The anthropology of extraction: critical perspectives on the resource curse

Attempts to address the resource curse remain focussed on revenue management, seeking technical solutions to political problems over examinations of relations of power. In this paper, we provide a review of the contribution anthropological research has made over the past decade to understanding the dynamic interplay of social relations, economic interests and struggles over power at stake in the political economy of extraction. In doing so, we show how the constellation of subaltern and elite agency at work within processes of resource extraction is vital in order to confront the complexities, incompatibilities, and inequities in the exploitation of mineral resources

Territorialidades históricas e imaginarios amazónicos en la cordillera del Cóndor

More than a decade ago, tensions arose between civil society, the Ecuadorian government and a transnational company regarding the first large-scale mining project in the Cordillera del Condor. These tensions formed the base for an anti-mining movement that has been accompanied by a series of conflicts, state repression, deaths and forced displacement. The Sourthern Amazon of Ecuador contains a telling history of a territorial mosaic full of tensions and conflicts related to the use, control and access to natural resources, that form the dynamic layers on which successive transformations are built. This chapter takes you to the social, political and spatial processes that took place in the Cordillera del Condor during the last century and which we consider most significant for the unfolding of the mining conflict nowadays. We argue for the use of a territorial and historical focus to analyze the disputes about natural resources and their impacts on civil society and the environment, as it can contribute to the comprehension of current and future transformations

Pluralismo territorial e identidades en el conflicto minero en la cordillera del Cóndor

The Mirador mining project does not expand on ‘empty lands’, but develops in a complex context of actors and social groups that have forged diverse territorialities over time. The arrival of the Mirador project introduced abrupt transformations and resulted in an upsurge of territorial conflicts. In order to analyse the multiplicity of territorialities and identities that are entangled in these conflicts, this chapter takes territorial pluralism and identity politics as theoretical vantage points. We show that this conflictivity emerges due to the very distinct ways of relating to non-human nature and different valuation, appropriation, and legitimization logics and practices of the involved actors. We furthermore show how identities are closely linked to the different territorialities at stake, and how identity politics have an important role in framing demands and creating subjects within territorial conflicts. We argue that both territorialities and identities are not fixed, but are constantly produced in the interactions between the state, the company and the civil society. We moreover maintain that it is crucial to take a historial approach to the power relations, the inequalities and the diversity of subjectivities that are part of the conflict. We conclude by stating that the recognition of the differences in territorial ontologies and the structural inequalities that shape the interactions between the actors is the very first step towards a better understanding of the territorial conflicts around the Mirador project