Agro-Cultural Frontiers and the Amazon: Contested Histories, New Alterities and Emerging Cultures

英国、巴西和哥伦比亚的五所大学（卡迪夫大学、KCL大学、马托格罗索联邦大学、巴西朗多尼亚联邦大学和哥伦比亚国立大学）打算组织五场研讨会（英国两场，南美三场），让国际专家、国家学者、地区学术和非学术利益相关者(如农民协会、地方当局、社区和教会组织、合作社、非政府组织、艺术家、等)参加网络活动，讨论现有知识，并确定亚马逊地区农业前沿的最新技术差距。这一系列讲习班和两年期间的协调参与将导致农业文化研究网络的巩固，其中将包括核心大学和其他区域研究中心的更多学者、各种讲习班的演讲者和参与者以及学术界、决策界和非学术界。这个拟议的网络将特别研究亚马逊地区变化的社会文化轨迹，重点关注我们所说的“农业文化”前沿。支持者认为，艺术和人文学科可以极大地有助于解决亚马逊地区的环境和发展困境，特别是考虑到农业现代化的积极推进和人们向新地区的迁移，这导致了复杂的文化交流，旧习俗的迅速侵蚀和新的混合身份的形成。各国政府和国际社会显然有责任迅速应对新出现的挑战，这些挑战包括对传统、习俗和知识的影响，日益严重的社会经济不平等和生态系统退化，以及缺乏对新老居民下层群体(如采掘社区、擅自占用者、农业边疆地区的家庭农民和土著部落。亚马逊现在在古代和现代世界之间占据着一个模糊的位置——既不够古老，也不够现代——这导致许多学术研究和政策制定中基本没有对该地区具体的、生活的社会文化层面的研究。到目前为止，该地区主要是通过其自然历史而不是文化历史来定义的，因此主要被代表为一个自然而不是文化的地方。尽管社会科学家在农业前沿发展的社会经济、农业和人口方面开展了越来越多的学术工作，但对于全球影响和过去的遗产如何在变体和文化表现形式的生产中被纳入和重新转化，人们所知甚少。亚马逊地区农业前沿的主流叙事源自一种社会想象，这种社会想象主要由大规模农民的英雄主义、企业家精神和经济成功所主导，而不同社会群体之间的人际关系、他们的主体性和文化包袱、不断上升的身份和家庭实践仍然没有得到充分考虑。同样，关于土著部落、他们的口述历史和文化也有大量的人类学文献，但关于他们对农业前沿发展的参与和反应却知之甚少。因此，通过一系列的活动和辩论，新网络将首次共同探讨亚马逊地区农业前沿的密集文化交流和历史变迁。该倡议将为学者和非学者之间的讨论和南北互动创造一个创新空间，重点关注当地知识、习惯、语言和主体性，在（不可持续的）现代化影响下快速变化的文化和空间现实的背景下。

A group of five British, Brazilian and Colombian universities (Cardiff, KCL, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Federal University of Rondonia, in Brazil, and the National University of Colombia) intend to organise five workshops (two in the UK and three in South America) to involve international experts, national scholars and regional academic and non-academic stakeholders (such as farmer associations, local authorities, community and church organisations, cooperatives, NGOs, artists, etc.) to take part in networking activities, discuss existing knowledge and identify gaps in the state-of-the-art of agricultural frontiers in the Amazon.The series of workshops and a coordinated engagement during two years will led to the consolidation of the Agro-Cultures Research Network, which will include additional academics in the core universities and in other regional centres of research, speakers and participants in the various workshops, and the academic, policy-making and non-academic communities. This proposed network will especially examine the socio-cultural trajectory of change in the Amazon with a focus on what we describe as 'agro-cultural' frontiers. The proponents believe that Arts and Humanities can greatly contribute towards the solution of environment and development dilemmas in the Amazon region, particularly considering the aggressive advance of agricultural modernisation and the movement of people to new areas, which have resulted in complex cultural exchanges, the rapid erosion of old practices and the formation of new, hybrid identities. There is a clear responsibility of national governments and the international community to swiftly respond to the emerging challenges presented by impacts on traditions, customs and knowledges, mounting socio-economic inequalities and ecosystem degradation, and the lack of proper recognition of the agency, distinctiveness and subjectivities of subaltern groups of old and new residents (such as extractive communities, squatters, family farmers and indigenous tribes) in areas of agricultural frontier. The Amazon occupies now an ambiguous place between the ancient and the modern worlds - not ancient enough yet not modern enough - which has resulted in the specific, lived socio-cultural dimensions of region being largely absent from many academic studies and policy-making. So far, the region has come to be defined especially through its natural and not its cultural history, and thus is represented primarily as a place of nature and not of culture. Despite a growing scholarly work among social scientists on socio-economic, agrarian and demographic aspects of the advance of the agricultural frontiers, less is known about how global influences and past legacies are incorporated and retransformed in the production of alterities and cultural expressions. The prevailing narrative of the agricultural frontiers in the Amazon is derived from a social imaginary dominated by the supposed heroism, entrepreneurialism and economic success of large-scale farmers, while interpersonal connections between different social groups, their subjectivities and cultural baggage, rising identities and household practices are still not adequately considered. Likewise, there is a significant anthropological literature on indigenous tribes, their oral histories and cultures, but little is known about their participation and reaction to the advance of agricultural frontiers. Therefore, through a series of events and debates, the new network will, for the first time, jointly address the intensive cultural exchanges and historical transformation of the agricultural frontiers in the Amazon. The initiative will create an innovative space for discussion and North-South interaction between academics and non-academics focused on local knowledge, habits, language and subjectivities in the context of a rapidly changing cultural and spatial reality under the influence of (unsustainable) modernisation.