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Cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum), one of the most profitable crops of Amazonia, is now attracting world-wide attention as an exotic fruit, used in juices, ice cream and sweets. It is a shade tolerant tree that can be grown as a component of agroforestry systems. Nevertheless it is still a wild species and little is known about its biology. Floral biology of cupuassu was studied in Belem-Brazil during 2 floweringfruiting seasons between June 1991 and December 1993. Flowering occurs in the drier period of the year. Flowers commence opening at any time of the day, but open fully at the end of afternoon. The anthers dehisce and the stigmas are receptive as soon as the flowers are fully open. Stigmas remain receptive until 10:00 am the following day. Throughout this period, the pollen grains remain viable. The flowers have a complex morphology which favours allogamy. The species is also self-incompatible. Experimental pollinations, using compatible pollen grains, have shown that a flower which receives 60 compatible pollen grains has 20% probability of setting fruit; a flower which receives more than 400 pollen grains always sets fruit. However, only around 2% of naturally pollinated flowers receive more than 60 pollen grains. A stingless bee, Plebeia minima, is considered an effective pollinator of cupuassu. Another stingless bee, Trigonisca pediculana, also visits cupuassu flowers. Both bees are small insects, which are unlikely to fly very far. Ants (Wasmannia sp.) and weevils (Baris sp.) were considered secondary pollinators, unlikely to promote effective pollinationsFruits mature during the wet period of the year, approximately 5.5 months after the flowers open. The limited and irregular fruit set is probably caused by scarcity of pollinators. The transformation of cupuassu to a plantation crop will therefore require conditions which favour natural pollinators and their access to receptive and compatible flowers

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This thesis has a number of aims. The first is to give an account of the social organization of a particular Amazonian society that of the Yaminahua, an indian group of South Eastern Peru. The descriptive part of the thesis gives an account of such things as: the organization of work and production, the structures and ,developmental cycles of households, communities and local groups, the organization of kinship and marriage. All these things present features common to many Amazonian societies: an economic system based on swidden agr iculture, hunting and fishing; small communities which regularly move to exploit new hunting grounds and garden sites; extended family residencial units; a fluid political system based upon the .consensus mobilized by headmen; a simple classificatory kin s hip terminology associated with bilate~al cross-cousin marriage; in short? a simple society with every appearance of extreme fluidity and minimal "structur-e". From a theoretical perspective, the thesis aims to reconcile this fluidity of social practice with the fact that there also exists, within Yaminahua ideology, a highly elaborate and systematic set of ideas about their own social stru~fure. These centre around a system of personal-name categories and moieties, which are in turn linked to concepts of a dual order inherent in the constitution of the world as a whole. The ·central question of the thesis, is; "How are we to understand this apparant paradox?", a question which it tries to answer by considering, firstly , the historical tran sformations of Yaminahua society over the last one hundred years, and secondly, at a more theoretical level, the intrinsic nature of the "fit" between this type of ideology (highly symbolic, highly logical - · - what used to be called a totemic system) with social practice an~ the exigencies of social life. Here the thesi s addresses certain issues arising from the debates about Levi-Straussian str ucturalism and the other types of symbolic analysis which have dominated this field in recent years. One of the assumptions of this work is that these have misrepresented Amazonian ideologies by flattening them out into a static web of analogies and symbols. It argues that these ideologies can only be under stood when their symbolic content is reintegrated with their conceptual content, and when their highly systematic aspects (ritual and totemic systems) are reintegrated with the much less systematic aspects, closer to the domain of every-day social concerns. This line of argument is demon strated with an extended consideration of shamanism, looking at its conceptual bases in theories of the person, spirit and causality. The discussion shows how these are intimately linked to the ideas of structure and order in the world already mentioned but also how, as a practical activity, it interweaves ideas and symbols quite independently of that structure and can, in no sense, be Understood as merely its expression or a means of reasserting it.

A debate that has received much attention in recent years is the nature and scale of pre-Columbian impact in the Amazon lowlands. While the notion that Amazonia is a “pristine wilderness" has long been debunked, several papers have proposed that human impact in western regions was more sporadic and on a smaller scale than impacts in central and eastern regions, and that western Amazonia supported sparse pre-Columbian populations. The discovery of over 400 geometrically-patterned earthworks (geoglyphs) in the western Brazilian Amazon, which until recently lay under in-tact tropical forest, has raised important questions about the kind of societies that built them and the impact that they had on the terra firme upland landscapes. This study represents the very first investigations into human-environment interactions in the geoglyph region. By analysing phytoliths, charcoal and stable carbon isotopes from a series of soil profiles in the vicinities of two well-dated and excavated geoglyph sites, this study aims to discern the nature of the environment before, during and after the construction and use of the sites, and the spatial and temporal scales of landscape transformations that were effected by the geoglyph cultures. The data call for a re-appraisal of what is meant by “scales" of human impact in Amazonia, and propose that an understanding of the diversity of human-environment interactions must be considered through studies that closely combine regionally-sensitive archaeological and palaeoecological data.

