ESSAY #3 - SOCIAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA
AFTER THE TREES: LIVING ON THE TRANSAMAZON HIGHWAY
This essay on After the Trees: Living on the Transamazon Highway is based on the following questions, however, you should also incorporate key ideas and background information provi ded through class discussions and audio-visual materials (Capital Sins, Amazonia: Road to the End of the Forest). Your paper should be thoughtful and analytical (rather than a "book report"), but also founded on informed knowledge. Your responses should reflect an understanding of the entire book, rather than selective reading of specific parts. This paper should be 7 pages in length; please word process your paper using letter quality print (print the entire paper in bold if your printer does not print clearly), and number your responses. The paper, worth 50 points; no late papers will be accepted.
1. Analyze and evaluate the dilemmas of development affecting the Transamazon region in light of a) Brazilian history and political economy, and 2) the role of its development agencies (PIN, INCRA, FUNAI, etc.), first from the perspective of the chief INCRA official and then from the perspective of an environmentalist. This part should include considerable detail about the environment.
2. Design a proactive proposal for redesigning the Transamazonian development scheme that might be drawn up by the colonists along side road 27. Please be specific about what their recommendations would be and explain their reasoning (you may assume that you are one of them). Then explain how indigenous groups in the area might react to each point of their proposal.
3. Identify Stewart's key recommendations for resolving the environmental and social dilemmas of Transamazonian development and critique them, providing your own rationale for your critique (here you may agree or disagree with him).