Oil and Sustainable Development in the Latin American Humid Tropics Author(s): Laura Rival Reviewed work(s): Source:

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nthro
Vol. 13 No. 6 December 1997 Everytwomonths

oogy
oday

Oil and sustainable developmentin the Latin Americanhumidtropics

Indigenouspeoples, alreadyincreasinglyexposed to the unfamiliar logic of transnationalextractive industries (Burger 1987), are now faced with a new challenge: they are expected to become 'stakeholders' asked by the 'privatesector' to take part in sustainableeconomic development.Five years after the landmarkEarthSummit in Rio, governments, internationalaid donors and internationalbusiness are unanimous:sustainabilitydepends on the integrationof the social and environmental with the economic. Public-private coalitions should be formed 'to ensure that resource consumption today does not reduce the quality of life of futuregenerations; to halt and reverse environmentaldegradationand the waste of resources; and to strengthen stewardship of naturalresources by increasing the participationof indigenous peoples, local communities, NGOs, and the private sector'.I Consensus, as opposed to adversarial relations, is the aim of most transnationalcompanies currentlydeveloping oilfields in Latin American humid tropics, where most new oil operations will take place in the next decade (Rosenfeld et al., 1997). The tropical forests of Central and South America contain a large proportion of the world's biological diversity and are home to numerous indigenous peoples. Oilfields are already, and increasingly, being developed in naturalparks, biological reserves and indigenous territories.If the halting and reversal of environmentaldegradationand the waste of non-renewable resourceswere truly given top priority,then these tropical forests would not be targeted as the next place to extract oil. However, Latin America, being close to North America, is playing a key role in the international oil market, quite apart from the increase in its own domestic needs, and is championingeconomic liberalization. Ecuador's Amazon region, locally known as the Oriente, is a case in point. Though the Oriente represents no more than 2% of the Amazon basin, it makes up just one half of the country. For the last 25 years, over 90% of Ecuador'soil has been producedthere. Oil revenues represent18%of the Gross Domestic Product, 67% of the export earnings and 57% of the national budget. The largest part of the oil revenues goes towards repaying the US$12.8 billion foreign debt and to importfuel (Jimenez Grivalja 1994). The country,faced with the alarmingdepletion of its oil reserves and with falling world marketprices, has decided to specialize in heavy crudes and increase its oil exports by inviting transnational companies to develop new oilfields. Most of the Oriente is now divided up into exploratory or operational blocks. The terms of service contracts for foreign investors have been eased, and six transnational companies2 are now extracting oil from 23 fields, accounting for abouthalf of the total nationaloutput. Environmentalgroups and indigenous organizations have been fiercely opposed to some of these oil developments, in particularto those on Huaoraniland and in the Yasuni National Park. The latter was created in 1979 and declared a biosphere reserve by Unesco in 1987, as well as a world centre for plant diversityunder the Joint IUCN-WWF Plants ConservationProgramme and the IUCN Threatened Plants Unit. Protests climaxed in 1990, when the North American company CONOCO decided to develop its concession which was

Contents
Oil and sustainabledevelopmentin the Latin Americanhumid
tropics (LAURA RIVAL) page 1

C. W. WATSON 'Born a Lady, became a Princess, died a Saint': the reactionto the death of Diana, Princess of Wales 3 RADULESCU SPERANTA Traditionalmusics and ethnomusicologyunderpolitical pressure: the Romaniancase 8 KEVIN DWYER Beyond a boundary?'universalhumanrights' and the Middle East 13
18 DAVID COLLINS and JAMES URRY on Marya A. Czaplicka NARRATIVE 21 ARND SCHNEIDER on fieldwork CONFERENCES OBITUARY 21 Kenneth Kirkwood, Philip Ravenhill, Diana Forsythe, Cynthia Pike LETTERS 22 DAVID ZEITLYN on fieldnotes NEWS 23

