Amazonian Caboclo Society: An Essay on Invisibility and Peasant Economy 0854967567, 9780854967568

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Amazonian Caboclo Society

EXPLORATIONS IN ANTHROPOLOGY A University College London Series

Series Editors: Barbara Bender, John Gledhill and Bruce Kapferer Joan Bestard-Camps, What's in aRelative? Household and Family in Formentera Henk Driessen, On the Spanish-Moroccan Frontier: A Study in Ritual, Power and Ethnicity

Alfred Gell, The Anthropology of Time: Cultural Construction ofTemporal Maps and Images Tim Ingold, David Riches and James Woodburn (eds), Hunters and

Gatherers

Volume 1. History, Evolution and Social Change Volume 2. Property, Power and Ideology Bruce Kapferer, A Celebration ofDemons (2nd edn) Guy Lanoue, Brothers: The Politics ofViolence among the Sekani ofNorthern British Columbia Jadran Mimica, Intimations ofInfinity: The Mythopoeia of the Iqwaye Counting System and Number Barry Morris, Domesticating Resistance: The Dhan-Gadi Aborigines and the Australian State

Thomas C. Patterson, The Inca Empire: The Formation and Disintegration of a Pre-Capitalist State Max and Eleanor Rimoldi, Hahalis and the Labour ofLove: A Social Movement on Buka Island Pnina Werbner, The Migration Process: Capital, Gifts and Offerings among Pakistanis in Britain FORTHCOMING:

Christopher Tilley (ed.), Interpretative Archaeology Barbara Bender (ed.), Landscape: Politics and Perspectives

Amazonian Caboclo Society An Essay on Invisibility and Peasant Economy

Stephen Nugent

BERG Providence/Oxford

First published 1993 by Berg Publishers Published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Stephen Nugent 1993 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN13: 978-0-8549-6756-8 (hbk)

Contents List of Figures

viii

List of Tables

ix

List of Maps

x

Maps

xi

Glossary

xv

Preface

xviii

Part I Caboclos Out of History

1. Introduction

3

The Specificity of an Historical Peasantry

8

2. Invisible Caboclos, Visible Nature The Concept of Caboclo Caboclo Society as an Anthropological Object

20

of Analysis The Construction of Invisibility I: The Nonequivalence of Amerindian and Caboclo Societies The Construction of Invisibility II: Invisible Peasants The Consequences of Invisibility hnages of the Other in Contemporary Amazonia: Caboclo and the Anthropological Other Pristine Amazonia and the Perfect Other Aspects of Caricature

3. Social System as a Function of Ecosystem: The Ecological Idiom in Amazonian Studies The Peasant Landscape and Modem Amazonia The Managed Ecosystem

23

26

29 32 34

40 43 45 56 60

71

vi

Contents Crocodile Tears: Modernization in Amazonia Brazil as Client-state The State as Broker The Social Object

74 77 78

89

Part II: Caboclos in History

4. Santarem and the 'Failure' of Transamaz6nica

The Modernization Landscape Peasants as a Default Category The Metaphors of Stagnation and Pathology The Boundaries of Santarem The People of Santarem A Sketch of Occupational Structure Local Society Versus International Culture Contingency and Permanence in Santareno Peasant Production The City as Wreckage Political Background The Church Facing the 0 Futuro

5. Exploring Santareno Identity: Kinship, Domestic

93 94

100 108 109

112 116 117 122 125

130 131 134

Groups and Social Organization

137

Kindreds

140

Case Studies of Kindreds Kindred Composition and the Transformation of 'Traditional' Society

171

6. Petty Commodity Production and Formal Subsumption: Caboclo Peasants

The Caboclo Complex Petty Commodity Production: The 'Immigrant' Nordestino Complex Formal Subsumption in the Absence of Real Subsumption The 1apanese Complex'

155

176 179 183 186 191

Contents

vii

7. Merchant Capital, Social Reproduction and Blockage Social Reproduction and the Petty Commodity Repertoire Locating Merchant Capital Merchant Capital, Social Reproduction and Use-values, Export of Surplus Value Merchant Capital and Subordination The Allocthanous Origins of Amazonian Peasantries

199 202 210

8. Maintaining the Image of Sustainable Development The Specificity of Arnazonianist Discourse Sustainability versus Social Reproduction Combti and Forest Management The Future of Sustainability in Amazonia

