New Territorialities and Collective Ethnic Identities in the Brazilian Amazon Frontier, Rondonia State: Surui Paiter, Arara, and Gavião Indigenous Communities’ Land Claims and Alternative Cultural Landscapes

Author(s):  
José Antônio Souza de Deus
Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 206
Author(s):  
Pamela Carolina Köster ◽  
Antonio F. Malheiros ◽  
Jeffrey J. Shaw ◽  
Sooria Balasegaram ◽  
Alexander Prendergast ◽  
...  

Little information is available on the occurrence and genetic variability of the diarrhoea-causing enteric protozoan parasite Giardia duodenalis in indigenous communities in Brazil. This cross-sectional epidemiological survey describes the frequency, genotypes, and risk associations for this pathogen in Tapirapé people (Brazilian Amazon) at four sampling campaigns during 2008–2009. Microscopy was used as a screening test, and molecular (PCR and Sanger sequencing) assays targeting the small subunit ribosomal RNA, the glutamate dehydrogenase, the beta-giardin, and the triosephosphate isomerase genes as confirmatory/genotyping methods. Associations between G. duodenalis and sociodemographic and clinical variables were investigated using Chi-squared test and univariable/multivariable logistic regression models. Overall, 574 individuals belonging to six tribes participated in the study, with G. duodenalis prevalence rates varying from 13.5–21.7%. The infection was positively linked to younger age and tribe. Infected children <15 years old reported more frequent gastrointestinal symptoms compared to adults. Assemblage B accounted for three out of four G. duodenalis infections and showed a high genetic diversity. No association between assemblage and age or occurrence of diarrhoea was demonstrated. These data indicate that the most likely source of infection was anthropic and that different pathways (e.g., drinking water) may be involved in the transmission of the parasite.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Brenden Shirley

<p>Museum archaeology is a subject that has received little attention from local academics and museum professionals. This is despite the fact that it continues to be perceived as a foreign subject that most New Zealanders find difficult to relate to. This dissertation takes an exploratory approach in understanding what has to be considered in future efforts to connect museums and their wider communities with archaeology. Rather than reiterating what the literature has previously confirmed, this research examines the perspective of archaeological interpreters, namely museum and heritage professionals. This provides an avenue for examining how archaeological content is perceived by museums, how this can be conveyed to the public and its potential benefits and limitations.  This research was developed around a qualitative methodology that collated data from interviews with practitioners from a range of backgrounds: archaeologists, museum curators, heritage site mangers and Maori studies. An examination of some of the educational programs and resources currently provided by New Zealand museums and heritage sites was undertaken to recognise opportunities already established. A critical observation of exhibition practice provided additional insight into the physical context of archaeological interpretation and display methods.  Key findings from this research found that many of the issues and opportunities are interrelated and not always exclusive to archaeology. Museums are continuing to move away from specialised curation and instead, favouring the development of multidisciplinary, thematic narratives. As a result, they now rely on the support of outside institutions and consultants to provide this perspective. The dissertation concludes by arguing for a multidisciplinary framework where subjects like archaeology recognise the museum’s potential as a hub for providing relatable experiences across the various disciplinary perspectives available and as an opportunity to promote and the wider exploration of cultural landscapes in their region. This research makes a contribution to the academic analysis of museum and archaeology in New Zealand by encouraging a more inclusive dialogue around the role museums can play in the future of public archaeology. Engagement within the wider heritage and indigenous communities is required to establish a greater level of cultural agency and awareness for these issues and allows for further involvement in site management and cultural interpretations This can ultimately produce a more personal connection and understanding of archaeology in general.</p>


Author(s):  
Paulo Cesar Basta ◽  
Paulo Victor de Sousa Viana ◽  
Ana Claudia Santiago de Vasconcellos ◽  
André Reynaldo Santos Périssé ◽  
Cristina Barroso Hofer ◽  
...  

