Fascination with the history of the South American rubber boom never wanes. Its innate dramatic quality, the extraordinary touches of the bizarre which spice its narrative, and the ironic blend of climax and catastrophe which distinguish almost every aspect of its development have all proved sufficient guarantee against oblivion. Drawn by the curiosity of circumstances such as these, travellers have since penetrated the region to see for themselves the remains of former prosperity, and to marvel upon the strangely assorted flotsam of that great economic bonanza still left littered along the banks by the boom's swiftly retreating tide. A journey along the South American ‘rubber rivers’ is likely to tempt even the most phlegmatic observer to philosophize upon the vagaries of fortune in general—and upon Amazonia's experiences in particular.

Few thinly populated regions of the world represent genuine frontiers of settlement. The tendency to describe almost any area of sparse population as a setdement 'frontier' is not uncommon, especially in studies of Latin America. What matters, however, is what is going on within such sparsely populated zones, or indeed within more densely populated zones which are in an active frontier stage.Frontiers of setdement may be rural or urban, planned or spontaneous. Whatever their origins and location, they are distinctive areas of new and recent setdement (or resettlement) which focus a high degree of social, economic, and political change relative to their surrounding areas. All true frontiers contain mobile units of developers, assortments of risk-takers who, as part of their other activities, and this is the crucial point, are continually creating new political linkages, and testing their effectiveness, in relation to the new environment. In such situations, nothing succeeds like frequent small success. The initial achievements are usually modest, but the skills and satisfactions derived from shared problem-solving by increasingly non-violent means form the f o u n d a t i o n of n e w p o l i t i c a l a s s o c i a t i o n . I n the intensified period of decision-making at local level that distinguishes the frontier, a remarkable number of different processes are involved -in obtaining assis tance, finding markets, voicing demands, forming pressure groups, seeking comfort and support outside the kinship framework, and in discovering how to prosper rather than merely to survive. These processes combine to produce the new political identity, organization and consolidation of frontier societies.The main focus of this operation may shift geographically if the processes which distinguish the frontier's most active stage become more concentrated elsewhere. Even if this type of frontier mobility is not encountered, however, a frontier's days in any particular location are numbered; its span is measured ultimately in political terms. There are no permanent frontiers of settlement. Either the frontier succeeds, and the community matures politically by

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geographical Review. NUMBER 1 BOLIVIA'S PIONEER FRINGE J. VALERIE FIFER r NHE boundaries of Bolivia today enclose a territory of some 420,000 square miles, which is about half the size of that claimed at independence in 1825. Even so, Bolivia remains the fifth-largest South American republic (after Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Colombia), with an area roughly equal to that of the British Isles, France, and West Germany combined. But Bolivia contains a mere 3,751,000 persons (1966 official estimate), a remarkably low number, greater only than the populations of Uruguay, Paraguay, and the new state of Guyana, all of which are much smaller in area. The problem is aggravated by the unbalanced composition and living standards of the Bolivian people (about 70 percent Indian, 30 percent mestizo; 75-80 percent illiterate or semiliterate) and by their uneven spatial distribution. About threequarters of the population are concentrated within certain sections of the great Andean core region-the lofty intermontane plateaus and basins of the west, which make up only one-third of the total territory. To the east lies a virtually empty land; for the vast plains of the Norte and the Oriente contain on the average fewer than two persons to a square mile (Fig. 1). The country's basic physical dichotomy, its two opposing worlds of mountains and plains, is thus reproduced in the highly selective pattern of human distribution. Population density declines sharply with distance from the Altiplano, from the mining centers within the Cordillera Real, and from the sheltered intermontane basins of Cochabarnba, Sucre, and Tarija.The successful organization of its territory is fundamental to a state's primary domestic function-the promotion of an efficient relationship between man and the land. In this connection the problems of Bolivia's internal circulation are formidable indeed. Politically, Bolivia's frontier zone consists of a comparatively narrow strip of territory lying just within its international >