The Violent Aporia of Postcolonial Public Life: Environmental Politics and Indigenous Self-determination in the Amazon
Indigenous communities’ participation in environmental politics of dam projects in the Brazilian Amazon is marked by an ambivalent effect. On one hand, there is the local political economy regulated by traditional systems; on the other hand, there is the global political procedure addressed to ‘empo...
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| Language: | English |
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Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra
2015-06-01
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| Series: | e-cadernos ces |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/eces/1906 |
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| author | Rafael Costa |
| author_facet | Rafael Costa |
| author_sort | Rafael Costa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Indigenous communities’ participation in environmental politics of dam projects in the Brazilian Amazon is marked by an ambivalent effect. On one hand, there is the local political economy regulated by traditional systems; on the other hand, there is the global political procedure addressed to ‘empower’ indigenous institutions in their interactions with corporate and governmental actors. Yet, when this second juridical instance is dominated by suspicion, due not only to the lack of execution of environmental compensating measures, but mainly to the lack of space where indigenous principles could be taken into account, official political systems are frequently undermined by local forms of representation, personified in the image of the ‘indigenous warrior’. This article seeks to reveal how the enactment of the warrior in Brazilian public life ends up redefining ethnic agency, not as a remaining cultural trait of a particular symbolic economy, but as crime. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7b91147ec4fa4e259af88902eb4a1cff |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1647-0737 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2015-06-01 |
| publisher | Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra |
| record_format | Article |
| series | e-cadernos ces |
| spelling | doaj-art-7b91147ec4fa4e259af88902eb4a1cff2025-08-20T02:22:02ZengCentro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbrae-cadernos ces1647-07372015-06-012310.4000/eces.1906The Violent Aporia of Postcolonial Public Life: Environmental Politics and Indigenous Self-determination in the AmazonRafael CostaIndigenous communities’ participation in environmental politics of dam projects in the Brazilian Amazon is marked by an ambivalent effect. On one hand, there is the local political economy regulated by traditional systems; on the other hand, there is the global political procedure addressed to ‘empower’ indigenous institutions in their interactions with corporate and governmental actors. Yet, when this second juridical instance is dominated by suspicion, due not only to the lack of execution of environmental compensating measures, but mainly to the lack of space where indigenous principles could be taken into account, official political systems are frequently undermined by local forms of representation, personified in the image of the ‘indigenous warrior’. This article seeks to reveal how the enactment of the warrior in Brazilian public life ends up redefining ethnic agency, not as a remaining cultural trait of a particular symbolic economy, but as crime.https://journals.openedition.org/eces/1906indigenous sovereigntyenvironmental politicsAmerindian warfaredevelopment and violence |
| spellingShingle | Rafael Costa The Violent Aporia of Postcolonial Public Life: Environmental Politics and Indigenous Self-determination in the Amazon e-cadernos ces indigenous sovereignty environmental politics Amerindian warfare development and violence |
| title | The Violent Aporia of Postcolonial Public Life: Environmental Politics and Indigenous Self-determination in the Amazon |
| title_full | The Violent Aporia of Postcolonial Public Life: Environmental Politics and Indigenous Self-determination in the Amazon |
| title_fullStr | The Violent Aporia of Postcolonial Public Life: Environmental Politics and Indigenous Self-determination in the Amazon |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Violent Aporia of Postcolonial Public Life: Environmental Politics and Indigenous Self-determination in the Amazon |
| title_short | The Violent Aporia of Postcolonial Public Life: Environmental Politics and Indigenous Self-determination in the Amazon |
| title_sort | violent aporia of postcolonial public life environmental politics and indigenous self determination in the amazon |
| topic | indigenous sovereignty environmental politics Amerindian warfare development and violence |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/eces/1906 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT rafaelcosta theviolentaporiaofpostcolonialpubliclifeenvironmentalpoliticsandindigenousselfdeterminationintheamazon AT rafaelcosta violentaporiaofpostcolonialpubliclifeenvironmentalpoliticsandindigenousselfdeterminationintheamazon |