Peasant Mining Production as a Development Strategy: The Case of Women in Gold Mining in The Brazilian Amazon

Citation:

Author: Jeannette Graulau

Annotation:

"The purpose of this research is to establish the grounds for a critical social scientific analysis of mineral development based upon the case study of women in informal peasant gold mining or garimpagem in the Brazilian Amazon. Situated at the local/regional level of analysis, this case study illustrates the main tensions of contemporary mineral development. First, the region's mineral development paths appear as a result of the application of liberal and neo-liberal economic policies of modernization and liberalization of primary export sectors and late on import substituting industrialization...In the second place, intersecting and conflictive discourses of local, national, and international mineral development drive regional production. Nationally owned mining companies, subsidiaries of multinational corporations, and formal and informal small-scale mining enterprises fight against each other for legitimate 'rights' over land management and mineral extraction...Third, historically dispossessed female peasantry of North, Centre, South Eastern Amazon and North East Brazil, compete against national and multinational mining firms in the extraction of minerals, mainly gold and semi-precious stones" (Graulau, 2001, p. 71).

Topics: Development, Economies, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Land Grabbing, Multi-National Corporations Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Brazil

Year: 2001