Cultivating Rubber through Science, Indigeneity and Art

这个项目追溯了橡胶的社会环境轨迹。橡胶树取代巴西橡胶树。这种经济作物，从轮胎到电报电缆，从根本上改变了世界。该项目结合了档案和人种学研究，以回答以下研究问题：从殖民主义到今天，人们与巴西橡胶树的不同关系模式产生了什么样的种族和环境正义？殖民和后殖民科学的基础是什么社会环境因素？不同的社会群体如何通过橡胶的种植重新协商后殖民时期的权力等级，如土著、公民身份和阶级？通过定性分析，本研究探讨了殖民时期和后殖民时期的殖民官员、小农、生物技术科学家、土著社区和艺术家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如何通过科学、祖传知识和美学来种植橡胶，从而在单一作物种植园内实现多种形式的社会和环境正义。此外，考虑到气候变率与工业化农业之间的相互依存关系所带来的日益严峻的挑战，它也涉及到环境可持续性和社会正义的问题。该项目的研究结果将为关注工业化农业环境和社会可持续性的政府和非政府行为体提供见解和建议。此外，研究结果将通过免费的在线平台传播出版物和教学材料，使学者和公众受益。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.