The Pristine Myth and Its Consequences for Amazonian Forest Peoples: An Example From the Upper Iriri

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Located in the Xingu-Tapajós interfluve, the Terra do Meio is currently made up of a mosaic of protected areas and Indigenous reserves. This case study considers the relationship between the riverine traditional communities (who call themselves *beiradeiros) of the upper Iriri River and the Brazilian state, from the time when the area they inhabit since the late nineteenth century was decreed an Ecological Station—a modality of conservation unit that prohibits human occupation. Based on the “pristine myth”—the notion that the environment should be totally protected/preserved—these *beiradeiros have been pressured, at times violently, to leave the area. This paper will present recently acquired data, produced by work integrated through a historical ecological perspective, that relates to the the antiquity of human occupation of the *beiradeiro’s territory and the relationship between these “recent” inhabitants with an ecological infrastructure built by past occupants that its current occupants manage and promote.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33145