Where the material and the symbolic intertwine: Making sense of the Amazon in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Forests, and ways of relating to forests, are critical to the planet, yet largely neglected in IR. In this article, we engage with the debate on the Anthropocene and explore different forms of relationality to forests and Amazonian indigenous symbolism. Drawing mainly on political sociology, political ecology, and anthropology, we approach the Amazon basin as a site where nature, culture, resource extraction, and spirituality are enmeshed, and discuss material and symbolic meanings of the forest. The article starts by briefly reviewing discourses around the Anthropocene. It then looks at Amazonian countries with a specific focus on the classist foundations of socioecological exploitation that underpin anthropocentric attitudes and practices, and analyses the material way of perceiving the Amazon. It proceeds by addressing the diverse symbolism present in indigenous traditional knowledge; symbolism that may help in moving politics and society beyond the dominant attitudes that initiated the Anthropocene. Finally, the article offers possibilities for perceiving the forest differently and intertwining the Amazon's material and symbolic worlds.

Towards a transformative governance of the Amazon

“…The project does not seek to impose a blue-print for the Amazon, but to open an inclusive permanent forum in which policies and practices to safeguard the region are collaboratively designed and implemented (Gaia Amazonas, 2020a). This would offer possibilities for both overcoming the ever-present conflicts between developmentalism and environmentalism (and intertwining the different worlds that coexist in the Amazon; Pereira & Gebara, 2022), and building the capacity to critically question the core values and practices guiding regional policies through time, to overcome path dependencies and (re)transform governance procedures in light of the socioecological outcomes of past choices (Dryzek & Pickering, 2019).…”

“…11 The videos of the events can be found here: http://alian zanor amazo nica.org/confe renci as202 1/. 12 For a reading of Amazonian indigenous peoples' deeply relational, more-than-human ontologies and knowledge, see, for instance, Inoue (2018) and Pereira and Gebara (2022). 13 Authors' translation from Spanish.…”

“…It is a world wherein the human‐driven devastation of the biosphere has become an existential threat, exposing our shared ties of vulnerability with animals, plants and other living organisms (Braidotti, 2013). In this context, confronting the problems of the new geological epoch demands, first, considering the social concerns and inequalities, and the diverse, often conflicting understandings of nature, that shape human interactions with the planet; and second, recognising humanity's enmeshment in and dependence on ecological systems (Pereira & Gebara, 2022). The Anthropocene therefore poses a fundamental challenge to exclusionary ‘command‐and‐control’ governance approaches based on the assumption of a stable and objective environment, and anthropocentric framings that conceive the human species as separate from and superior to all other earthly beings (Inoue et al, 2020; Pereira, 2021).…”

“…The Amazon is a complex and eclectic region, wherein nature, resource extraction, culture and spirituality are enmeshed, and wherein a wide range of actors, activities and projects – often upholding competing aims and interests – coexist (Pereira & Gebara, 2022). A place of diverse landscapes, or multiple socionatures, embodying an increasingly complex mosaic of protected areas, indigenous lands and sustainable extractive reserves, 4 as well as expanding infrastructure, extractive industries and growing informality and organised crime (Science Panel for the Amazon, 2021).…”

“…During that period, infrastructure investment, colonisation programmes and incentives for resource extraction and energy projects began to target the region, often disregarding the rights of indigenous peoples and other local communities, whose ways of knowing and being were associated with underdevelopment and backwardness. Modernisation and progress were understood as technologically driven, ever‐expanding economic growth, to be achieved through land occupation and natural resource exploitation; nature was perceived as an inert entity with no intrinsic value (Science Panel for the Amazon, 2021; see also Charbonnier, 2021; Pereira & Gebara, 2022).…”