Globalization in the Brazilian Amazon Region: Conflicting Answers from “Quilombo” Communities

Globalization is a process that encompasses the accelerated and simultaneous circulation of ideas, goods, and human beings (Appadurai, 1996). In an Amazonian context, this chapter aims at analyzing the impacts of particular land status ownership on the resilience and flexibility of traditional communities facing globalization (Kramer et al, 2009). The Amazon has been part of the global market since the 16th century: from the drogas do Sertao, through the rubber boom, to Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa) and acai (Euterpe oleracea), the global demand for Amazonian products has played a crucial role in the phases of human population of this rich basin (Bunker, 1985). Mark Harris (2006), following Moran and Parker, characterizes the “cabocla” populations by their ecological adaptations as well as their economic versatility. During the 1990s and 2000s, a great number of “traditional” and/or indigenous communities were granted land rights in Brazil. Innovative legal statuses were created, either for the sake of environmental protection or as a function of the peculiar special social status of some social groups, mainly indigenous people and remnants of escaped slave communities (i.e. remnant quilombola communities). At the core of these rights is the recognition of a “special relationship” between these traditional communities and their territories. Due to the acknowledgement of this particular link, almost 30% of the Legal Amazon is officially under the responsibility of traditional communities.1 However, traditional communities are now facing contradictory pressures induced by Brazilian public policies and globalization. On the one hand, they were granted land under