Amazonian peasant livelihood differentiation as mutuality-market dialectics

Figures & data

Figure 1. Four research locations and distribution of historical rubber production sites (colocações) in Amazonas State, Brazil. (note: data on rubber production sites from www.sipam.gov.br). A, The black-water River Negro watershed; B, part of the white-water River Madeira watershed. No. 1 indicates the lower Negro research area, No. 2 indicates the middle Madeira research area, No. 3 indicates the Aracá research area and No. 4 indicates the Abacaxi research area. Dots along the Aracá and Abacaxi sub-tributaries mark the approximate locations of families interviewed in the quantitative surveys by LP.

Table 1. Livelihoods and histories of 30 families living in individual homesteads along the black-water River Negro, and of 40 families living in communities along the white-water River Madeira.

	Predominant livelihood activities	Livelihood history (parents and grandparents)	Migration history	Lower Negro River	Middle Madeira River
Category 1	Extractivist	Extractivist	Local	16 families (53%)	–
Category 2	Agricultural	Agricultural	Migrant	10 families (33%)	–
Category 3	Agricultural	Agro-extractivist	Local	2 families (7%)	32 families (80%)
Category 4	Agro- extractivist	Agro- extractivist	Local	2 families (7%)	8 families (20%)

Table 2. Salient characteristics of Amazonian peasant livelihoods of the lower Negro and middle Madeira rivers.

Region	Negro River	Madeira River
Water type	Black-water	White-water
Floodplain	Infertile igapó, flooded forest	Fertile floodplain
Fish production	Lesser	Greater (5–15 times more fish)
ADE	Many but small (avg 1–5 ha)	Many, large (avg 20 ha, up to 50 ha)
Communities	New, formed from families of diverse origins	Old, all families are kin
Rubber	Lower quality rubber species more widely dispersed	High quality hevea concentrated in floodplain and terra firme
Livelihoods	Extractivist	Agricultural, some agro-extractivism
Historic livelihoods	Extractivist, peripatetic, remote, exploited by bosses	Agro-extractivst, sedentary, but with some seasonal mobility, generally egalitarian, with some exceptions