Doctoral Dissertation Research: Conjuring Copper: The History, Culture, and Science of Mineral Resources in the Ecuadorian Andes

博士论文研究：召唤铜：厄瓜多尔安第斯山脉矿产资源的历史、文化和科学

• 批准号: 0925477
• 负责人: Michael Dove
• 金额: $ 1.33万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0925477&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Conjuring; Copper

This dissertation research project builds on the conflict over copper mining in the Intag region of northwestern Ecuador. Despite sustained interest by a number of mining companies since the mid 1990s, communities adjacent to the mineral concession have blocked engineers from accessing the area. Mining has been a point of tension in places like Intag and a topic of national discourse since the early 1990s, when the World Bank sponsored a series of reforms to attract international mining investment. Though no major mining projects have developed, Ecuador's current president remains equally certain of the country's mining potential. Contemporary claims of mineral wealth stand in stark contrast to previous assessments of mineral dearth. Through most of the 20th century, geologists describe Ecuador as a country noted primarily for its lack of mineral resources. Until their considerations in the 1970s of plate tectonic models of copper deposits, mining geologists repeatedly stated that Ecuador's geology would not support industrial-scale mining. Based on Ecuador's transformation from a country of mineral scarcity to one of mineral plenty, and drawing on the conflict over copper mining in the Intag region, this research asks the following question. How are mineral resources in the Ecuadorian Andes historically constituted, socially constructed, and differentially imagined?The goal of this research project is to de-naturalize mineral resources by investigating the historical, political, cultural, and geological contexts through which mineral deposits, especially copper, materialized as objects of economic significance in Ecuador. This research will examine Ecuador's mineral resources as they emerged in scientific journals, in relation to geological maps, and through geological fieldwork. It will compare contemporary assessments, narratives, and metaphors of Ecuador's mineral wealth with depictions of Andean nature by 19th and early 20th century travel writers and naturalists. Through research on Intag's settlement history and ethnographic analysis of contemporary agrarian relations, this project will also consider local resource epistemology, the perspective from which local populations represent and depict subsoil mineral resources. This project draws form and contributes to literature from Science and Technology Studies as well as environmental anthropology and Latin American history. In the way it elucidates resource epistemology, resource history, and state development goals, the results of this project will be a useful reference point for both local communities and policy makers.

本论文的研究项目建立在厄瓜多尔西北部的Intag地区铜矿开采的冲突。尽管自1990年代中期以来，一些采矿公司一直有兴趣，但采矿特许权附近的社区阻止工程师进入该地区。自20世纪90年代初以来，矿业一直是Intag等地的一个紧张点，也是国家讨论的一个话题，当时世界银行发起了一系列改革，以吸引国际矿业投资。虽然没有大型采矿项目开发，但厄瓜多尔现任总统对该国的采矿潜力同样肯定。 当代对矿产财富的主张与以前对矿产缺乏的评估形成鲜明对比。在世纪的大部分时间里，地质学家将厄瓜多尔描述为一个主要以缺乏矿产资源而闻名的国家。直到20世纪70年代考虑铜矿的板块构造模型之前，采矿地质学家一再表示厄瓜多尔的地质不支持工业规模的采矿。基于厄瓜多尔从一个矿产稀缺国家向一个矿产丰富国家的转变，并借鉴因塔格地区铜矿开采的冲突，本研究提出了以下问题。厄瓜多尔安第斯山脉的矿产资源在历史上是如何构成的，社会上是如何构建的，以及人们对它的不同想象？该研究项目的目标是通过调查历史，政治，文化和地质背景，使矿产资源非自然化，特别是铜，在厄瓜多尔成为具有经济意义的对象。这项研究将根据地质图并通过地质实地考察，研究厄瓜多尔出现在科学期刊上的矿产资源。 它将比较当代的评估，叙述和比喻厄瓜多尔的矿产财富与安第斯山脉的性质由19日和20世纪初的世纪旅行作家和博物学家的描述。通过研究Intag的定居历史和对当代农业关系的人种学分析，该项目还将考虑当地资源认识论，即当地人口代表和描绘底土矿产资源的角度。该项目从科学和技术研究以及环境人类学和拉丁美洲历史中汲取形式和文献。在阐明资源认识论，资源历史和国家发展目标的方式，这个项目的结果将是一个有用的参考点，为当地社区和政策制定者。