Big Coffee in Brazil: Historical Origins and Implications for Anthropological Political Economy

Abstract

R e s u m e n La mayoría del trabajo antropológico sobre el café se enfoca en los productores de pequeña escala en el mercado de "especialidad" pero el mercado mundial del café está cada vez más determinada por la agroindustria del café en Brasil, el mayor productor de café del mundo, y el segundo mayor consumidor. Este artículo examina los orígenes históricos y las realidades contemporáneas del "big coffee" en Brasil a través de un enfoque en programas de mejoramiento de café en la ciudad de Campinas. Actualmente, la producción de café brasileño está colapsando la diferencia entre los mercados "homogéneos " e " especiales" para el café y este cambio tiene implicaciones para la economía política antropológica, en particular las nociones de " posfordismo " extraídas del geógrafo David Harvey. La teorización antropológica del mercado mundial del café necesita tener en cuenta el aumento de la agroindustria del café en Brasil si se trata de comprender con precisión la dinámica económica políticos del presente y futuro. [agricultura, Brasil, café, economia] A b s t r a c tMost anthropological research on coffee focuses on small-scale producers in the specialty market, but the global coffee market is increasingly shaped by coffee agribusiness in Brazil-the world's largest coffee producer and second-largest consumer. This article examines the historical origins and contemporary realities of "big coffee" in Brazil through a focus on coffee breeding programs in the city of Campinas. At present, Brazilian coffee production is collapsing the difference between "homogenous" and "specialty" markets for coffee, and this change has implications for anthropological political economy-and particularly for the concept of post-Fordism drawn from the work of geographer David Harvey. Anthropological theorization of the global coffee

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