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1 Abstract: This article explores the national, local, and personal frontiers that Brazilian small-scale gold miners - called garimpeiros - cross in their quest for gold in the larger Amazon region. Ethnographic research was conducted among garimpeiros and mining service providers in Suriname. In the past three decades, thousands of Brazilian migrants (the exact number is unverifiable) have entered Suriname and consequently affected its society, economy, and culture. It is argued that in the absence of strong state control, these garimpeiros, along with local forest peoples and legal title holders, are traversing the fluctuating boundaries. These boundaries include national borders, customary and legal regulations, technological limitations, and personal livelihood goals. The continuous reformulation of these multiple boundaries drives the development of local mining cultures. Social networks increase the volatility of formal and informal borders, and are the key to these mining cultures as well. The authors conclude that while entering Suriname and its gold mines is relatively easy, financial and conceptual barriers often prevent miners from leaving. Keywords: garimpo, small-scale mining, Suriname, gold, migration. The frontiers between nations and people are fluctuating and porous in the northern Amazon region. The indigenous citizens of Suriname regularly traverse the forests on foot to visit relatives in Brazil. Meanwhile Maroons crisscross the rivers be- tween Suriname and French Guiana on a daily basis to work, meet family, or enjoy an evening of drinking and dancing on the other side. Passports, visas, foreign cur- rency, and languages seem superfluous to local people who consider large stretches of these borderlands as their traditional customary lands where they are at home, regardless of the nation states claiming the area. In addition to locals, numerous Brazilian gold miners or garimpeiros cross these same porous borders either walk- ing, or by boat or plane. They also bring advanced knowledge of hydraulic mining techniques and small-scale mining management as well as different customs of interacting and relating to people and places. Following the footsteps of these garimpeiros are other Brazilians such as shop- and bar-owners, operators of gold- buying houses and commercial sex workers who enter Suriname hoping to earn something from the small-scale mining industry. We use the notion of mining frontiers to analyse the impact of Brazilian garim- peiros on the society, economy and culture of Suriname. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining societies are characterized by the continuous movement of people, goods, and knowledge, and Suriname is no exception. Garimpeiros not only cross geographic and national borders by leaving their homes and jobs; they also leave their personal confines - if only because of boundless dreams of riches and a new life - and cross over social and cultural boundaries in their encounters with other peoples in these gold mining areas. The receiving peoples, in turn, face the arrival of foreigners who bring in their own customs, food and social contracts, as well as new mining techniques and working practices that transform the boundaries of min- ing activities and local economies. We will explore the geographic, technological,

Moving Frontiers in the Amazon: Brazilian Small-Scale Gold Miners in Suriname