorialdisputes,italsolinksindigenouspeoplewithextralocalsystems,especiallythestateorcapital.Littleprovides
5
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
136 Steven L. Rubenstein
agoodexample inhisdetailedanalysisofonemercantile
cosmography,theaviamento systemthatdevelopedduring theBrazilian
rubberboombetweentheearlynineteenthcenturyand1913.Initially,accordingtoLittle,isolatednonindigenoustapperssoldtheirrubbertointermediaries.Bythelatenineteenthcentury,tradeandmarketswerereplacedbyrelationshipsdefinedbycreditanddebt.Intermediariesbegansupplyingtradegoodsoncredit,whichtapperscouldrepaywhentheybroughttheirrubbertothe
tradingpost. However, intermediaries charged
astronomicallyhighpricesfortheirgoods,whilepayinglowpricesforrubber.
Tappersthusaccumulated a debt they could never escape. This debt,
backed up
bythethreatofphysicalviolence,meantthatrubbertapperswereeffectivelyunderthetotalcontrolofrubberbarons(Little2001:2730).
Reflecting on a similar system involving indigenous peoples in
theColombian and Ecuadorian Amazon, and the fact that this
systemcoexisted with the enslavement of Indians,MichaelTaussig
asks, whymaintain the appearancein effect, the fictionof trade with
IndianswhenforallintentsandpurposestheIndianisaslave(1987:65)?Indeed,peons
were often bought and sold like slaves, as white merchants
andentrepreneursboughtandsoldoneanothersdebts.Throughthisprocess,somewhitesthemselvesfellintodebt,andthusdebtpeonage.Thus,debtsand
credit bound all sorts of people in the Upper Amazon (1987:6669).
The resultingdebt fetishism (1987:70)had themagical
effectoftransformingaplacewheretherewasanabundanceoflaborbutadearthofcommoditiesintoaplacewherethereseeminglywasadearthoflaborand
an abundanceof commodities. Under these
conditions,paymentwasalwayssimultaneouslyanadvance(1987:70).Theconstantinflationof
debt created a cosmography in which the desire for commodities
isinsatiable.Inturn,thisledtoaninescapabledependenceoncommodityexchange.Itwasthroughthissystem,ratherthanthecreationofanythingclosetoafreemarket,thatIndiansofthePutumayowereintroducedtoandincorporatedintotheworldcapitalisteconomy.
Taussigs point is thatmercantile systems such as debt peonage
arenotjustpoliticalandeconomicsystems.Theyare,infact,culturalsystemsandcannotbeunderstoodwithoutanalyzing
thecultural logicsof
theiroperation.RecentworksbyFisher(2000)andPicchi(2000)showhowpoliticalecologycancontributetoouranalysesofsucharticulations,andrevealtheculturallogicsthroughwhichtheyoperate,andbywhichIndianscome
to depend on the capitalist economy, even in the absence of
anyterritorialdisputesorthebrutalitythataccompaniedthesystemofdebtpeonage.
Insomecases, this isaccomplished through
territorialization(protectionagainst,ortheresolutionof,territorialdisputes)itself.Inother
6
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 137
casesitworksthroughamechanismsimilartodebtpeonage,exceptthatcoercionhasbeenreplacedbyseduction.
Sustainable Production
In a recent study of theBakair,DebraPicchi argues that
politicalecologymodelsthathingeonclassrelationsareoflittleuseintheAmazon(2000:8).Instead,shecallsattentiontodemographicsandfoodproduction.Nevertheless,herfindingsraisequestionsthathavebeencentraltostudentsofclassrelations,suchasthewaysbywhichsubordinationistransformedinto
self-subordination, local production is transformed by
regional,national,andinternationalsystemsofexchange,andagencyisgroundedinandconstrainedbystructuresofinequality.
As with other Amazonian peoples, the Bakair (who live in thecentral
Brazilian state ofMatoGrosso) traditionally practiced
swiddenhorticulture. One of FUNAIs (Brazils National Indian
Foundation)mainactivities,however,hasbeentheintroductionofindustrialagriculturein
theAmazon.
TheseactivitiespresentBakairwithadifficultchoice.Industrialagricultureisnotsustainablebecauseitleadstoenvironmentaldegradation,butpopulationgrowthmeansthattheBakairrequiremorefoodthantraditionalmethodsprovide.Picchiasks:Shouldtheyabandon
Figure 1. Aerial view of Aldeia Pakuera, the largest Bakairi
village
7
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
138 Steven L. Rubenstein
their new agricultural technology and return solely to their
traditionalways?Howwillthataffectfoodandcashavailabilityonthereservation(2000:76)?
Theseareimportantquestionsthatmeritfurtherreflection.AlthoughPicchiarguesthattheclassicanthropologicaldoctrineofculturalrelativismisinappropriatetoapplyinthesecases,Ibelieveittobeabsolutelycritical.Picchicharacterizesherownapproachaspragmatic,andarguesthatpeoplefirstandforemostmustensuretheirownphysicalsurvival(Picchi2000:7475).ObservingthatmanyBakairemploybothhorticulturalproductionfordomesticconsumptionandelementsof
industrialagricultureforthemarket, she suggests that commercial
production may buy
theBakairsometimetodevelopnewstrategiestoensuretheirsurvival(2000:76).
What constitutes a pragmatic productive or economic
strategy,however,dependsonthedesiredoutcome.Itisherethatculturalrelativismisindispensable,preciselybecauseitcallsattentiontothecontextualnatureof
values and choices. Littles notion of cosmographies provides
oneusefulframeworkforexploringsuchcontexts.AnothergoodexampleoftheimportanceofattentiontoculturalcontextisfoundinLeslieSponselsedited
volume (1995). In it Sponsel and his colleagues call attentionto
indigenous people who have taken advantage of new resources
andtechnologiesmadeavailablebytheWest,aswellasnonindigenouspeoplewhohave
learned productive techniques from Indians.
Concernednotonlywiththeindividualandcollectiverightsofindigenouspeoples,thesetheorists
focuson theAmazonian ecosystemas awhole, aswell as
onthedangersofdeforestationfornonhumanspeciesandtheglobalclimate.Viewed
in this context, they suggest, indigenous forms of
productionarenotonlypragmatic, theyare superior to
industrialagriculture,whichtheyfaultforcausingexcessivedeforestation.Inturn,suchdeforestationthreatensnotonlythelivelihoodofpeople,butthesurvivalofnonhumanspeciesandthestabilityoftheglobalclimateaswell.
Oneway to conceiveof pragmatics is in termsofsustainability,
aconceptthatturnsouttobedifficulttomakeoperational(seeFautin1995forreviewsofdebatesfromavarietyofpointsofview).Environmentalistsgenerallydefinesustainabledevelopmentasthatwhichallowsthepresentpopulation
toprovide adequately for itsneedswithout jeopardizing
theabilityoffuturepopulationstoprovideadequatelyfortheirneeds(seeWorldCommissiononEnvironmentandDevelopment1987).Theproblemwiththisdefinitionisthatbothadequatelyandneedsareculturallydefined,often
political, and highly variable (Wikan 1995:636). Virtually
everystudy ofAmazonian cosmologies suggests that people understand
theirrelationship to the biotic environment not in terms of
sustainable food
8
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 139
production,but rather in termsof thesustainableproductionof
(fullysocialized) persons, through relations with spirits that
cycle betweenpositiveandnegativereciprocity. An alternative
approach to sustainability comes from ecologistswho study nonhuman
populations. They generally use sustainable tocharacterize an
ecosystem that is continually able to produce its owninputs
(excluding solar or geothermal energy). Typically, research
hasconcentratedondeterminingtheoptimumpopulationofagivenspeciesinagivenhabitat(optimumbeingafunctionofintra-andinterspeciescompetition
for food, and predation), and, for humans, what
culturalpractices(especiallyconcerningfoodproductionanddemography)mosteffectivelyreproducethatpopulation(seeCarneiro1995;Meggers1995;andMoran1995fordebatesoverthisapproach).
In1979,however,StephenBeckermanreviewedmuchoftheliteratureonsubsistenceproductionandreachedaconclusionthatineffectarguesthatanyculturalecologyintheAmazonmustbepoliticalecology:
contemporaryAmazonianpopulationscantellusratherlittleabouttheeconomicanddemographicparametersofpreconquestAmazoniabecauseaspectaculardemographicdisasterhasintervened.Thedisasteris,ofcourse,theintroductionofOldWorlddiseases,oftencombinedwithpredationbywhites(1979:553).9
Beckermanspointimpliesaradicalshiftinthescaleoftheecosystemunderconsideration.
Indeed, the fundamental issue in any study of
ecologicalrelations,especially involvingsustainability,
isthetemporalandspatialboundariesofthesystem.Thisisacrucialissuebecause,asEmilioMoranhaspointedout,researchquestionsandresearchmethodsareoftenscalespecific,butmanydebatesonAmazonian
cultural ecology (havebeenproductsof
)slidingbetweendifferentlevelsandscalesofanalysis,withoutexplicitrecognitionoftheshiftthathastakenplace(2000:77).