CALENDAR 24 RAI NEWS 27- Gift relationships between ethnographersand their hosts 27
CAPTION TO FRONT COVER 28 CLASSIFIED 29

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY incorporating RAIN (issn 0307-6776) is published bimonthly by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 50 Fitzroy Street, London WIP 5HS, UK. ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY is mailed free of charge to its Fellows and Members. All orders accompanied with payment should be sent directly to The Distribution Centre, Blackhorse Road, Letchworth, Herts SG6 1HN, U.K. 1997 annual subscription rates for the UK and overseas are ?16 or US$25 (individuals, includes membership of the Institute), ?31 or US$49 (libraries). Single copy ?6 for the UK, and $10 for overseas. Airfreight and mailing in the U.S.A. by Publications Expediting Inc, 200 Meacham Avenue, Elmont, New York 11003, U.S.A. Editor: Jonathan Benthall (Director, RAI) Assistant Editor: Sean Kingston Corresponding Editors (proposed by American Anthropological Association): Karl Heider, Michael Herzfeld, Katherine Verdery Editorial Panel: Robert Foley, Alma Gottlieb, Richard Handler, Solomon H. Katz, John Knight, Jeremy MacClancy, Danny Miller, Howard Morphy, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Stephen 0. Murray, Judith Okely, Jarich Oosten, Nigel Rapport, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Masakazu Tanaka, Christina Toren, Patty Jo Watson. RAI Offices: 50 Fitzroy Street, London WIP 5HS (tel: +44 (0)171-387 0455, fax +44 (0)171-383 4235, Email rai@cix.compulink.co.uk) for all correspondence except subscriptions, changes of address etc. for which the address is: Distribution Centre, Blackhorse Road, Letchworth SG6 1HN, U.K. (tel: +44 (0)1462 672555, telex 825372 TURPIN G, fax +44 (0)1462-480947). WWW Homepage: http:Hlucy.ukc.ac.uk/rai
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LauraRival's doctoral researchat LSE was amongthe Huaorani Indiansof Amazonian Ecuador,with whomshe has continuedto carry outfieldwork.She is now a lecturerin social at the anthropology Universityof Kent at Her most Canterbury. recentpublications includepapers in The of Cultural Production the EducatedPerson (ed. B. Levinsonet al., SUNY,1993) and Nature and Society: Anthropological Perspectives(ed. G. Palsson et al., Routledge 1996).

Brosius,P. 1996. 'Analysesand interventions anthropological engagements

with environmentalism',

Paperpresentedat the 95th AAA meeting, San

Francisco.

Brosius,P., C. Zerner& A.L. Tsing 1997. communities 'Representing Histones and politics of resource community-based Document management', for the conference prepared of the same name held 1-3 June 1997, in Helen, Georgia,USA. Burger,J. 1987. Report from the Frontier. The State of the World'sIndigenous Peoples. London:Zed P. Escobar,A 1995. Encountering Development. TheMakingand Unmaking of the ThirdWorld. Princeton,N.J.: Princeton
UP.

Ferguson,J. 1990. The Anti-PoliticsMachine'Development', Depoliticization,and BureaucraticPower in Lesotho.CambridgeUP. Gray, A. 1993. 'The rainforest harvest', Anthropologyin Action (BASAPP), 16:16-18. P. 1996. Harris-Jones, 'Afterword'in The Future of AnthropologicalKnowledge, (ed) H. Moore, London: Routledge. JifninezGrijalva,A. (ed.) 1994. Datos Bdsicos de la RealidadNacional. Quito: Editora Corporaci6n Nacional Moore, H. 1996. 'The changing natureof anthropological knowledge: an introduction'in The Future of Anthropological Knowledge(ed.) H Moore, London:Routledge. Real, B. 1997. 'Defensa del ParqueNacional Yasuni frente a la Actividad Petrolera'in Desarrollo Eco-il6gico. Vol. III (eds) A. Vareaet al. Quito: CEDEP & Abya-Yala. Rival, L. 1991. 'Huaorani y Petreleo' in Naufragos del Mar Verde La Resistencia de los Huaorani a una Integraci6nImpuesta.(ed.) G. Tassi. Quito Abya-Yala.

