Human Impacts on Amazonia

by Posey, Darrell A.; Balick, Michael J.

• ISBN13: 9780231105897
• ISBN10: 0231105894
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780231517355
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-30
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr
• More Book Details
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Summary

From the pre-Columbian era to the present, native Amazonians have shaped the land around them, emphasizing utilization, conservation, and sustainability. These priorities stand in stark contrast to colonial and contemporary exploitation of Amazonia by outside interests. With essays from environmental scientists, botanists, and anthropologists, this volume explores the various effects of human development on Amazonia. The contributors argue that by protecting and drawing on local knowledge and values, further environmental ruin can be avoided.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Darrell Addison Posey
Coeditor's Note	xv
Michael J. Balick
Acknowledgments	xvii
Thoughts on the Future of Amazonia: The Region, Residents, Researchers, and Realities	1	(171)
Michael J. Balick
1. Romance and Reality: The First European Vision of Brazilian Indians	5	(12)
John Hemming
2. Constructing Tropical Nature	17	(16)
Nancy Leys Stepan
3. Demand for Two Classes of Traditional Agroecological Knowledge in Modern Amazonia	33	(18)
Charles R. Clement
4. Fire in Roraima, 1998—Politics and Human Impact: What Role for Indigenous People in Brazilian Amazonia?	51	(34)
Elizabeth Allen
5. The Cerrado of Brazilian Amazonia: A Much-Endangered Vegetation	85	(13)
James A. Ratter, J. Felipe Ribeiro, and Samuel Bridgewater
6. A Review of Amazonian Wetlands and Rivers: Valuable Environments Under Threat	98	(24)
Christopher Barrow
7. Fragility and Resilience of Amazonian Soils: Models from Indigenous Management	122	(24)
Peter A. Furley
8. Is Successful Development of Brazilian Amazonia Possible Without Knowledge of the Soil and Soil Response to Development?	146	(12)
Stephen Nortcliff
9. Fragile Soils and Deforestation Impacts: The Rationale for Environmental Services of Standing Forest as a Development Paradigm in Amazonia	158	(14)
Philip M. Fearnside
10. Concurrent Activities and Invisible Technologies: An Example of Timber Management in Amazonia	172	(9)
Christine Padoch and Miguel Pinedo-Vásquez
11. Institutional and Economic Issues in the Promotion of Commercial Forest Management in Amerindian Societies	181	(12)
Michael Richards
12. Collect or Cultivate—A Conundrum: Comparative Population Ecology of Ipecac (Carapichea ipecacuanha (Brot.) L. Andersson), a Neotropical Understory Herb	193	(17)
Jan Salick
13. Extractivism, Domestication, and Privatization of a Native Plant Resource: The Case of Jaborandi (Pilocarpus microphyllus Stapf ex Holmes) in Maranhão, Brazil	210	(12)
Claudio Urbano B. Pinheiro
14. Peasant Riverine Economies and Their Impact in the Lower Amazon	222	(16)
Mark Harris
15. Conservation, Economics, Traditional Knowledge, and the Yanomami: Implications and Benefits for Whom?	238	(10)
William Milliken
16. The Commodification of the Indian	248	(25)
Alcida Rita Ramos
17. Euphemism in the Forest: Ahistoricism and the Valorization of Indigenous Knowledge	273	(13)
Stephen Nugent
18. What's the Difference Between a Peace Corps Worker and an Anthropologist? A Millennium Rethink of Anthropological Fieldwork	286	(21)
Joanna Overing
19. Traditional Resource Use and Ethnoeconomics: Sustainable Characteristics of the Amerindian Lifestyles	307	(21)
Clóvis Cavalcanti
20. Enhancing Social Capital: Productive Conservation and Traditional Knowledge in the Brazilian Rain Forest	328	(17)
Anthony Hall
Appendix: Findings and Recommendations	345	(2)
List of Contributors	347	(2)
Index	349