AsLittlesuggested,politicalecologycanresolvethisproblemthroughitsattentiontothearticulationofdifferentsystemsatdifferentscales.Oneof
the accomplishments of political economy has been to demonstratehow
the growth of one open system (where inputs come from
outsidethesystem)canleadtodegradation(i.e.,underdevelopment)ofanothersystem.Practicesthatlinkanindividual,ahousehold,acommunity,andaworldmarket,may
be sustainable at one level and unsustainable atanother. Thus, in
one of the founding works of political ecology, Schminkand Wood
(1987) contrast subsistence activity dedicated to
simplereproduction,typicalofAmazonianIndians,withexpandedproduction
9
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
140 Steven L. Rubenstein
dedicated to theprivate accumulationofwealth,promotedby the
stateand capital. Bunker (1985) further observes that although in
the coreof the world economy the regime of accumulation takes the
form ofproductive activity that results in economic development, in
peripheralareasliketheAmazonittakestheformofextractiveactivitythatresultsinunderdevelopment.Thisframeworkrequiresethnographythatnotonlyincludes
both indigenous and exogenous actors, but that distinguishesbetween
the productive and reproductive ends of different elements
ofahierarchical structure at different scales. Inorder
tounderstandhowindigenous people become invested in such systems,
however,wemustturntothelocallysited,groundedethnographyPicchiadvocates.
Subordination and Self-subordination
ReturningtoPicchispointthathybrideconomicactivitiesmayhelpbuyBakair,andpresumablyotherAmazonianpeoples,sometime,aswellastoherquestionsabouttheimmediatecostsofreturningtotraditionalhorticulture,
I amremindedof events frommyownfieldworkwith
theEcuadorianShuar.Once,whenfishingwithmyShuarcompadre,wewerewalkingdownthemiddleofashallowstream.Hewascastinganettocatchbottomfeedersandhandingthecaughtfishtometocarry.Inoticedthathewaskillingimmatureandmaturefish,includinggravidfemales.Itoldhimthatifhecontinueddoingthis,therewouldbenofishnextyear.Heagreed.Wecontinuedwalking.Sometimelater,Irepeatedmypointand,ashegavemeanotherimmaturefish,heagreedagain.WhenImadethepointa
third time,he stopped, turned
towardsme,andasked,Butwhatwouldweeat,then?
Mycompadreunderstoodthecausalrelationshipbetweenoverfishingandfooddepletion(someShuarcommunitieshaveputamoratoriumonfishingwith
dynamite for precisely this reason). This story reveals
thepossibility that what might appear to Indians to be pragmatic
choicescouldactuallyleavethemdisadvantagedandwithlesstime.Mycompadresquestion,however,makestheimportantpointthatIndiansmaysometimesactundercircumstancesinwhichtheybelievetheyhavenochoice.Suchcircumstancesnotonlycallforasophisticatedtheoryofagencyorpractice,but
for an inquiry into the structures that define the terms of
humanaction.How, exactly, did theBakair come to desire new
technologies?Whobenefits from the purchase or use of them?
Dodifferent
groupsorparticularindividualsbenefitindifferentways?Doestheuseofthesetechnologiesharmdifferentgroups
indifferentways? Picchisnarrativesuggests that the answers have
everything to dowith capital and state
10
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 141
penetration,butshedoesnotofferadetailedaccountandanalysisoftheseprocesses.
Moreover, while her language suggests that these
processesinvolveaclashbetweentraditionalandmoderncultures,poststructuralistswarnusthatsuchanoppositionmaskstheoperationofapoliticalfield,andthestrugglesbetweendifferentlypositionedagents.Analyzedintermsofpower,politics,andagency,pragmaticscouldbeunderstood
in
termsoftacticsandstrategies,aswellascompromisesandcollusion.Whenlackinganotionofpowerandatheoryofagency,however,it
ishardtotellthedifferencebetweenpragmatismandfunctionalism.
YetPicchi is clearlydescribinga system that, at the local level,
canonlybecalleddysfunctional.Newtechnologies,includingpesticidesandfertilizers,
aswell as population concentration,have led
todepletionoffishing,overexploitationofthegalleryforest,andgeneralecologicaldamage(2000:139).
She reports that the Bakair themselves fully understandthe
environmental damage caused by industrial agriculture. Thus,
sheobservesthatitisironicthatwhilethelong-termdangersassociatedwithsuchWesterntechnologyasfishingnetsandchemicalpesticidesarewellknownbytheBakairpeople,theattractionofsuchgoodsremainstrong(2000:140).
TheseironiesmustbethestartingpointforasoundpoliticalecologyanalysisofAmazonia.Howpeoplecometoparticipateinandevendesiretheirownoppression
isoneof themostpressingquestionsofour time.It was a central
preoccupation for such critics of modernity as
Marx,Nietzsche,andFreudaswellasforpoststructuralistssuchasFoucault,andDeleuzeandGuattari.PicchisstudydemonstratesthatoneofthegreatestproblemsfacingindigenousAmazonians(andtheAmazonianecosystem)is
that they are increasingly drawn into practices that are necessary
fortheirsurvival,butthatarenotsustainable.Theanalysisofsuchaproblemrequiresapolitical
ecology that
combinesanenlargedunderstandingofecologywithanunderstandingofpoliticsequallyattentivetostructureandagency.
In the cases of both theBakair and the Shuar, I suspect that
thisprocessisitselfaconsequenceofwhatmightbecalledterritorialization.For
example, theShuarReservewas created in1935,only shortly
afterEuro-EcuadoriansbegansettlinginwhatistodaytheprovinceofMoronaSantiago.TodaytheShuarhavelegaltitletoapproximately7,000squarekilometers.
This reservehasprovided thebasis forShuar
ethnogenesisandtothisdayShuarseeitasabasisfortheirethnicidentityandculture(Rubenstein2001).
Since that timemost
territorialdisputeshavebeenresolvedinthefavoroftheShuar,whohaveevenbeguncolonizinglandclaimedbyotherindigenousgroups(Little2001:152153).
11
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
142 Steven L. Rubenstein
The very creation of a bounded, protected reserve has
providedthe basis for the kinds of dilemmas faced bymy compadre.
Similar totheBakair, Shuar have experienced a population boom.
Whereas theBakair populationmore thandoubled between 1959 and 1999
(Picchi2000:68),Shuarpopulationhasincreasedmorethansix-fold.Althoughtherearenoreliablepopulationrecordsfromthattime,MichaelHarnerestimatedthatin1956therewere7,830Shuar(1984:14).Accordingtothe
2001 Ecuadorian census, approximately 48,000 Shuar now live
inMorona Santiago. As a result of increased population pressure
withintheirterritoriallimits,thereisnowashortageofgame.VirtuallynoShuarfamilycansubsistentirelyonhuntingandgardeninganymore.
However much the territorialization (combined with
populationgrowth)oftheShuarhasledthemtodependonthemarket,Isuspectthatthereisanothermechanismatwork,onethatexplainsnottheirdependenceonbutrathertheirdesire
forthemarket.ThroughoutmyfieldworkvariousShuarwouldpointinadirectionandexplain,Thatusedtobeourland,beforethesettlerscame.Theyseldommeantthatthelandwasoutrightstolen.Theyoftenexplainedthattheirfatherorgrandfatherhadtradedthelandaway.Mostofthetime,peoplesharedthiskindofstorywithmeinamatter-of-factway.
One day, however, a close friend and informant repeated the
storyandadded,Now, if Iwent there,
theywouldnotevengivemeacoca-cola!Itwasstrange,Ithought,thatheseemedmoreangeredbythefactthathecouldnotjustdropinonhisneighborandbeofferedacoke,thanbythefactthatthelandwasnowownedbyasettler.AswithallShuar(andmanyananthropologist)heunderstoodthatwhenaShuarexchangedsomethinginreturnforland,hebelievedthathewasenteringintoasocialrelationshipbasedontheperiodicexchangeofgifts.WhereastheShuarbelieved
that the exchange signaled thebeginningof a relationship, forthe
settler it signaled the end of a relationship, that is, an act
that, nomatter how equitable, was fundamentally antisocial (Shuar
and
settlersaliketalkofantisocialpossessivenessusingtheSpanishwordegosmo,orselfishness).
Ibelievethatwhatsoshockedmyfriendwasnottheultimatelossofthatparticularparcelofland,butrathertherealizationthatanexchangecouldbefinal,andthatsomethingcouldbelost,forever.TheonlydefenseShuarhadagainstthisshockingmentalitywastoclaimtitletotheirownland,andtoarrangeforakindoftitlethatwouldbeinalienable.Clearlydemarcatedterritorialboundaries,however,constituteclearlydemarcatedsocial
boundaries that, I believe, provide a material basis for a
selfishontology.Thus,intheverymovethroughwhichShuardefendthemselves
12
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 143
againstthephysicalencroachmentofsettlers,theyinternalizethesettler(or
capitalist) cosmography, including itsontologyof selfishness.
OnceShuar hadmade thismental leap, I suspect they thought therewas
noturning back. But, this is a speculation based on a passing
complaint.Fortunately,thereisarecentethnographicaccountthatprovidesastrongbasis
for an enlarged understanding of how indigenous peoples can
bedrawnintothiscapitalistcosmography,evenabsentthethreatofforceorthelossofaccesstowildgame.
