Cultivating Rubber through Science, Indigeneity and Art

这个项目追踪了Lat橡胶的社会环境轨迹。巴西橡胶树。这种用于从轮胎到电报电缆等各种产品的经济作物，从根本上改变了世界。该项目将档案研究和人种学研究相结合，以回答以下研究问题：从殖民主义到现在，人们与巴西橡胶树的不同关系模式中出现了哪些种族和环境正义的表述？殖民和后殖民科学的社会环境考虑是什么？不同的社会群体如何通过种植橡胶来重新谈判后殖民时代的权力等级，如土著、公民身份和阶级？通过定性分析，本研究探讨了殖民地官员、小农户、生物技术科学家、土著社区和艺术家在殖民和后殖民背景下以不同的方式和不同的社会环境影响种植巴西橡胶树的方式。该项目批判性地分析了通过科学、祖先知识和美学种植橡胶如何能够在单一作物种植园内表达多种形式的社会和环境正义。此外，鉴于气候多变性和工厂化农业之间的相互依存关系所带来的日益严峻的挑战，它还涉及环境可持续性和社会正义问题。该项目的调查结果将为感兴趣的政府和非政府行为者在工业化农业背景下的环境和社会可持续性方面提供见解和建议。此外，研究结果将通过免费在线平台传播出版物和教学材料，使学者和公众受益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project traces the socio-environmental trajectories of rubber, Lat. Hevea Brasiliensis. This cash crop, which is used in everything from tires to telegraph cables, fundamentally changed the world. The project combines archival and ethnographic research in order to answer the following research questions: What articulations of racial and environmental justice emerge from people’s different modes of relation to Hevea Brasiliensis from colonialism until present day? What socio-environmental considerations underpin colonial and postcolonial science? How are postcolonial power hierarchies, such as indigeneity, citizenship and class, re-negotiated through the cultivation of rubber by different social groups? Undertaking a qualitative analysis, this study explores the ways in which colonial officials, smallholders, biotechnology scientists, indigenous communities and artists in colonial and postcolonial contexts have cultivated Hevea Brasiliensis in different ways and with different socio-environmental implications. The project critically analyses how cultivating rubber through science, ancestral knowledge and aesthetics can enable the articulation of multiple forms of social and environmental justice from within monocrop plantations. Moreover, given the growing challenges posed by the interdependencies between climate variability and industrial agriculture, it also speaks to questions of environmental sustainability and social justice. Findings from this project will provide insights and recommendations for governmental and nongovernmental actors interested in aspects of environmental and social sustainability in the context of industrial agriculture. Also, findings will benefit scholars and the public through the dissemination of publications and pedagogical materials through free-of-charge online platforms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.