right inside the Yasuni National Park. The confrontation stepped up when the government decided to alter the park's borders and change the legislation which prohibitedoil development within protectedareas (Real 1997). CONOCO has since sold its rights to Maxus, another North American company, which has been bought recently by the Argentinecompany YPF. I have examined elsewhere the impact of these companies on the Huaoranipeople (Rival 1991, 1998), and endorsed the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund's petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington,DC, demandinga ten-year moratoriumon all extractiveactivity in traditionalHuaoraniland (Rival 1993). Environmentalist and indigenist efforts have not stopped oil developments in these protected areas, so the style of advocacy has changed. OPIP (Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of Pastaza), arguably the most militant and best organized indigenous federation in Ecuador,has even decided, after years of protracted opposition and confrontation, to take the risk of comanaging monitoring activities with ARCO, the North American company operating on the land of some of the Quichua communities it represents(Villamil 1995). OPIP leaders are alreadyfinding it difficult to maintain continued pressure over long periods, and to take part in highly technical activities without enough training. They are concerned about the knowledge gaps - in petroleum technology, pollution control, environmental and contractuallaw, and so forth - they need to fill in order to become equal and effective partners. The ARCO-OPIPagreement has become a model in Ecuador and elsewhere. Shell has adopted a similar strategy of collaborationand communitydevelopmentin the Camisea region in Peru, where it will soon startextracting gas and oil. The success of the private sector's model of equal partnershipwill depend on the sharing of control, and on how much training indigenous peoples receive to enable them to monitor and control exploitationof their natural resources. They and their organizations must start demanding that all research reports so far written on them and their land be made available to them; that of all they have the right to take part in the preparation new reports; and that companies set up funds, to be managed by the communities autonomously, to strengthentheir negotiating capacity. Those NGOs that represent civil society at large must ensure that compensations and social benefits are not confined to the few communities which happen to be near the sites of economic activity, but are distributed widely. They must also make sure that the social and environmental commitments of private companies are not subject to 'boom and bust' cycles. The guidelines for good social practice that oil companies are advised to follow (Rosenfeld et al. 1997: 5657) recommend the hiring of anthropologistsfamiliar with the regions and local communities concerned. These are asked to identify social impacts, determine who are the 'stakeholders',manage consultations with local people, encourage participation through formal consultationmechanisms,trainlocal professionals,help mitigate the impacts arising from the presence of outside workers, and, in some cases, plan and coordinate contacts. So far, so good: after all, until not even two decades ago, private companies working in lands occupied by indigenous peoples sent in the military. No one can reasonably object to the goal of forging new conamong competing sensus relationshipsand partnerships interests so that they can act jointly; nor to the employ-