The Amazonian indigenous peoples depend on natural resources to live, but human activities’ growing impacts threaten their health and livelihoods. Our objectives were to present the principal results of an integrated and multidisciplinary analysis of the health parameters and assess the mercury (Hg) exposure levels in indigenous populations in the Brazilian Amazon. We carried out a cross-sectional study based on a census of three Munduruku indigenous villages (Sawré Muybu, Poxo Muybu, and Sawré Aboy), located in the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Land, between 29 October and 9 November 2019. The investigation included: (i) sociodemographic characterization of the participants; (ii) health assessment; (iii) genetic polymorphism analysis; (iv) hair mercury determination; and (v) fish mercury determination. We used the logistic regression model with conditional Prevalence Ratio (PR), with the respective 95% confidence intervals (CI95%) to explore factors associated with mercury exposure levels ≥6.0 µg/g. A total of 200 participants were interviewed. Mercury levels (197 hair samples) ranged from 1.4 to 23.9 μg/g, with significant differences between the villages (Kruskal–Wallis test: 19.9; p-value < 0.001). On average, the general prevalence of Hg exposure ≥ 6.0 µg/g was 57.9%. For participants ≥12 years old, the Hg exposure ≥6.0 µg/g showed associated with no regular income (PR: 1.3; CI95%: 1.0–1.8), high blood pressure (PR: 1.6; CI95%: 1.3–2.1) and was more prominent in Sawré Aboy village (PR: 1.8; CI95%: 1.3–2.3). For women of childbearing age, the Hg exposure ≥6.0 µg/g was associated with high blood pressure (PR: 1.9; CI95%: 1.2–2.3), with pregnancy (PR: 1.5; CI95%: 1.0–2.1) and was more prominent among residents in Poxo Muybu (PR: 1.9; CI95%: 1.0–3.4) and Sawré Aboy (PR: 2.5; CI95%: 1.4–4.4) villages. Our findings suggest that chronic mercury exposure causes harmful effects to the studied indigenous communities, especially considering vulnerable groups of the population, such as women of childbearing age. Lastly, we propose to stop the illegal mining in these areas and develop a risk management plan that aims to ensure the health, livelihoods, and human rights of the indigenous people from Amazon Basin.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
William K. Carroll

With the highest per capita carbon emissions among the G20, Canada presents the interesting case of a climate laggard and, in some respects, a first-world petro-state. In these circumstances, a regime of obstruction, with a distinctive political-economic architecture, has taken shape. This regime is constituted through modalities of power that protect revenue streams issuing from carbon extraction, processing and transport while bolstering popular support for an accumulation strategy in which fossil capital figures as a leading fraction.   It incorporates a panoply of hegemonic practices at different scales, reaching into civil and political society, and into Indigenous communities whose land claims and worldviews challenge state mandated property rights. This article first highlights findings from a seven-year collaborative investigation of the modalities through which fossil capital’s economic and political-cultural power is exercised at different scales; then outlines how the passive-revolutionary project of ‘climate capitalism’ is taking shape in the Canadian context as a response to climate crisis; and finally considers how a project of energy democracy might hold the potential to catalyze the formation of an alternative historical bloc.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Laura Zanotti

One key strand of political ecology inquiry draws attention to different scalar aspects of territorial control and environmental governance, especially as they relate to inequity, power, and marginality in the rural South. Simultaneously, in the past several decades scholars have argued for a more meaningful engagement with space and place, as global forces of capitalism and geographies of difference make and unmake places in surprising and often violent ways. In this article, I interweave political ecology and anthropology of space and place approaches to territorial practices in the Brazilian Amazon to demonstrate how multiscalar politics of territorial retention and use are layered alongside local, spatial practices. In the Brazilian Amazon, indigenous rights are closely linked to the territorial demarcation and protection of federally defined Indigenous Lands. To that end, a general pattern has been observed across Amazonia that colonization and state-making agendas regarding territorial control have coincided to an increased sedentism of indigenous peoples. This narrative elides the present and ongoing importance local ideas about territories and place have for indigenous communities. Ethnographic data from research with the Kayapó, an indigenous group in Brazil, is presented to draw attention to the complexities of the local responses to the past several decades of change that have resulted in a federally defined territorial homeland and shifting spatial practices within those lands. The Kayapó response is a particularly well-suited case study for this type of analysis, as the tribe is known ethnographically for their fissioning and trekking patterns. I show that movement, mobility, and travel still figure into everyday practices in meaningful ways. While far from homogenous, movement through the landscape is part of responding to current demands to their ways of life. I also argue that travel also affirms the Kayapó notions of knowing (kukradjà), beauty (mê), and strength (tycht).Keywords: political ecology, Amazonia, travel, territoriality, space and place