Production and Trade
WilliamFishers ethnography of theXikrin (one of
fifteenKayapcommunities,whoselanguagebelongstotheMacro-Gfamily,andwholive
in
thecentralBrazilianstatesofParandMatoGrosso)highlightstherelationshipbetweenpoliticsanddesire.FollowingBrianFergusons(1995)exampleofincludingtradenetworkswithinthegeneralecologyofacommunity(andthusechoingtheLesser-Strongapproach),FisheraskswhyXikrinareobsessedwithmanufacturedtradegoods.Observingthattheydonotdistinguishbetweennecessitiesandluxuries,hearguesthattheintrinsicattractivenessortheinnatesuperiorityofWesternmanufacturedproductscanexplainneithertherelativelyrestrictedlistofdesiredgoodsnorthequantitiesofgoodsconsideredsatisfactorybytheXikrin(2000:2).Heisespeciallyinsistentthatanthropologistsnotbeseducedbytheobjectivequalityofthesegoods,evenwhentheyaredemonstrablysuperiortotheirlocallyproducedequivalents,fortobesowouldimplyanacceptanceoftheWestsownclaimsaboutitselfandhumannature.Instead,Fishersuggeststhatanthropologists
should
focusonhowsuchgoodsareacquiredandincorporatedintothelivesandsocietiesofindigenouspeoplesoperatingwithindifferentregimesofvalueandsocialstructure(2000:2).10
ThisprocessbeganwiththeterminationoftheSPI(IndianProtectionService)
in1967, tobe replaced the followingyearbyFUNAI. In
the1970s,theBraziliangovernmentoutlawedthefurtradeandpromotedtheconstruction
of theTrans-Amazonian highway. Fisher begins with
ananalysisofwhatisconventionallycalledsubsistencestrategy,thatis,foodproduction,especiallybittermanioc.Hepointsout,inanobservationthatisemblematicofpoliticalecology,thattheXikrinrelyonthisasastaplenotbecauseitisindigenous,butrather
becauseitcouldbeefficientlyproducedbywesterntechnologyandbecauseitservestheneedsofamoresedentarypopulationinvolvedintheextractiveindustriesbetterthandosweetpotatoes,maize,andevensweetmanioc...Itwas
not environmental imperatives thatmade bittermanioc attractive
but
13
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
144 Steven L. Rubenstein
Figure 3. (above) A Xikrin bachelor displays a canoe motor
Figure 2. (right) Xikrin-Kayap river pilot proudly poses with a
motorized canoe used by members of a mens club and their
families
Figure 4. A Xikrin elder, engaged in a traditional means of
production, uses a mollusk shell to plane a bow to its desired
thickness
14
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 145
Figure 5. A Xikrin man in a feathered headpiece
Figure 6. A Xikrin man makes a basket of pliable strips of a
small vine
15
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
146 Steven L. Rubenstein
thepoliticaleconomyoffrontierlifeinwhichWesterntechnologybecameavailable(2000:82).
Prior to sedentarization,Xikrin, like otherG, relied on
sweetmaniocwhenavailable,andwouldeatotherfoodswhenseasonablyavailable,orgoontreksinpursuitofotherfood.Today,however,XikrinliveneartheFUNAIpost,andtrekaccordingtothedictatesoftheBrazilnutcycle.Farinha
(grated,pressed, anddriedbittermanioc) iswell-suited to
thissituationbecauseitiseasilyportableandstoreswell(2000:83). This
adaptationhas local aswell as regionalpolitical consequences,for it
has led to an increased dependence on chiefs, who dispense
fuelandlubricantsforthefarinhagrinder,aswellasothertradegoods(suchasshotgunshellsandprocessedfoods).Moreover,althoughthewomenofapparentlyautonomoushouseholdscultivatetheirownmanioc(bitterandsweet)andsweetpotatoes,mostofthebittermaniocisproducedingardensownedbychiefs.Thus,villagersacquiremostoftheirtradegoodswhenmenjoinamenscluballiedwithaparticularchiefthatcultivateshisgardens.Thechiefdoesnotpaythesemeninwagesorinkind,butprovides
trade goods as tokens of friendship. Whereas sweet
potatoproductionandexchangeconstitutelateraltiesamonghouseholds(andarelargely
regulatedbywomen), bittermaniocproduction
anddistributionconstitutesverticaltiesbetweenmenandtheirchief(2000:8291).Thus,chiefsponsorshipofcollectivegardensprovestobelessaboutsubsistenceandmore
about legitimating political allegiances through
amimickingofhouseholdauthority(2000:118).Thislegitimationiscrucialbecausestrongchiefsareneededto
leveragegoods
fromtheoutsideworldandpreservetheintegrityofreservationboundaries(2000:119).
YetXikrinalsoresistthisemergentstratification,throughhalfheartedcomplianceoroutandoutlackofcooperationwiththeirchiefs(2000:176177).
Structure and Agency
Fishersanalysisofproductiondemonstratestheusefulnessofatheoryofpracticetopoliticalecology.Fisherdescribesstructuresfromdivergentpointsofview:ofmenandwomen,youngandold,chiefsandcommoners.Moreover,heshowshowactorswithsimilarresourcesandinterestsmaypursue
different strategies. For example, although Xikrin have
takenadvantageoftradewithotherBrazilians,
theyhavealsodevelopedwaysofdisruptingextractiveproductionthatservetoprotecttheirautonomy.Inthiscontext,FisherpresentsXikrinsocialstructure(similartothatofotherG)asaframeworkforsocialactionthatsimultaneouslyrevealsbothasocialorderanditsownlimitations.Peoplewhoarepositionedwithin
16
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 147
Figure 7. The Xikrin use common regional techniques and
equipment for processing bitter manioc into flour or farinhaa
plastic tarp, manioc press, sieves, and basins. Although manioc
flour has been familiar to the Xikrin at least since their
encounter with the aviamento system of rubber exploitation in the
early twentieth century, they only began making it themselves in
the late 1960s
differentpartsofthisstructurestruggletofulfilltheirownobligationstooneanotherwhile
competingover variousends. Theoverall result is
aportraitofacoherentXikrinsocialorganizationthatisneitheressentialistnorhomogeneous.
The combination of political ecology and some theory of
practicegoes far towards alleviating what I suspect is a source of
discomfort
17
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
148 Steven L. Rubenstein
with cultural ecology for many anthropologists, that is, its
reliance
onadaptationasacentralconcept.11Forsome,thiswordsuggestspassivityor
functionalism. In fact, cultural ecologists have explored
culturaladaptationsasactiveprocesses.
ThusJohnBennett(1969)focusedonthe adaptive strategies people devise
for coping with various
problems(especiallythoseowingtothescarcityofvariousresources),andthewaytheybecomeinstitutionalizedintheformofculturalvalues(butseebelowforacritiqueofBennettsapproach).Isuggestthatthecontributionofpoliticalecologyistocallcriticalattentiontotheeconomicandpoliticalforcesthatshapetheenvironment,andtheroleofatheoryofpracticetocall
critical attention to thepoliticalfields inwhich individuals
activelyadapttotheirenvironment.
Figure 8. In a task from which women are barred, Xikrin men use
canoe paddles to toast bitter manioc in an iron griddle to its
final consistency to be bagged and stored
18
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 149
TOWARDS A POSTSTRUCTURALIST POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF AMAZONIA
Fishers analysis suggests thatpolitical ecology isnot justa tool
forWesternpolicymakers,butpotentiallyatoolfordevelopingacritiqueofWesternprivilege.Afterall,thewhitesheetthatBoasemployedservednotonly
topresent theKwakiutlassomehowpure. Viewedfromtheotherside, ithid
theKwakiutl,andallowedpeople
toviewtheLeatherandShoeTradesbuildingas if itexisted
inaworldwithout
indigenouspeoples.Toremovethesheetistoseebothsidessimultaneously.Politicaleconomy
adds to cultural ecology a powerful framework for achievingthis
double revelation. By moving beyond the conceptual
distinctionbetweenthenaturalenvironmentandsocioeconomicbehavior,itoffersasinglelanguagefordescribingthenaturalandthesocial,thelocalandtheglobal.
Postmodernism
Tobemorefullyoperational,however,politicalecologymustgoonestep
further and engage in discussions concerning postmodernism.
Iunderstandpostmodernism,likemodernism,asaculturalmovementthatcan
be analyzed in terms of the social, political, and economic
systemswithinwhichitoperates.12MarshallBerman(1982)hasexploredthewaysmodernismexpressedpeoplesawarenessoftheconflictsandcontradictionsofmonopolycapitalism.Similarly,Jameson(1991)usefullycharacterizedpostmodernismastheculturallogicoflatecapitalism(seeMandel1978),whichemergedafterthecollapseoftheBretton-Woodsaccordsin1973.Postmodernismisidentifiedwithglobalization,thatis,aglobaleconomycharacterizedbythedecentralizationofcapitalaccumulationandcyclesofaccumulationthatoccuratsucharapidpacethatshiftsinthegeographiccenters
of wealth and financial dynamism are short-lived (seeHarvey1989;
Friedman 1999:5). In other words, these thinkers
conceptuallydistinguishbetweenpostmodernityasanobjectivehistoricalcondition,andpostmodernismasaparticularcultural(orideological)responsetothissituation.
