Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Anthropologist Ruth E. Goldstein has produced a compelling and innovative ethnography that follows the social, ecological, and economic transformations wrought by the 3,500-mile Interoceanic Highway ( Interoceánica ).Part of the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA) launched in 2000, the highway was intended to link Atlantic and Pacific ports and deliver economic development to the tri-border Amazonian region of Madre de Dios (Peru), Acre (Brazil), and Pando (Bolivia).Goldstein's primary focus is the roughly 600-mile Amazonian stretch connecting Rio Branco (Brazil) with Cusco and the mineral-rich Madre de Dios region in Peru.Goldstein originally intended to study Indigenous intellectual property rights and biopiracy involving medicinal plants in Brazil.But as she traveled westward along the highway, the road itselfwhich had dr amatically acceler ated the tr ade and movement of those very plants-drew her attention toward something larger: the intensifying effects of extractive economies, especially artisanal and small-scale gold mining, on both local livelihoods and the broader Amazonian ecosystem.
DOI: 10.1111/jlca.70064
Author: Carole H Browner
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7213972815