e-Book A Future for Amazonia: Randy Borman and Cofán Environmental Politics download

by Michael Cepek

ISBN: 0292739508
ISBN13: 978-0292739505
Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press (November 15, 2012)
Pages: 272
Category: Americas
Subategory: History

Blending ethnography with a fascinating personal story, A Future for Amazonia is an account of a political movement that arose in the early 1990s in response to decades of attacks on the lands and peoples of eastern Ecuador, one of the world's most culturally and biologically diverse places. After generations of ruin at the hands of colonizing farmers, transnational oil companies, and Colombian armed factions, the indigenous Cofán people and their rain forest territory faced imminent jeopardy. In a surprising turn of events, the Cofán chose Randy Borman, a man of Euro-American descent, to lead their efforts to overcome the crisis that confronted them.

Drawing on three years of ethnographic research, A Future for Amazonia begins by tracing the contours of Cofán society and Borman's place within it. Borman, a blue-eyed, white-skinned child of North American missionary-linguists, was raised in a Cofán community and gradually came to share the identity of his adoptive nation. He became a global media phenomenon and forged creative partnerships between Cofán communities, conservationist organizations, Western scientists, and the Ecuadorian state. The result was a collective mobilization that transformed the Cofán nation in unprecedented ways, providing them with political power, scientific expertise, and a new role as ambitious caretakers of more than one million acres of forest. Challenging simplistic notions of identity, indigeneity, and inevitable ecological destruction, A Future for Amazonia charts an inspiring course for environmental politics in the twenty-first century.

Naril

Well written and fascinating story about the struggle to preserve an endangered culture.

Jonide

Overall it was a good book. Cepek wrote too much on so many things. He kept re-telling the same story. It was very descriptive though. He seemed to be very concerned with accuracy reliability of his findings. This story was great, and how he tied in Borman's little analogies with theory made it rather interesting.

Lamranilv

Great for an intoductory anthropology course

Truthcliff

Good edition, fine handling of order.

Datrim

ugh I had to read the entire book...I am illiterate :(

mr.Mine

This book is so strong because it weds deep ethnographic analysis to questions of political mobilization, conservation environmental politics, and resource extraction (all of which are often not thought of as "cultural" even though, of course, they are). Because this is a book that is so attuned to Cofan indigenous logics and forms and practices of meaning, it renders the question of "what does it mean to create an NGO? What does it mean to "conserve nature?" much more complex and thick than is often the case in other ethnographies of environmental politics. It is also supremely clear in its writing and ethical in its goals - to produce a hopeful account of environmental politics in the age of ecological disaster. I recommend it very highly, also for teaching on an undergraduate level!