Orientador: Ademar Ribeiro Romeiro / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T00:18:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrade_JoaoPauloSoaresde_M.pdf: 1085430 bytes, checksum: b91b8aa1a5e343fd2e7183340d769a25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: A conservação dos recursos naturais é importante dado os inúmeros serviços ecossistêmicos que estes proporcionam, como é o caso do Território Portal da Amazônia, localizado no Norte do Mato Grosso, Brasil. Esta área é classificada pelo Ministério do Meio Ambiente como de extrema importância biológica e por conseqüência recomendada para ações com o objetivo de conservação da biodiversidade. O Território registra as mais altas taxas de desmatamento na região amazônica em função da principal atividade agrícola, a pecuária, que ocupa mais de 90% da área aberta e que continua a se expandir aceleradamente. Este trabalho procurou responder sobre a viabilidade de aplicação de instrumento econômico, o Pagamento por Serviços Ecossistêmicos (PSE), para o fornecimento de dois serviços, o seqüestro de carbono e a biodiversidade. O emprego da análise multicritério mostrou ser mais indicado para uma proposta de política ambiental para essa área, o estabelecimento de ação combinada de recuperação de matas ciliares com o reflorestamento de áreas degradadas. O link entre esse resultado e os princípios básicos que devem orientar a formulação de PSE permitiu concluir ser possível a implementação de um programa Território / Abstract: The conservation of natural resources is important because of the innumerous ecosystem services that those can provide, as occurs in the Território Portal da Amazônia, located in the North of Mato Grosso, Brazil. This area is classified by the Ministry of the Environment as being of extreme biological importance and consequently recommended for action with the objective of conserving the biodiversity. The territory registers the highest rate of deforestation in the Amazonian area due to the main agricultural activity, livestock, which occupies more than 90% of the agricultural area and continues to expand quickly. This work tried to answer the question about the viability of applying the economical instrument, the Payment for Ecosystems Services (PES), in order to supply two services, the carbon sequestering and biodiversity. The use of the multicriterial analysis appeared to be more appropriate for a proposal of ambiental politics in this area, the establishment of combined action for recovery of cilliary forests with the reforestation of degraded areas. The union between this result and the analysis of the basic principles should orientate the formulation of the PES, permitted to conclude that it is possible to implement such a program in this Territory / Mestrado / Economia do Meio Ambiente / Mestre em Desenvolvimento Econômico

Ship of Fools is a novel excerpt. The title comes from Plato’s Republic as well as the book Stultifera Navis by Sebastian Brant, published in 1494. There is also a painting by Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1490–1500) with the same name. Influences include Jungian psychology, Joseph Campbell’s “The Masks of God” series, and anthropological studies of Amazonian shamanism.

An investigation into the effects of deforestation and habitat fragmentation on a central Amazonian frog community was carried out on the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, (BDFFP) based in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Three aspects of deforestation were investigated: the effects of fragmentation and reserve size, the influence of matrix habitat and the effects offorest edge on frogs in 10- hectare isolates. Very few frogs species were lost from fragments (regardless of size) following fragmentation and isolation for 7-10 years. Instead, frog species richness increased, with an average increase in 10 species per fragment. The increase in species was brought about by an increase in matrix associated species, some of which were present in the absence of their preferred breeding habitat. Different frog species had varied responses to fragmentation. The abundance of Eleutherodactylus fenestratus, a terrestrial breeder, increased significantly as fragment size decreased, and its abundance was significantly higher in both large and small fragments than in continuous forest. Colostethus stepheni, a semi-terrestrial breeder, was less abundant in fragments than continuous forest. Finally, Eleutherodactylus zimmermanae and Osteocephalus sp.A did not differ significantly in abundance among fragments, or between fragments and continuous forest. Multiple regression analysis indicated that variation in litter depth and canopy cover may explain the observed increase in E. fenestratus abundance in small fragments. Breeding success of pool breeders attracted to artificial pools was variable, but there was no evidence of reduced breeding success in fragments relative to primary forest. Overall, fragmentation appeared to affect the frog community less severely than other taxonomic groups. Species richness in tropical forest remnants showed a tendency to increase as a result of fragmentation, and only one of four species exhibited lowered abundance in fragments. The effects of fragmentation and subsequent small isolated populations of frog species in fragments was alleviated somewhat by the ability of central Amazonian frogs to utilise matrix habitat. Litter frogs, wallow breeders and upland forest pool breeders all displayed an ability to permeate, and in most cases become residents of matrix habitat. Both matrix with a history of cut and burn and matrix which was only cut supported a similar frog community. Thus, for central Amazonian frogs isolates were not truly isolated due to the ability of frogs to utilise matrix habitat. Litter frogs in 10- hectare isolates displayed an independence from edge related abiotic and biotic gradients. This independence was true for frog species richness, abundance and composition. Consequently, forest fragments are in effect larger for frogs than for other taxa who are constrained by edge effects to exist only within the core of large fragments. Colostethus stepheni was one species found to be negatively affected by habitat fragmentation. Abundance of Colostethus stepheni was significantly lower in fragments and matrix habitat compared to primary continuous forest. This species was also found to be sensitive to edge, with higher abundances recorded as distance from the edge increased. The community level approach adopted in this study, as opposed to intensive investigation of single species, may well have overlooked other' sensitive' species which show more subtle responses to habitat fragmentation than that of Colostethus stepheni. The ability to use matrix and the relative independence from edge related phenomena accounts for the resilience of central Amazonian frogs in a disturbed and fragmented landscape. However, with respect to matrix habitat, forest surveyed in this study has not been repeatedly cut or cut and burnt (with the exception of pasture-land where the frog community is depauperate). In other areas of the Amazon, away from the experimental plots of the BDFFP, matrix habitat is destroyed more frequently. More work is needed to determine the ability of central Amazonian frogs to utilise matrix habitat which is disturbed more frequently.