Killick, Evan (2018) Rubber, terra preta and soy: a study of visible and invisible Amazonian modernities. Journal of Anthropological Research, 74 (1). pp. 32-53. ISSN 0091-7710

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Abstract

Amazonia in contemporary academic as well as public discourse is often placed in opposition to modernity, its peoples and environment represented as offering an alternative to modern ways of seeing and being in the world. Through a contemporary and historical consideration of the Brazilian Amazonian town of Belterra this paper questions such a perspective by emphasizing the complexity of local social and environmental realities as well as the form that outside, modern interventions have taken in the region. The identities of neo-Amazonian populations are also discussed, both in relation to their relative invisibility in anthropological theory and wider political narratives as well as the manner in which their indigeneity is now emerging in local contexts. Overall it is argued that paying attention to social and environmental complexity as well as the hybrid social and cultural forms of the region may offer hope for a shared social and environmental future.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Amazonia, Amerindian, Nature, Environment, Modernity
Schools and Departments:	School of Global Studies > International Development
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology > GN301 Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology
Depositing User:	Evan Killick
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2017 15:46
Last Modified:	03 Jul 2018 13:47
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/68724

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