Economic cycles of extractivism in the Amazon from the perspective of traveling naturalists

Abstract

This essay discusses some of the extractivist economic cycles in the Amazon through observations made by traveling naturalists over the centuries. Although these naturalists were primarily engaged in the study of flora and fauna, they made important observations about the socioeconomic transformations occurring in the region, which were driven by extractivist activities. Here we discuss the extraction of the so-called drugs of the Backlands, notably the harvesting of cocoa, turtle hunting, and extracting latex for rubber production. The analysis is based on specific accounts by naturalists on the exploitation of natural resources that characterized periods of expansion and decline in the extractive economy of the region. This delineation permitted accounts dealing with common themes to be grouped together, creating a temporal perception of the main resources which were explored in the view of the traveling naturalists. Broadly speaking, their reports are rarely mentioned by scholars who discuss the extractive economy of the Amazon today.