Economic strategies and changing environmental systems in a Brazilian Amazon community

This study concerns culture change in a small riverine town, Itupiranga, Para, Brazil. There are crosscultural similarities in the transition toward capitalism among world areas. A majority of people in these regions lose access to the means of production--land and resources--in similar and violent processes of primitive accumulation. Like other third world countries which were impacted by colonialism, Brazil's process remains inhibited because of its historical and structural position in the world economy; the extent, nature and role of government intervention in Brazil; the continued presence of non-capitalist forms of production in the Amazon; and the resistance efforts of some social groups.;Since 1970, but especially during the 1980s, the people of Itupiranga have experienced major changes in their physical and social environments caused by development projects and policies encouraged by the Brazilian government. The Transamazon Highway, the Tucurui Hydroelectric Dam, colonization projects and the influx of migrants, changes in land use and tenure, increased logging and the commercialization of fishing have all had a major impact on the environment as well as traditional life in Itupiranga.;Conceptually, this dissertation explores how these developments altered local livelihoods. I examine how the environmental and social impacts of Brazil's development projects and policies caused the demise of economies once based upon resource extraction. The new productive economy focuses more on non-renewable resources. Furthermore, the need to make a profit or to generate cash constrains the abilities of individuals as part of social groups to practice their economic activities in environmentally sound ways.;The development model initiated by the Brazilian government implicitly assumes and explicitly advertises the benefits of development for people in the Amazon region, as measured by their increasing standard of living. Although a few social groups benefited from the regional developments, they were in the minority. In fact, the standard of living for a majority of people in Itupiranga did not improve. The development projects and resulting changes in the physical and social environments constrained peoples' abilities to fulfill their basic needs in a self-reliant manner, hence, their lives became more insecure and precarious. Different social groups used different strategies to cope with the extensive changes in their lives that caused the increasing insecurity and poverty.