230 233 235 246

210 217 227

254

Bibliography

256

Index

275

List of Figures Figure 5.1 Tam's kindred Figure 5.2 Ze's kindred Figure 5.3 Joaquim's kindred (a) (b) Figure 5.4 Lindivaldo's kindred (a) (b) (c) Figure 5.5 Neighbourhood distribution of petty commodity producers Figure 8.1 Combu kin groups

viii

List of Tables Table 2.1 Brazilian and Southeast Asian rubber exports,

1827-1911 Table 3.1 Import contribution to US consumption Table 3.2 US dependence on imports of strategic minerals Table 4.1 Place of birth of immigrants in Santarem Table 4.2 Place of birth of Santarenos Table 4.3 Time of residence of immigrants in Santarem Table 4.4 Population of economic sector Table 4.5 Economic value of primary and secondary sectors,

1969 Table 4.6 Land use in Santarem

ix

List of Maps 1 Brazil 2 Amazonia

3 Santrem

4 Combu

x

.p-

RIO·Gronde do None

...._.

3 ......._ 6 SOf;iPO

e Eoi>frttoSonto

Rio do Jonoiro G-C.tarina

Mato

-.in' Diatr1ct .......'

(I

)

CENTf!E·SOUTH

L'

/

't-- ....... - -~ Sio PWJlo

/ ""--.. . ,

Pllfani \... "

t.lr\U Glrala

Lo.I

...

I

/ 6f

A.:

1,_~--:::7 I

l

-

500

Map 1 Brazil

xi

~:

Map 2 Amazonia

•',.

Venezuela

.. / :

Brasilia

·.

-

··:··..

- - - Planned Roads

- - Unaur1aced Roads

···..

500km

Joio

Transamazon Highway Network c. 1976 - - Asphalt Roads

xiii

Map4Combu

xiv

Glossary afaf: (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) palm fruit, important food source. aldeia: village; Indian section of colonial settlements. ambulante: itinerant rural trader. arig6: pejorative term used to describe immigrants from the North-east. aviamento: pyramid trading system established during the 'rubber period'.

bairro: neighbourhood. banco: market stall. boias-frias: day-wage agricultural workers recruited from urban sites. borracha: collected rubber. brazil nut: (Bertholletia excelsa Humb.); in the vernacular, castanha (do Para). bugre manso: tame wild man (Indian). caboclo: a term which refers to deculturated Indians, people of mixed ethnic ancestry, 'traditional' (i.e. pre-Transamazonica) Amazonian peasants.

cacau: (Theobroma cacao L.); cocoa. capoeira: secondary growth forest. pre-Transamazonica synonymous with 'fallow'.

crente: Protestant desenvolvimento: literally, 'development'; in Amazonian discourse,

refers generally to increased integration of region and state, and not infrequently, ironically. enchente: the annual (Jan.-July) flood of the Amazon River which submerges the varzeas, varying in onset, height and duration. Jarinha: meal; in Amazonia, in absence of a qualifier (e.g. 'maize' meal) refers to fried manioc. Jave/ado: urban squatter; despite the popular representation of favelados (and favelas - the squatter neighbourhoods) as marginal, they are a central feature of Brazilian urbanization. filho de criafiio: adopted/fostered child. fregues: customer, client. FUNAI: National Indian Foundation (federal agency). futuro: literally, 'the future'; in Amazonian discourse connotes optimistic assessment of effects of national integration. garimpeiro: gold-miner. GETAT: federal agency instituted to resolve land conflicts in Southern Para. xv

xvi

Glossary

hyleia: Amazonian humid tropical forest. INCRA: Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (federal agency).

mandioca: (Manihot esculenta Rodr.); manioc; the 'sweet' version is

macaxeira. The tubers provide farinha, tapioca, tucupi; the leaves may also be eaten (manisoba) and the stalks are used as cuttings. neo-Amazonian: either non-Indian Amazonian or post-Transamazonica colonist (i.e. contrasted with caboclo). nordestino: person from the Northeast region of Brazil. parentes: kin, family. patriio: boss. planalto: plateau. posseiro: squatter. quintal: yard in which perennials cultivated and ducks and chickens raised. ribeirinho: Amazonians whose livelihoods are largely riverine. rofa: small piece of cultivable land. RTU: Rubber Tappers' Union (Conselho Nacional do Seringueiros) seringa: rubber (hevea brasiliensis). seringueiro: rubber-tapper sitio: smallholding, farm; overlaps with second-home, weekend retreat. SUDAM: Superintendency for the Development of Amazonia (federal agency). taberna: small trading establishment. taipa: wattle and daub. terra firme: upland forest Transamazonica: main trunk of highway system begun in 1970 which bisects Brazilian Amazonia. umbanda: syncretic, spirit-possession belief system, part of range of Brazilian systems including candomble, macumba, batuque, I