At the End of the Rainbow?: Gold, Land, and People in the Brazilian Amazon

by Gordon MacMillan

Overview

Throughout the 1980s, a combination of widespread poverty and favorable gold prices encouraged hoards of wildcat miners to penetrate some of the Amazon's rainforest headwaters in search of new deposits. Now, hundreds of makeshift camps threaten the future of both the rainforest and the indigenous people who inhabit it. This book explains how gold fever came to grip the Amazon and considers the changes it has brought to the region. It contains a vivid account of the violent clash between forty thousand miners and the Yanamami Indians in the state of Roraima, as well as thoroughly researched arguments that explore the perspectives of the farmers, ranchers, natives, and others involved in this historic moment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231103558
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	09/07/1995
Series:	Issues, Cases, and Methods in Biodiversity Conservation
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	199
Product dimensions:	0.51(w) x 5.50(h) x 8.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Editorial Reviews

Examines the causes and consequences of the Amazon gold rush in three sections: relevant background information, the impact the mining boom has on other Amazonian land uses, and conclusions of the study within a wider context. Most of the author's data comes from Roraima, Brazil's northernmost state, which emerged from obscurity in the late 1980s following an invasion of the Yanomami Indian Reserve by approximately 30,000 prospectors. B&w photographs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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