Apoliticalecologyinformedbyanevenhandedcritiqueofbothpoliticaleconomyandpostmodernismwouldbethemostpowerfulethnographicresearchprogramtotackletheissuestheyraise.Atstakeinthedifferencebetweenpoliticaleconomyandpostmodernismisthequestionofwhetherjuxtapositionsofthetraditionalandmodern,andofthefamiliarandtheexotic,
reveal some underlying orderwhich political economists, such
19
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
150 Steven L. Rubenstein
asImmanuelWallerstein
(1974)provideusingsuchtermsascoreandperiphery,13or,tothecontrary,ifsuchjuxtapositionscallintoquestionany
notion we may have of an ordered worldwhich
postmodernistscelebrateusingsuchtermsasspectacle(Dubord1994)andcarnivalesque(drawing
on Bakhtin 1984, and Barthes 1977). Although much hasbeenmadeof
thisdifference,Iammoreconcernedwitha
fundamentalunderlyingsimilarity:bothareethnocentric,inthattheyexpresstheviewat
or from the core of theworld economy. Political
economy,whichemphasizestheaccumulationofcapitalinthecore,reflectstheself-imageofmonopolycapitalism.Postmodernism,whichemphasizesthemobilitynotonlyofpeopleandobjectsbutoftheirsignifiers,reflectstheself-imageof
late capitalism. The task for political ecology is to analyze
spatiallydistributed fields of power, without privileging the
perspective of
oneagent(or,moreaccurately,position)inthisfield(forexample,byreifyinganyparticularhierarchy).
Figure 9. Xikrin boys holding model airplane. Does this
represent the peripheral location of the Xikrin in the world
economy, or the carnivaleque character of globalization?
20
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 151
Poststructuralism
IbelievethatitisstrategicallyandtheoreticallyusefultopursuePaulLittles(1999)andArturoEscobars(1996,1999)callforapoststructuralistpoliticalecology.14Poststructuralismprovidestheoreticalleveragetomovebeyondthecoresviewoftheworldwithoutfallingintoeithermodernismsfetishismoforderorpostmodernismscelebratoryabandonmentoforder.Minimally,Iunderstandpoststructuralismtorefertoasetofapproachesthat
share the Enlightenment value of critique, but reject the
mythichistories throughwhich critiqueswere expressed. In
otherwords,
oneneednothavefaithinprogressinordertobecriticalofthepast,andoneneednotrelyonnostalgiatobecriticalofthepresent.
PoststructuralistslikeJacquesDerrida(1974)andBrunoLatour(1993)provideaninsightfulcritiqueofmodernEuropeanethnocentrism.15Theyunderstandthatthestudyofcultureandhistoryinvolvessomesortoforder,buttheyalsoinsistthatscholarlynotionsoforderarethemselvesculturallyandhistoricallysituated,andhaveideologicalfunctions.Specifically,theyhavearguedthattheconceptualoppositionofnatureandcultureisanepistemologicalstancethatEuropeanshaveusedtolegitimizeavarietyofformsofpower,includingpoweroverconqueredandcolonizedindigenouspeople,oftenthoughtofaslivinginastateofnature.Theyalsoappliedthiscritique
to theconceptualoppositionbetweensavageryorprimitiveness(valorized
by the appeal to nostalgia) and civilization (valorized by
theappealtoprogress).
Thisdivisionoftheworldintotwotypesofcultures(twotypesofpeople)is
reflected in the theoreticaldivisionof labor
inwhichanthropologistsused cultural ecology primarily to analyze
aboriginal cultures, and
usedfirstacculturationstudies,andthenpoliticaleconomy,toanalyzeculturessubordinatetocapitalorthestate.Latoururgesanthropologistsinsteadtodevelopasymmetricalsciencethattreatsequallybothnatureandculture,and
indigenous andWestern societies. One such symmetrical
sciencewouldbeanapproachthatappliesecologicalprinciplestostatesandthecapitalistcore,andthatappliespoliticaleconomyprinciplestoindigenoussocieties.Suchisthepromiseofpoliticalecology(seealsoChapin2004;ShellenbergerandNordhaus2004).
Apoststructuralistpoliticalecologyneednotinvolvealiteral-minded(andoftensuperficial)appropriationofjargonassociatedwiththeoristssuchasDerrida,Latour,orFoucault.
Itwould,however,minimallyimplyanawarenessthatbinariessuchasnature/cultureandtraditional/modernoften
structure our own implicit knowledge, are themselves
produced,andthatgoodresearchmuststruggleagainstthem.Itwouldrequirean
21
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
152 Steven L. Rubenstein
awarenessthattheveryexistenceofsuchbinariesareeffectsofpowerthatwecannoteasilydismiss
sucheffectsasfalse,andthat theproductionand operation of these
effects of power are themselves important areasof study. It is this
kind of poststructuralism, offered byBrunoLatour(see alsoHaraway
1992), that Paul Little arguesmust be
incorporatedintoecologicalapproaches(Little1999;seealsoAdger,Benjaminsen,etal.2001).
Such an approach would not begin with a conceptual
distinctionbetween culture and nature, or between natives and
settlers, butmightshow how such distinctions become meaningful and
even powerful,and how they come to be used, by whom, and to what
effects. Suchan approachwould also seek to treat natural and social
adversaries
intermsofthesameanalyticalvocabulary(Law1987:114,quotedinLittle1999:257),
andwould bring us closer to the visionLesser, Strong,
andStewardallentertained.16Poststructuralismaddstothatvisionananalysisof
the discursive dimensions of this situation. When resources,
theenvironment,andsocietyareconceivedofinawaythattranscendsthebinariesimplicitinWesternthoughtandculture(Latour1994isespeciallyusefulhere,butseealsoworksbyhistoricalecologistssuchasBale1994andCronon1996),politicalecologybecomesaverypotenttoolforlearningmoreaboutpoliticsandpower.
The Discursive Production of Nature and Culture
Arturo Escobar (1996; see also 1999) characterizes
postmodernityasaperiodinwhichknowledgeanditssignifiershavenotonlybecomecommodities,
but highly valued commodities, the circulation of
whichplaysacrucialroleintheworldeconomy.17Consequently,Escobarargues,whereas
nature was once primarily a resource, the raw material
outofwhichcommoditiesmaybemade, thevery ideaofnature
isnowacommodity,aproduct(seealsoLefebvre1991).Inmyview,thehistoryoftheBakairreserveexemplifiesthisprocess.Insomewaysthereservehaspreservednatureasasourceofrawmaterialsforlocalproduction.Aslongas
theBakairwere isolated from themoneyeconomy, the reservefunctioned
to keep nature natural by making its land unavailable
toBraziliansettlers. Infact,
fromthebeginningthereservefunctionedtogivethestatecontroloverresourceexploitation,asfirsttheSPI(ServiodeProteoaosndios)andthenFUNAI(FundaoNacionaldondio)requiredBakairtotendstate-owned(until1989)cattle.Butthestruggleto
protect nature from economic exploitation is part of a process
inwhichnature itselfbecomesacommodityspecifically throughthe
rise
22
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 153
ofecotourism.AsPicchiobserves,othersignifiersbecomecommodities:Bakairethnicidentityisnowacommoditytradedontheinternationalmarket(2000:xvi,161163).
Similarly,theKayaphavesoughttoexploitsuchdiscoursesforpoliticalcapital,
despite sometimes finding that whites can use such
discoursesagainstthem.Thus,FishermentionsthatWesternobserversoftenseetheKayapsdesireformanufacturedgoodsasasignofcorruptionorethnocide.TheXikrinprovideanespeciallyimportantcase,becausetheKayaparerightlyfamousfortheirroleintheBrazilian(andglobal)environmentalistmovement.YettheywerealsovictimsoftheWesternbinaryofprimitiveversuscivilized,andthedoublestandardthatmasqueradesasromanticism,whenitwasrevealedthattheirleaderswereprofitingfromgoldminingandloggingontheirreservation(seeConklinandGraham1995).
HowdoWesterncolonialordevelopmentpracticesproducesuchdiscourses?Whatisthefunctionofthesediscourseswithintheworldcapitalisteconomy?18ThefactthatoneelementoftheWestoffersIndianstradegoods,whileanotherelementsimultaneouslycondemnsthemforaccepting,isanironyworthfurtheranalysis.
For themoment, Iwould suggest that one function of the
nature/culturebinaryistomaskthepoliticalnatureoftheproductionofdesire.
Figure 10. Yakwigado mask dancing in front of Bakairi mens
housespirit or commodity?
23
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
154 Steven L. Rubenstein
Figure 11. Bearing an assortment of firearms acquired between
the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s, Xikrin men join in a dance meant
to produce a collective sentiment of fierceness
Figure 12. Fresh from a village ceremony, Xikrin chief Jaguar
stoops to speak into the two-way radio with a neighboring Kayap
village
24
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 155
AsFisherobserves(2000:2),itcanbeusedtosuggestthattheeffectsofdesire
(acquiringor consuming specificgoods) are actually the
causeofdesire.Putanotherway,itsuggeststhatspecificdesiresarenatural.Thealternativetothisviewisnotthatdesiresareculturallyconstructed(trueenough,thoughbanal)butratherthatwhatappearstobeeitherhumannatureorXikrincultureareactuallytheeffectsofaparticularfieldofpowerthatisneitheruniversalnorspecifictotheXikrin.Thisfieldofpowerisboth
social and spatial. Fishers ethnography provides a good
exampleofhowpracticetheoryandpoliticalecologycanilluminatethispoliticalfield.
