Marianne Schmink

Jacqueline M. Vadjunec

Amazonia exists in our imagination as well as on the ground. It is a mysterious and powerful construct in our psyches yet shares multiple (trans)national borders and diverse ecological and cultural landscapes. It is often presented as a seemingly homogeneous place: a lush tropical jungle teeming with exotic wildlife and plant diversity, as well as the various indigenous populations that inhabit the region. Yet, since Conquest, Amazonia has been linked to the global market and, after a long and varied history of colonization and development projects, Amazonia is peopled by many distinct cultural groups who remain largely invisible to the outside world despite their increasing integration into global markets and global politics. Millions of rubber tappers, neo-native groups, peasants, river dwellers, and urban residents continue to shape and re-shape the cultural landscape as they adapt their livelihood practices and political strategies in response to changing markets and shifting linkages with political and economic actors at local, regional, national, and international levels. This book explores the diversity of changing identities and cultural landscapes emerging in different corners of this rapidly changing region. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Cultural Geography.

Emerging Identities and Landscapes

Amazonian Geographies

Marliz Arteaga Gómez-García

Despite the importance of forests for global processes and the tradition of forest management by local Amazonian peoples, there is not much available literature on gender and forests in the Amazon region. Yet gender roles and relationships are important components of key emerging forest-related issues, such as climate change and the differential risks and opportunities faced by women and men in different contexts. This paper reviews recent literature (in English, Spanish and Portuguese) that addresses gender and forests in Amazonia, focusing on: property rights in Amazonian territories and communities; diverse and changing gender relations; forest management programs; and womens participation in social movements and organizations. The review finds significant historical, sociocultural and material barriers to gender equity and to womens full participation in sustainable management of Amazonian forests, and a relative lack of focus on gender in forest management programs, despite promising examples. The most important finding was that, over the past two decades, women from different Amazonian social groups have become increasingly organized, enhancing their rights, levels of participation and empowerment. More research is needed to understand the variability of gender relations and rights in different Amazonian contexts, and how they are changing. Research is also needed to understand and support efforts to improve gender equity in rights to resources and income and participation in key community and societal decisions on the future of Amazonian forests and their peoples.

Gender and forests in Amazonia

Under the canopy

Charles H. Wood

An interdisciplinary analysis of the process of frontier change in one region of the Brazilian Amazon, the southern portion of the state of Pará.

Marianne Schmink

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