Twisting the knife: Frontier violence in the central Amazon of Brazil

• Published in: The Journal of peasant studies Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 445 - 478
• Main Author: Hoefle, Scott William
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Taylor & Francis 01-07-2006; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Amazon; Borders; Brazil; Comparative studies; Development; Inequality; Land; Minority & ethnic groups; Peasants; Polarization; Rural anthropology; Social classes; Violence; Wilderness areas; Brazil
• ISSN: 0306-6150; 1743-9361
• DOI: 10.1080/03066150601062993

The presence or absence of high rates of violence in the Central Amazon of Brazil, one of the last great frontiers of the world, is analysed in terms of a comparative approach to the study of global frontiers. Violence is shown to be low among historical peasantries in riverine and pastoral areas of old settlement located beyond the greater frontier where less inequity and imbalance between social classes, ethnic groups, sexual groups and age sets exist. The advancing frontier of open-field agriculture presents the opposite with some of the highest rates of violence in the country and is shown to be typical of a process of polarised development in Brazil.