The Material Production of Desire
FisheropenshisethnographyaskingwhyXikrinaresoobsessedwithmanufactured
trade goods. This is not only a theoretically
interestingquestion,itisinextricablylinkedtoamorepoliticallyurgentquestionhealsoraises:Why...diditseemthatXikrinwouldselltheirgrandchildrensenvironmentalbirthrightjustatthemomentwhenreservationswerefinallybeingdemarcatedandboundariesguaranteed
forgenerations to
come?(2000:193).GiventhatPicchisworkraisesasimilarquestion,specialistsshould
now consider this one of the central questions in
Amazonianethnology. According to Fisher, Xikrin commoners have come
to see theirhousehold autonomy as dependent on alliances with
chiefs, and chiefsunderstand that their own local autonomy depends
on maintainingtrade relationswithWesterners. Althoughthisaccount
isnuancedandinsightful,itcallsformoreanalysisofthefunctionofthisobsessionwithmanufacturedgoodswithinthe
larger(i.e.,capitalist)politicaleconomy.Suchanalysiswouldrequiretheoriesofvalueandofdesire,andanattempttoimaginethearticulationFishersoablydescribesasaparticularmomentinthecontinuingincorporationoftheXikrinintothecapitalisteconomy.
TheXikrinobsessionwithmanufacturedgoodsseemstoconfirmthatpillarofcapitalistcosmography,theeconomicdogmathathumandesiresare
infinite.
Theallianceofanthropologists,historians,andeconomistsknown as
substantivists went to considerable lengths to debunk
thisdogmasometimeago,demonstratingconvincinglythatwantsandneedsaresociallyconstructedorencodedinnoncapitalisteconomies,andthatso-calledeconomicactivitiesmayhaveotherfunctionsthanmaximizingutility
(seeLeClairandSchneider1962).
Indeed,Fishersethnographyprovidesasophisticatedexampleofthisphenomenon.
Yetthisdogmaisnotjustafactualerroronthepartofeconomists.It
25
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
156 Steven L. Rubenstein
is,rather,asocialfactessentialtotheoperationofcapitalism.Manyhavearguedthatcapitalismisthemostproductiveeconomicsystemyetdevised,eventhoughitsuffersfromperiodicbusts.AlthoughthecycleofboomandbustFisherdescribesintheperipheryoftheworldcapitalisteconomyisthedirectresultofchangingtastesandtechnologiesatthecore,Marxistshaveanalyzedthecycleofboomandbustatthecoreintermsofcrisesofoverproduction.
It is crucial to the continued operation of this
systemthatdemandkeeppacewithrisingsupply,andthebeliefthatdesiresarenaturallyinfinitelegitimizesmechanismsthatgeneratedemand.
Few,however,havegrappledwith theprocessbywhich
thisdogmaisestablishedandnaturalized.DeleuzeandGuattaris(1983)readingofMarxprovidesoneusefulsuggestion.
Theyobservethat theprocessbywhichpeople come to experience their
desires as insatiable can also
bedescribedastheprocessthroughwhichpeoplesdesires,formerlysociallycoded(sothatspecificsituationsorrelationshipscallforspecificexchanges),becomedecoded(notinthesenseoftranslatedbutratherinthesensethatanyregulationoforlimitstoexchangearebroken).19Forthem,theheart
ofCapital isMarxs account of howEuropeans became decodedwhenall
theycouldsellwastheir
labor-power,andhowmoneybecamedecodedwhenitwascapableofbuyinglaborpower.InMarxsterms,fullydecodedexchange
is thegeneral formofvalue inwhichanythingcanbeexchanged for
anything, andwhichanalyticallyprecedes
themoneyform(Marx1967:7075).SinceMarxsawlaborpowerasthesourceofallvalues,decodedmoneyappearstobeproductive,thatis,itisnowcapital(DeleuzeandGuattari1983:224227).
Thequestionis,howdoesthisprocessofdecodingoccurtoday,outsideofEurope,especiallyinsocietieswhereobjectsofexchangeandexchanges,aswellashumanlabor,areheavilycoded?ThemoneyWesternersbringwiththemtotheAmazonisalreadydecoded,butanecdotesaboutIndianswhodonotunderstandmoneyarelegion.HowmightIndiansbepreparedtoenterthemoneyeconomy?Howdotheylearnthegeneralizedformofvaluethatconceptuallyprecedesthemoneyform?Atfirstglance,theXikrinmaynotseemanidealcasebecausetheyarenotyetsellingtheirlaborpower,
and arenot yet integrated into themoney economy. But,in fact, trade
goods become socially coded and regulated asXikrin
usethemnotonlyinproductionbutinsocialreproduction.Thus,IbelieveFisherhaswitnessedasocietyonthevergeofexperiencingthisprocessofdecoding(seeBurke1996foranexamplefromAfrica).Theawkwardpositionofthechiefsisthelinchpin.
Itis,ofcourse,thelaborpowerofcommonersthatproducestheBrazilnutsandotherforestproductsthataretradedforgoodsmanufacturedby
26
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 157
others indistantplaces. But, suchexchangeandthe
localproductionthatmakesitpossibleiscontrolledbychiefs.Consequently,commonershavecometoseechiefs,intheirroleaschiefs,asproducers
of trade
goods...(2000:121).InMarxianterms,theyareproducersofexchange-value.SinceFUNAIandindependentBraziliansrelyonchiefstomobilizeBrazilnut
collectionor to ensure local peace, and chiefs rely ongenerosity
toensuretheloyaltyoftheirfollowers,Xikrinpoliticaleconomysuffersfromabuilt-ininflationaryneedforforeignmanufacturedgoods(2000:121).
Thepoint isnotthatchiefsoughttobegenerous,whichisactuallycommon
enough in theAmazon. Fishers account of this
inflationarymechanismisasignificantcontributiontoAmazonianethnographyanda
profound contribution to political ecology. It reveals that
somethinglike the inflationofdebt thatTaussig (1987:6673) analyzed
canoccurunaccompaniedbythebrutalitythatdefinedthemercantilecosmographyintheCaucaValleyduringtherubberboom,buttosimilareffect.
Acontinuedinflationofneedsisaprocessthat,arguably,canonlyendwiththebeliefthatneedsareinfinite.Inthecontextoftheboomandbusteconomy,more
trade goods are alsonew goods (inMarxian terms,
theexpandedformofvalue).Eachnewcommodityofferedisanewexampleoftheinterchangeabilityofcommodities,arevelationthatallthingsareexchangeable,andtheessenceofwhatDeleuzeandGuattari(1983)calleddecoding.MeretradewithotherBraziliansprovidesaccesstonewgoods
Figure 13. The chief as producer of trade goods: drawing a crowd
of villagers anxious for news and trade goods, a small aircraft
discharges Xikrin chiefs returning from a nearby town
27
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
158 Steven L. Rubenstein
inadditiontotheforestproductsonwhichXikrinusedtorely.ButthisinflationarymechanismrevealstheWesttobeanewsourceofproductivityandfertilityamongtheXikrin.Inshort,itiscapitalismthatmodeofproductionthatconstantlyrevolutionizesitsownmeansofproduction(inotherwords,thatmodeofproductionthatproducesproduction)spreadingitsideologyandinfluence.Thus,exchangeitselfbecomesproductive.Marxcalledthiscommodityfetishism(Marx1967:7687).InthecaseoftheXikrinitoccursthroughthenotionthatchiefsthemselvesareproductive.Thecommoditizationoflaborisnotfarbehind.Xikrinchiefsresistthis,describing
their dealings with commoners in terms of the morality
ofkinship.Butcommonersarebeginningtotalkoftheirrelationshipinnewterms:whetherachiefpayswell,orpayspoorly,chiefspay(2000:187).
MyinterpretationofFishersaccountofXikrindesirefortradegoodsmaysuggestableakfuture.ButFisherisneithersocertainnorpessimistic.Ashe
suggests, suchapocalypticvisionsareoftenused
tomobilizeandjustifysomeformofintervention,eitherbythestate,anNGO,orsomeotheractivistgroup.Althoughwell-intentioned,Fisherwarns,sucheffortsusually
ignore or misconstrue local political practices and values,
withunfortunateconsequences.ThepointisthatIndiansliketheXikrinhavea
longhistoryof creative engagementwith their environment
(whethernaturalorsocial,localorglobal).Inshort,historyisstillbeingwrittenbutnotjustbyWesterners.
CONCLUSION
Territorialstrugglesbetweenindigenouspeoplesandcattleranchers,goldminers,petroleumcompanies,andhydroelectricprojectshaverightlycaught
the attention of anthropologists and the general public.
Bycomparison,thegiftofamachete,somekerosene,orashotgunmayseemmundane.Moreover,asPicchiobserved,thefactthatmanyAmazonianIndianswanttheseandothermanufacturedgoods,andareoftenwillingtogotogreatlengthstogetthem,makesIndiansseemcomplicitinthedegradationofboththeirowncultureandtherainforestecosystem.
