Globalization from below : local politics and transnational relations in the Amazon Basin

Abstract

This thesis is about the politics of indigeneity by a group of Indigenous Peoples situated in the Amazon Basin in Brazil and the transnational alliances it has made as a way of survival, analyzed by means of globalization theory. Namely, the Indigenous Peoples of the Rio Negro and the Federation they formed in 1987, the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of the Rio Negro [FOIRN] and the partnership it has established with the NGO Horizont3000. FOIRN was created during a time of structural changes in Brazil and pushed into existence due to the marginalized and vulnerable position the Indigenous Peoples of the Rio Negro found themselves. Institutionalizing their fight the way they did secured their own existence as Indigenous Peoples by making it possible to ratify by official legislature and before the Brazilian government their right to maintain their livelihoods and “traditional” lifestyle, closely attached to the land. They did so mainly thanks to the transnational partnership established within the Climate Alliance framework, which provided the means for the Federation to exist and supported them in their fight for land demarcation, a goal they later managed to achieve. Therefore, the dialectics between local and global is an essential theme in this thesis, seen as precondition for survival for these Amazonian based groups.