Economics ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 228-246
Author(s):  
Raul Gouvea

This article elaborates on the diverse entrepreneurial activities of indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon region. This article argues that further sustainability of the Brazilian Amazonian region is intrinsically linked to the entrepreneurial activities by indigenous communities in the Amazon region. Amazonian indigenous communities are under increasing economic and social pressure. Fostering sustainable indigenous entrepreneurship in these disadvantaged indigenous communities has the potential to improve indigenous communities, economic and social welfare, preserve their culture, customs, and traditional knowledge, in addition to the rebuilding of these communities. Thus, engagement of indigenous communities in sustainable activities further protects the local natural capital. The article also proposes the creation of a center for indigenous entrepreneurship in the Amazon region aiming at supporting and fostering indigenous entrepreneurship.


2021 ◽  
pp. e2020004
Author(s):  
Krishna Pendakur ◽  
Ravi Pendakur

In Canada, self-government agreements, comprehensive land claims agreements, and opt-in arrangements allow Indigenous groups to govern their internal affairs and assume greater responsibility and control over the decision-making that affects their communities. We use difference-in-difference models to measure the impact of such agreements on average income and income inequality in Indigenous communities at the community level. In comparison with earlier work, we additionally use data from the 2016 Census. Our results suggest that comprehensive land claims agreements increase community-level average (log) household incomes by more than C$10 thousand (0.25 log points). Attainment of other agreement types does not increase community-level average incomes. Communities that attain a self-government agreement or an opt-in arrangement related to land management see a decrease in the Gini coefficient for income inequality by 2.0 to 3.5 percentage points. Standalone comprehensive land claims agreements are associated with a smaller decrease of 1.2 percentage points. We also study intergroup inequality and find that an opt-in arrangement increases within-community income disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous households.


Author(s):  
Kirsty Gover

Indigenous rights are now a core part of the constitutional frameworks of the western settler states, including Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The recognition of specific group rights for indigenous peoples raises complex challenges for the political and legal theory of the liberal democracies. Notwithstanding the significant constitutional and historical differences between these three states, in the past several decades, all have embarked on processes of land claims settlement and official recognition of indigenous peoples. The resulting arrangements are designed to protect the distinctive identities of indigenous peoples, to give effect to historic agreements, and to restore indigenous rights to property, territory, and self-governance. Legal mechanisms include those giving effect to common-law aboriginal title rights, cultural rights and exemptions, self-governance rights, special representation rights, and nondiscrimination rights. In Canada and New Zealand, but not Australia, some indigenous rights are premised on historic treaties. Recognized indigenous rights are expressed in various provisions of public legislation (including, in Canada, the Constitution Act), in indigenous-state agreements on land claims and self-governance, in formal and informal agreements on local governance, and in official apologies. Literature on indigenous rights includes a small but important body of political theory exploring and critiquing the application of theories of cultural pluralism, a large field of secondary legal literature on country-specific arrangements, comparative work considering matters of transnational application in the western settler states, and a sizable body of work on anthropological and cultural theories of indigeneity. This bibliography is intended to provide a sample of commentary to guide researchers in forays into the rapidly developing field of indigenous rights and indigenous governance. There is a vast and growing body of commentary on the legal and political status of indigenous communities in the western settler states. This collection cannot hope to be comprehensive. The emphasis of this selection is on secondary legal sources and analysis and does not include reference to cases or legislation. Wherever possible, comparative works have been included, to show the development of transnational law and policy on indigenous peoples and the sharing of concepts across legal jurisdictions. Likewise, the bibliography has been designed to emphasize works on indigenous laws and institutions, and commentary by indigenous commentators.


Author(s):  
Samantha Craig-Curnow

This article explores the political, economic, and social effects of Specific Land Claims on Indigenous communities. It uses the example of the Chippewas Tri-Council, with a focus on the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, to argue that Specific Land Claims in Canada, despite minor benefits to communities (these benefits being almost always limited to economic benefits), are ultimately part of a process created by a colonial government which contributes to continued colonization of Indigenous communities.


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