ButasPicchisandFishersstudiesreveal,agentsofthestateorcapital(in
their studies, FUNAI, extractive enterprises, or local
merchants;elsewhere,ecotourismandNGOS)seektocolonizenotonlyindigenousland
and labor, but indigenous desires as well. Although this may bea
source of embarrassment or sorrow for some, it is also a
significanttheoreticalproblem.Moreover,itmustbeunderstoodnotasanindividual
28
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 159
failing but as a political dilemma facing indigenous people, who
areoften torn between what Little (2001:74186) termed
developmentand environmental cosmographies. A political ecology
informed bothby poststructuralist concerns, a commitment to
grounded
ethnography,andasophisticatedtheoryofagencyiswell-equippedtomakeaseriouscontributiontoourunderstandingofsuchproblemsasthese,andespeciallytimelyforAmazonianethnography.20
Although poststructuralism still triggers alarm bells for
someanthropologists (especially those who conflate it with
postmodernism),I argue that there is less of a gulf than somemight
think between thepoststructuralist intellectual movement and the
intellectual movementinaugurated by Boasian anthropologists. The
poststructuralist
critiqueordeconstructionoftheoppositionbetweenthesavage(orprimitive)andthecivilizedshouldsiteasilywithanthropologistswho,
likeBoas,challenged this conceptual distinction (1940:284). The
cold war didnot provide an environment conducive for Boasian
anthropology,
butanthropologistsmaybeabletoappropriatemuchofpoststructuralistthoughtasapost-coldwarmeansforcontinuingthecritical(thoughperhapsnottheempirical)elementsoftheBoasianproject.ToBoassmethodologicalinnovations(andresistancetograndnarratives),poststructuralistsoffertoolsforanalyzingtheWestsdiscourses,aswellasdiscoursesproducedbythoseithascolonized.Inthe1980santhropologistsappliedthiscritiquetothemselves(seeCliffordandMarcus1986;MarcusandFisher1986),butanthropologistsarefarfromtheonlyoneswhorepresentpeoplesintheperipheryoftheworldeconomy.Thiscritiquewouldbeveryusefulin
analyzing thedevelopment and environmental cosmologies
towhichLittlehasdirectedourattention. Other anthropologists are
wary of the poststructuralist emphasisondiscourse
(e.g.,Kuipers1989;Lett1997;Lewis1998;Reddy1997).However,itispreciselybecauseofanthropologyscriticalstancetowardsdiscourse
and representationunderstanding them to be products
ofchangingsocialrelationsthatpoststructuraliststhemselveshaveturnedtoanthropologyasamodelforstudyingandtheorizingourworld.Foucaultprivilegedanthropologyasthevanguardofthehumansciences(1970:378)andBrunoLatour
argued that anthropology should be privileged as amodel for
describing our world (1993:91). Latours
(1993:100106)callforasymmetricalanthropologythatexploresthenetworksformedthroughmaterialcirculationsnetworksthatcrossconceptualboundariesbetweennatureandculture,orsavageandcivilizedfollowseasilyfrom
Boas understanding of culture in terms of flows across
porousboundaries (see Bashkow 2004). This approach, moreover,
provides a
29
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
160 Steven L. Rubenstein
waytolinkGeorgeMarcussnotionofamulti-sitedethnography(1998)withEricWolf
s(1982)attentiontotheconnectionstracedbytheflowsofdifferentcommodities(StanfordCarpenter,personalcommunication).These
complementary approaches to the study of cultural flows
andconfigurationsarecriticalifpoliticalecologyistomovebeyondthestudyofspecificconflictsover,orpoliciesconcerningtheuseofnaturalresources.The
centralityof culture in eachof thesemodelsprovides abasis for
amuch-expandedunderstandingofbothecologyandthepolitical.
ThemodelsdevelopedbyLatour,Wolf,andMarcusnotonlyplaceparticularsocieties(suchastheShuar,theBakair,theXikrinKayap,etc.)withinamuchlargerpoliticalfield.Theyleadusbacktoanethnographythatmustbegroundedanddetailedifitistorevealtheworkingsofthesenetworksandflows.Itisherethattheconceptofculturalrelativismbothasamotivationforconductingethnographicresearchandasaprinciplewelearntovaluethroughourethnographicresearchiscentraltotheprojectofpoliticalecology.ItwasespeciallycentraltoLittlesstudyofdifferentcosmographiesandthefrontierswheretheyclash.
Ihopetoshowthatculturalrelativismisessentialpreciselybecauseofthewaysitaddressestheveryreasonspoliticalecologistsmayhaveforrejectingit.
AccordingtopoliticalscientistAlisonDundesRenteln(1988),mostphilosophers
as well as anthropologists, following Ruth Benedict
andMelvilleHerskovitz,understandculturalrelativismmoreorlessthewayphilosopherWilliamFrankenahasdefinedit:
whatisrightorgoodforoneindividualorsocietyisnotrightorgoodforanother,evenifthesituationsaresimilar,meaningnotmerelythatwhatisthoughtrightorgoodbyoneisnotthoughtrightorgoodbyanother...butthatwhatisreallyrightorgoodinonecaseisnotsoinanother(1973:109).
This formulation implies an absolute incommensurability of
differentculturespossible,Ibelieve,onlyifoneassumesthatculturesareclearlyboundedandseparateandleadstotheconclusionthatdifferentculturesmustbeunderstoodandjudgedonlyintheirownterms.
Thus,politicalecologistscanobjecttorelativismonpoliticalgrounds.JulianSteward(1948)equatedrelativismwithtoleranceandarguedthatanthropologistswouldeitherhavetotoleratethemostintolerableregimes(e.g.,Nazism),ortheywouldhavetobeutterlyintolerantofanysocietythatisnotitselftolerant.Thus,anypoliticaluseofthisrelativismwouldend
in ridiculous positions. From this perspective, relativists have
nobasisforcriticizinganyparticularculturalconfigurationorcosmography.Political
ecologists could also object on ecological grounds. If
culturesaretobeunderstoodonlyintheirownterms,thenwehavetodisregard
30
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 161
preciselythosethingstowhichecologistscallattentionthenetworksofinformation,
technology, raw materials and manufactured goodsthatboth connect
different societies and provide a basis for understandingthem.
Renteln,however,hasarguedthatformulationsofculturalrelativism,suchasFrankenas,missthepoint.ShearguesthatthespiritoftheBenedict-HerskovitzprincipleismuchbetterexpressedinphilosopherPaulSchmidtsformulationthatthereareorcanbenovaluejudgmentsthataretrue,thatis,objectivelyjustifiable,independentofspecificcultures(1955:782).Thedifferencebetweenthisformulationandothersisnotsemantic.Schmidtsformulationthattheideathatpeopleunconsciouslyacquirethecategoriesandstandardsoftheirculturecallsattentiontoenculturationasthekeyto
relativism (Renteln 1988:62). Thus understood, relativism is not
ajustificationforanalyzingsocietiesasboundedandseparateentities,butratheraheuristicdevicethatexplainscross-culturalmisunderstandingandfacilitatescross-culturalcommunication.Itistruethatculturalrelativismmakesnosubstantivecontributiontopoliticalandethicaldebates(i.e.,itdoesnothelppeoplecomeupwithmoraluniversals).Butitdoesmakeacrucialprocedural
contributiontopoliticalandethicaldebates,becauseitrequiresanyoneengagedinaconsiderationofrightsandmoralstoreflecton
how their own enculturation has shaped their views. According
toRenteln: There is no reasonwhy the relativist should be
paralyzed, ascritics have often asserted ... But a relativistwill
acknowledge that
thecriticismisbasedonhisownethnocentricstandardsandrealizesalsothatthecondemnationmaybeaformofculturalimperialism(1988:6364).
AsLittleandothershavepointedout,whenpeoplefetishizeculturaldifference,theclashbetweenindigenouscosmographiesanddevelopmentorenvironmentalcosmographieseitherendsinfrustrationorbecomesanexcusefortheapplicationofforce(eventhoughsuchforcemayappeartobeminimalorevenwell-intentioned,suchastherelocationofindigenouspeopletoaprotectedreserve,orthecreationofwild-lifereserves).21Intheseinstances,discoursesaboutculturearethemselvespoliticalweapons.Thedeconstructionofsuchdiscoursesisuseful,butinadequate.EthnographicresearchintheAmazon,butintheUnitedStates,England,Germanyandother
industrializedcountries aswellthat is attentive
toenculturationnotasamechanicalprocesssituated in local,
interpersonalrelationshipsbut in ahistoricallydynamicpolitical
ecologyaswell, is essential to
anunderstandingofhowsuchdiscoursesareproducedandwork. In order to
avoid understanding enculturation as a passive process,such
ethnography must be informed by a sophisticated
understandingofagency.Whatisatstakehereisnottherecognitionthatpeoplemake
31
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
162 Steven L. Rubenstein
choices given certain circumstances and a set of alternatives,
but rathera radical rethinkingofboth theindividual
subjectandsociety. Thisrethinking occurs in part through the study
of how subjects, choices,and circumstances all take formwithin a
political field. Earlier formsof political ecology often lacked
this recognition. For
example,WalterGoldschmidt(1983)faultedJohnBennettspoliticalecology(Bennettetal.1982)forfailingtoprovideanycriticalanalysisoftheemergingsystemofindustrialagriculture,theroleofclassandethnicbiases,andtheoperationofmarketforcesthatconstitutedtheenvironmentinwhichfamilyfarmershad
toact. Moreover,Bennetts researchconceptualized
individualactsintermsofrationalchoicetheoryandthemaximizationofutility.
Thevalueofrationalchoicetheorycontinuestobeanobjectofconsiderabledebate
among political scientists (see Green and Shapiro 1994).
Buteventhoughsuchapproachesdoshedsomelightonthewaysindividualsperceivetheiroptionsandhowtheymakechoices,anthropologists,asEricWolf(1982:10)hasargued,shouldbewaryofanalyticmodelsthattakethe
autonomous individual for granted. In contrast, practice
theoriesunderstandbothsocialstructureandindividualagencyasongoingsocialaccomplishments,22andthatpeopleactcreativelywithinthesocialfield.
