Amazonian Caboclo Society: An Essay on Invisibility and Peasant Economy

by Stephen Nugent

Overview

Amazonian Caboclo Society is concerned with peasant society in Brazilian Amazonia. Most anthropological work in Amazonia has focused on Indian groups, and caboclos (peasants of mixed ancestry) have generally been regarded as relics of the haphazard development of Amazonia and have received little serious attention. This volume aims to analyze the reasons for the relative 'invisibility' of caboclo society. It traces the development of caboclo societies and argues that much of the current discussion of 'sustainable development' fails to recognize the important legacy of historical caboclo society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367716776
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/31/2021
Series:	Explorations in Anthropology
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Stephen Nugent Lecturer in Anthropology,University of London

Table of 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 20

The Concept of Caboclo 23

Caboclo Society as an Anthropological Object of Analysis 26

The Construction of Invisibility I: The Non-equivalence of Amerindian and Caboclo Societies 29

The Construction of Invisibility II: Invisible Peasants 32

The Consequences of Invisibility 34

Images of the Other in Contemporary Amazonia; Caboclo and the Anthropological Other 40

Pristine Amazonia and the Perfect Other 43

Aspects of Caricature 45

3 Social System as a Function of Ecosystem: The Ecological Idiom in Amazonian Studies 56

The Peasant Landscape and Modern Amazonia 60

The Managed Ecosystem 71

Crocodile Tears: Modernization in Amazonia 74

Brazil as Client-state 77

The State as Broker 78

The Social Object 89

Part II Caboclos in History

4 Santarém and the 'Failure' of Transatnazônica 93

The Modernization Landscape 94

Peasants as a Default Category 100

The Metaphors of Stagnation and Pathology 108

The Boundaries of Santarém 109

The People of Santarém 112

A Sketch of Occupational Structure 116

Local Society Versus International Culture 117

Contingency and Permanence in Santareno Peasant Production 122

The City as Wreckage 125

Political Background 130

The Church 131

Facing the O Futuro 134

5 Exploring Santareno Identity: Kinship, Domestic Groups and Social Organization 137

Kindreds 140

Case Studies of Kindreds 155

Kindred Composition and the Transformation of 'Traditional' Society 171

6 Petty Commodity Production and Formal Subsumption: Caboclo Peasants 176

The Caboclo Complex 179

Petty Commodity Production: The 'Immigrant' Nordestino Complex 183

Formal Subsumption in the Absence of Real Subsumption 186

The 'Japanese Complex' 191

7 Merchant Capital, Social Reproduction and Blockage 199

Social Reproduction and the Petty Commodity Repertoire 202

Locating Merchant Capital 210

Merchant Capital, Social Reproduction and Use-values, Export of Surplus Value 210

Merchant Capital and Subordination 217

The Allocthanous Origins of Amazonian Peasantries 227

8 Maintaining the Image of Sustainable Development 230

The Specificity of Amazonianist Discourse 233

Sustainability versus Social Reproduction 235

Combú and Forest Management 246

The Future of Sustainability in Amazonia 254

Bibliography 256

Index 275

Editorial Reviews

Stephen Nugent's brilliant book explores the changing nature of the invisibility of Amazonian caboclo society...should be required reading for anyone interested in Amazonia, contemporary peasant formations, and debates surrounding development and under-development.” —American Anthropologist

“...always intelligent, often witty, and at times acerbic. Amazonianists will enjoy Nugent's trenchant, often unconventional, treatment of the accepted wisdom of diverse fields. Other anthropologists will appreciate his willingness to discuss Amazonian ethnography in the context of wider social theory.' MAN 'Nugent's book is undoubtedly an important contribution to the study of Amazonian peasant societies.” —Dan Rosengren, Goteborg University, Ethnos

From the Publisher