Theories of practice offer alternatives to approaches that
fetishizeindividual decision making, or that reify social
structures. A
centralelementofBourdieus(1977)argumentisthatoncetheelementoftimeistakenintoaccount,whatmighthaveappearedtobetheenactmentofrules
instead reveals strategizing on the part of actors. Fisher
invokesBourdieus practice theory, butHenri Lefebvres (1991)
analysis of
thespatialstrategiespeopledeployinthecourseofbiologicalreproduction,aswellastothereproductionofboththemeansandproductsofproduction,mayalsobeuseful.
This rethinking also occurs through an appreciation of the
waystheactionsofpeopleplaya role in reproducing thevery structures
thatconstraintheiracts(seeGiddens1979,Certeau1984).Thisunderstandingof
practice is not merely a model of social reproduction. By
callingattention to theways inwhich social reproductiondependson
the
actsofindividuals,itprovidesabasisforunderstandingindividualactionthatgoesfarbeyondthepowertochoosefromasetofpreexistingalternatives.GiddensanddeCerteauare,ineffect,resurrectingandelaboratingFranzBoasprestructuralistattentiontoagency:Theactivitiesoftheindividualaredeterminedtoagreatextentbyhissocialenvironment,butinturnhisownactivitiesinfluencesthesocietyinwhichhelives,andmaybringaboutmodificationsinitsform(1940:285;seealsopp.591592).Thisformuladescribesareciprocalrelationshipbetweentheindividualandsocietyasa
32
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 163
fieldofpower.Inthiscontext,enculturationinvolvesnotonlytheprocessbywhichchildrenadaptthemselvestoandadoptthevalues,outlook,andbehavioralnormsofadults.Italsoinvolvestheprocessbywhichchildrencome
tomaster the resources their societymakes available to them
foractingcreatively.AsBoasowncareerasacitizen-scientistsuggests,hewasnotmerelyconcernedthatanthropologypayequalattentiontoindividualsas
to social forms. Boas understood that fully socialized people
reflectcritically on, and act creativelywithin, their society. I
can think of
nobetterstartingpointforathoroughlyanthropologicalpoliticalecology.
PHOTO CREDITS
DebraPicchi:Figures1,10.WilliamFisher:Figures2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,11,12,13.
NOTES
Acknowledgments:IamgratefulforthecommentsandsuggestionsofanumberofcolleaguesasIwasworkingonthisarticle:MichelAlexiades,ClaireCesareo,KirkDombrowski,AnnCorinneFreter-Abrams,Brad
Jokisch,ChrisKyle,MatthewLauer,LdaLeitoMartins,DanielaPeluso,PaulRobbins,andAngelaTorresan.I
also wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of two anonymous
Tipitreferees.
1.TheuseofthewordIndianstorefertopeoplewhomostdefinitelyarenotfromIndiaisoneofthemostwell-knownmistakesintheWesternhemisphere,andforsomethismaybereasonenoughtoabandontheword.OnereasonIuseitispreciselybecauseitisamistakenotjusttheresultofamistake,butamistakeeverytimeitisused,becauseitistherebyanexampleofthearbitrarinessofthesignbeyondperfection.Idonotconsiderthispointcleverortrivial;followingEricWolf,Ibelievethatthestartingpointofgoodsocialscienceistotakeseriously,andresist,thethreattoturnnamesintothings(1982:3).IsaythatIndianisanexamplebeyondperfectionbecauseitisandatthesametimeisnotarbitrary,foritwasonlyataparticulartimeinhistorythatpeopleborninwhataretodaycalledtheAmericascouldhavebeengiventhenameIndians.Thewordthussignifiesthefracturedandmisguidedlogicoftheconqueror,whohasthepowertomakesuchmistakesandgetawaywiththem.Towardtheendofhismagnum
opus,WolfarguesthatthewordIndianstandsfortheconqueredpopulationsoftheNewWorld,indisregardofanyculturalorphysicaldifferencesamongnativeAmericans(1982:380).Thus,thewordIndiansignifiesnotagroupofpeoplebutaparticularhistorical
relationship involvingmanypeoples.There isa risk
33
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
164 Steven L. Rubenstein
thatwordslikeIndian,whichsignalasubordinatepositioninsociety,becomepejorative.Perhapsforthisreason,FisherwhennotreferringspecificallytotheXikrinusesthewordindigenous(althoughotherauthorscitedinthisarticle,likeTaussigandPicchi,useIndian.)AlthoughIusethiswordaswell,IdosowithcautionbecauseIdonotclaimthatmyargumentsnecessarilyapplytoallindigenouspeoples.Nevertheless,IusethewordIndianratherthanindigenousAmazonianbecauseIbelieveitistherelationshipbetweenIndiansanddominantelementsofsociety(whetherwhitesorthestate)thatistheproblem,andnottheword
itself.OfcourseIagreewithMichaelHarnerspoint thatacademictaxonomic
idealsmust take secondplacewhen they interferewith the
rightfulaspirationsofoppressedpeoples (1984: xiii-xiv). Admittedly,
a third reason
Iusethewordisoutofhabit,developedbecausethepeoplewithwhomIwork,theShuar,useit(thatis,itsSpanishequivalent,Indio).
2. Although many people use postmodernism and
poststructuralisminterchangeably,Iconsiderthemdistinct(and,asIarguebelow,thedistinctionisimportantforpoliticalecologists).BypoststructuralismImeananacademicmovement
associated primarily with Michel Foucault (1970), Gilles
Deleuze(DeleuzeandGuattari1983),JacquesDerrida(1974),andBrunoLatour(1993),who,
although antagonistic aboutmany issues, are united in their
rejection ofstructuralism and in their ambivalence towards the
Enlightenment project(having rejected its faith in
progress,whilemaintaining its critical spirit).
BypostmodernismImeanamovementbasedinartandarchitecture,andinacademiaprimarilyassociatedwithJean-FranoisLyotard(1984),whichischaracterizedbya
celebrationof theendof theEnlightenmentproject.
Bothpoststructuralistsand postmodernists reject humanism,
positivism, and the
grand-narrativesthathavedominatedWesternthought,butfordifferentreasonsandindifferentways.Interestingly,bothfindsomeinspirationfromindigenousAmazoniansfor
Derrida, the Nambikwara, for Latour, the Achuar, and for Lyotard,
theCashinahua. 3.
SeeOrlove1980,Kottak1999,andBiersack1999forvarioushistoriesof
ecological anthropology. These histories argue that ecological
approacheshave progressed through distinct stages, including
neofunctionalist
andneoevolutionist.AsChrisKylehasobserved(personalcommunication),theseaccountstypicallyservetojustifytheirauthorscurrentprojectratherthantoshedlighton
thehistoricalprocesses thathave ledanthropologists to
raisedifferentquestions indifferent terms. Iwould add that these
accountsmayalso
reflectthedistancebetweenthecontextinwhichearlierworkswereoriginallywritten,andthecontextinwhichtheywerelaterread.Isuspectthatagoodgenealogyofecologicalapproachesinanthropologywillrevealmoreaboutchangesintheway
anthropologists talk about anthropology than about changes in the
wayanthropologiststalkabouttheenvironmentorculture. 4. The notion
of a human ecology seems to have been discussed firstby sociologist
EdwardHayes and geographer J. PaulGood in the early
yearsofthetwentiethcentury(Gross2004:583).Attemptstoengagesociologyandgeographycontinuedthroughthe1920s,ledbysociologistRobertE.Park(whoseappreciationofgeographyechoedthatofFranzBoas(e.g.,Boas1940:639647;see
34
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 165
Gross2004:593494),andHarlanBarrows(1923),who,inhis1922PresidentialAddresstotheAmericanAssociationofGeographers,elaboratedontheideaofhumanecologyasawayofunderstandinghowhumansrespond,adaptto,andshapetheirenvironment.Nevertheless,asgeographyandsociologydepartmentscompeted
for resources, geographers resisted anything thatmight threaten
theboundaries of their discipline (Gross 2004:595596).
Consequently,
humanecologywithingeographydidnotemergeuntilthe1960s.ItwasnotuntilJulianStewards
pioneeringwork in the1930s that anthropologists began
todevelopcultural ecology, their equivalent ofwhatPark andBarrow
each referred to
ashumanecology.Today,bothhumanecologyandculturalecologyareimportantapproachestoresearch,servingasframeworksforanalysisinbothgeographyandanthropology,despite
the fact thatgeographers andanthropologists
sometimesusethesetermsinstrikinglydifferentways. 5. Both Schmink
andWood (1987) and Sheridan (1988) argue that ahybrid of cultural
ecology and political economy is necessary for the study
ofnaturalresourcecontrolinsuchhybridsituationsasthoseofpeoplewhostraddleboth
subsistence and capitalist economies. For Schmink andWood,
politicalecologyisnecessaryforthestudyofthefrontierbetweensubsistenceandcapitalistsocieties.ForSheridan,itisnecessaryforthestudyofpeasants,whorelylargelyonsubsistenceproductionbutexistwithinandarepartofcapitalistsocieties.
6. Although less frequently cited, other uses of political ecology
thatpredateSchminkandWood(1987)andSheridan(1988)include:Boehm1978;Brumfiel1983;McCay1981,1984;Morgan1987;Salwasser1987;Simberloff1987;andVoget1963.
Voget(1963:235)definespoliticalecologyintermsofinterrelationsamongpolities(i.e.,societies.SeealsoBoehm1978:266).Brumfiel(1983:266)definespoliticalecologyasaconcernforhowecologicalvariablespresentobstaclesandopportunities
to individuals pursuing their political goals in various
structuralcontexts. Salwasser (1987) and Simberloff (1987)
understand it as
researchthatcaninformpolicydebatesconcerningnaturalresourcemanagementandthepreservationofbioticdiversity.Thesethreedistinctdefinitionscontinuetomarktheparametersofmuchcurrentresearchidentifiedaspoliticalecology.
When the Journal of Political Ecology was launched in 1994, the
editorscharacterizedtheiremergentfieldasdedicatedtoanincreasedunderstandingoftheinteractionbetweenpoliticalandenvironmentalvariablesbroadlyconceived(Greenberg
and Park 1994:8). Similarly, Schmink andWood define
politicalecology as the study of the relationship between the
natural environmentand socioeconomic behavior (1987:38). More
specifically, they examine theclash between socioeconomic systems
at different scales and their effect onthe environment, with an eye
towards addressing environmental policy
issues,especiallyintermsofclassconflict(ratherthanaMalthusiandynamic).
7. At the time of the Industrial Revolution, political economy
meantthe study of the conditions that determine the wealth or
poverty of
polities.AnthropologicalpoliticaleconomyhasitsoriginsinresearchbyEricWolf(1956)andSidneyMintz
(1956) that called attention to structural inequalities in
therelationsofproduction(i.e.,class)andtheinternationalmarket(i.e.,dependency).
35
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
166 Steven L. Rubenstein
Atfirst,anthropologistsconcernedwiththerelationshipbetween
localculturesandlargereconomicsystems(e.g.Wolf1955;Wike1958)usedpoliticaleconomytorefertoaspecificbranchorconcernofeconomics.Later,theyusedthephraseto
signal their engagement with Andre Gunder Frank (1967) and
ImmanuelWallerstein(1974),whoarguedthatcapitalismisaglobalphenomenon,thatitstructurestheworldintounequalparts,andthattheeconomicgrowthofonepartisunderwrittenbytheexploitationofanotherpart.Jorgensen(1971)wasoneofthefirstanthropologiststousepoliticaleconomy(albeitinpassing)torefertometropole-satelliterelations.In1978,aspecialissue5(3)ofAmerican
Ethnologistwasdevotedtopoliticaleconomy,signalingitsestablishmentasaclearlydefinedareaofresearch.ThetermwasfirstpromotedbyWolf
sstudentsJaneandPeterSchneider(1976). 8.
SeeChapin2004,andShellenbergerandNordhaus2004forargumentsfromwithintheenvironmentalistmovementthatthesocioeconomic,orpolitical,andtheenvironmentshouldnotbetreatedasindependentvariables.
9. That conquest and colonialism has radically altered the
Amazonianecosystem does not necessarily mean that the preconquest
ecosystem
wasunchanging.Unfortunately,thereisnoroominthisreviewforaconsiderationof
the tremendous importanceofhistoricalecology to
theprojectofpoliticalecology(seeCronon1984,1996;Denevan1992;andBale1994).
10.
InthisFisherisperhapsasindebtedtoSahlins(1989)asheistoWolf(1982).
11.Thissenseofpassivitymaysteminpartfromaconflationofbiologicaland
cultural evolution. In its original formulation, theDarwinianmodel
wasunconcernedwiththemechanismsthatgeneratevariation,andwasunconcernedwiththeforcesthatshapethenaturalenvironment(tobestudiedbygeologistsandphysical
geographers). Darwins radical pointwas to call attention to
therelationship between variation within a species and its natural
environment.FollowingthemodernsynthesisofDarwiniannaturalselectionwithMendeliangenetics,somehavepursuedthislackofconcernforindividualintentionalityandfor
the forces that shape theenvironment toanextreme
(e.g.,Dawkins1990).Recently, however, other evolutionary scientists
have been exploring
modelsthatrecognizeintentionalandactiveadaptationsonthepartofindividuals.Forexample,ChristopherBoehm(1978:266)paysattentiontorationalpreselection,meaningpurposivebehaviors,includingbothindividualandcollectivedecision-makingprocessesthatanticipatecomplexevolutionaryproblemsinmodelsofhumanevolution.
12.
IusethistermdifferentlyfromPicchi,whoidentifiespostmodernismwiththeclaimthatallknowledgeisaproductofinterpretation,coloredbysuchfactors
as personal experience, culture, and political interpretation
(2000:18).Attention to subjectivity and interpretation are neither
recent nor strictlypostmodern.
Theyaremoreproperlytheconcernsofhermeneuticstheorists,mainly those
influenced byWilhelm Dilthy, such as Gadamer (1986),
thoseinfluencedbySigmundFreud,suchasVictorTurner(1967,1973;seeOring1993),andthoseinfluencedbyMaxWeber,suchasGeertz(1973).Postmodernismanditsacademiccousinpoststructuralismare,incontrast,characterizedbyaradical
36
Tipit: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland
South America, Vol. 2 [2004], Iss. 2, Art. 2
http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss2/2
-
Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia 167
critiqueofsubjectivity. 13. According toWallerstein, core and
periphery exist in a reciprocalrelationship between two places (or
polities). The former consists of placesor polities that produce
high-wage, capital-intensive, andhigh profit goods
toexchangeforlow-wage,noncapital-intensive,andlowprofitgoodsproducedbythelatter(1974:351).Manysocialscientistshaveusedotherwordstoexpressthisbinary,forexample,metropole/satellite(Frank1969);articulated/disarticulatedeconomies(deJanvry1981);productive/extractiveeconomies(Bunker1985);andexpandedproduction/simplereproductioneconomies(SchminkandWood1987).
14. See Demeritt 1994a, 1994b, 1998; Jarosz 1993; Nesbitt
andWeiner2001;Robbins2001a,2001b;StottandSullivan2000;andWillems-Braun1997for
poststructuralist political ecology case studies by geographers. In
general,poststructuralist geographers are especially concerned with
deconstructingnotionsofnature,whereaspoststructuralistanthropologistsaremoreconcernedwithdeconstructing
specificethnic identitiesornotionsof cultureandculturaldifference.
15.
ThisisnottoconflateDerridaandLatour.Theveryvaguenessofthetermpoststructuralism
signals that theonly thing its
practitionersnecessarilyhaveincommonistheirrejectionofstructuralism.WhereasDerridahasgenerallyrestrictedhimselftotheanalysisofdiscursivepractices,especiallywrittentexts,Latourhasarguedfortheclosestudyofnetworksthatlinkpeople,objects,andideas,andhaswrittenandencouragedgrounded,empiricalethnographicresearch(e.g.,LatourandWoolgar1986).
16. One of the best examples of an ethnographic engagementwith
bothpolitical economy and poststructuralism is James Ferguson
(1994). I believethat thisbook, togetherwithFishers,provideamodel
for futureethnographicstudies. 17.
AccordingtoMarx(1967:6566)itwasonlywhenlaboritselfbecameacommoditythatpeoplecouldseethatlaboristhesourceofallvalues(i.e.,thelabortheoryofvalue).Inasimilar,althoughperhapsinvertedmove,poststructuralistsarguethatonlynowcanweseethatknowledgeitself,andinallitsforms(includingknowledgeofthesubjectandtheknowingsubject),isaneffectofpower.
18.
SeeFerguson(1994)andLittle(2001)forpartial,butexemplary,attemptstoaddresssuchquestions.
19. Foranexampleof codeddesire inAmazonia, seeGow1989.
ForanexampleofdecodeddesireinAmazonia,seeRubenstein2004. 20. Murphy
andMurphy (1985) anticipate such an approach, but,
asidefromBrianFergusons(1995)reevaluationofYanomamicultureandhistory,theirexamplehasnotbeenwidelyfollowed.
21.
SeeNadasdy(1999)forasimilaranalysis,aswellasforacalltoacknowledgeandanalyzethepoliticalfieldinwhichNativeAmericans,conservationecologists,andothersattempttointegratetraditionalandscientificecologicalknowledge.Hunnetal.dismissNadasdyasapostmodernistwhoadvocatesanextremerelativistpositionthatindigenousknowledgeisincommensurablewithscientificknowledge
(2003:s7980). In fact,Nadasdys argument does not concern the
37
Rubenstein: Steps to a Political Ecology of Amazonia
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004
-
168 Steven L. Rubenstein
incommensurablenessofdifferentkindsofknowledge,but rather theway
thatdebates over the incommensurablenessor integrationof different
kinds ofknowledgemask apolitical conflict between state control and
local, aboriginalcontrol, over the management of natural resources.
As Cruikshank
observes,Hunnet.al.exemplifythelimitationsofaculturalecologyentirelydivorcedfrompoliticalecology(2003:s96).SeeCruikshank2001foranothergoodexampleofapoliticalecologyapproachtotherelationshipbetweenlocalandscientificformsofknowledge,andAgrawal(1995)forasophisticatedepistemologicalcritiqueofthetraditionalversusscientificbinary.
22.
Ifpracticetheoriesseemalsotoprivilegeindividualactors,thatisonlybecauseanthropologistsdevelopedsuchtheoriesinordertochallengeandescapethe
structural determinism of Durkheimian sociology (brought into
BritishanthropologybyRadcliffe-Brown;intoFrenchanthropologybyLvi-Strauss;andintoAmericananthropologybyTalcottParsons.AsOrtner[1984:146]observes,whenParsonswroteofactionhewasreferringtotheen-actmentofrulesandnorms).Practicetheorydoesnotrejecttheimportanceofsocialstructure;insteaditcallsatte