ment of anthropologistswith detailed local knowledge if sharing this knowledge can help protect indigenous rights, health and autonomy. Unfortunately,in my experience and that of a numberof colleagues, this rarely occurs. To carry out the 'social impact assessment' which is increasingly requestedby financial institutions approvoil company uses a myriad of ing loans, a transnational consultancyfirms which, in turn,use both in-house 'social experts'4 and consultantson short contracts.There is little if any communication between the different consultants.All their reportsare considered the private property of the commissioning company. Consultancy firms ask their researchersto sign a secrecy declaration and to keep confidentialall informationacquiredduring the research.Most consultancy-basedresearchis undertaken by national anthropologists,EuroAmericanacademics and consultantsbeing contractedonly for highly sensitive cases. The professional credentialsof national anthropologists vary greatly. Some are still students with only one or two years of universitytraining;others have received Masters and PhD degrees from universities of internationalstanding. Many are poorly paid lecturersworking in Latin Americanuniversities.5Most Ecuadorianand Peruvian anthropologistsI know have worked as consultants. For many, consultancy is the only avenue available to carry out and/or fund field research. The anthropologistsI have spoken to, whether Latin American or Euro-American,feel they are being asked not so much to help forge a genuine participatoryprocess, but to indicate to the company who are the potential allies and the potential trouble-makers.Whereas their goal is to enable local communities, they end up helping the company. Time constraints,lack of scientific rigour, and rigid discursive frames translatedinto activities such as filling in 'stakeholder matrices', or chartingand rankingcommunities according to a set of predeterminedcriteria, recall the discursive practices analysed by Ferguson (1990) and Escobar (1995). The anthropologistworks for the 'project manager' under the 'project director', who has ultimate accountability. The part of the report written by the anthropologistis almost always rewrittento fit the overall style. The consultancyfirm's main aim seems to be to please its client company. If the anthropologistcould write her or his social impact assessment directly for the company, the reportmight be more critical and, at least, it would be more analytical with fewer satellite images and fewer
flow-charts.6

The new managementregime of the oil transnationals and the consultancy firms working for them deserves anthropologicalstudy. The concept of 'sustainable development' is being used to justify forms of development which are in no way sustainable, such as Ecuador's oil policy of unbridledextractivism.The naturalization of this drive - 'there is nothing we can do to stop oil development in the Amazon' - can then be used to advantagesome companies in the bidding competition. Some companies parade their moral commitments, and as Andrew Gray (1993: 17) remarks, 'What seems to happen is that market forces are taking over human rights which become economic markers distinguishing good from bad companies'. Under this new moral economy, the social development of local communities becomes the private responsibility of the 'profit-making sector'. There is a possible historical analogy with the company towns set up two centuries ago, before the consolidationof nation-states.

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 13 No 6, December 1997

-1993. 'Confronting PetroleumDevelopmentin Amazon:the the Ecuadorian HumanRights Huaorani, and Environmental Anthropology Protection.', in Action (BASAPP) 16:14-15. with -1998. 'Marginality a Difference How the Remain Huaorani Preservetheir Autonomous, SharingRelationsand Outside Naturalize EconomicPowers' in Huntersand Gatherersin the ModernContext: Conflict,Resistanceand (eds) M. Self-Determination. Biesele & P Schweitzer. BerghanBooks of R.I. Providence, Rosenfield,A. et al. 1997. the Well. Reinventing Approachesto Minimizing and the Environmental Social Impactof Oil Developmentin the Tropics D.C: Washington
Conservation International.

Villamil, H. 1995 'El manejodel conflicto con las El caso de la petroleras: ARCO-OPIP.',in Marea Negra en la Amazonifa. ConflictosSocioambientales Vinculadosa la Actividad Petrolera en el Ecuador. AnamariaVareaet al. (eds). Quito: Abya Yala, ILDIS, FTPP, UICN.

We need to study ethnographicallyhow, when comthey come to munities encounterthe oil transnationals, think in a new way and to take decisions about their futures;and how they come to abandontheir self-reliant marginality as they envisage their sustainable integration in wider spheres. One example is the autarkic Matsinguenguagroups, who have recently decided to relocate near Shell's Camisea operations and benefit from the company's social development schemes (France-Marie Renard Catsevitz, pers. comm.). We need to understand how, in the course of unequal negotiations, emerging forms of political agency are built up through the strategic use of particularrhetorical styles (Brosius 1996, Brosius et al. 1997). Under what conditions can the abstract notion of 'equal partnership' become a reality (Harris-Jones1996: 164)? Finally we also need ethnographies of consultancy firms. What kind of knowledge do they produce and what are the consequences? Whose interests do they serve, and what is their ethical code? On what basis do they classify and rank the interests at stake? What are the power structureswithin the firms? What dilemmas do their researchersface? Do they seek convergence of interests, and if so by what method? What is their role in the appropriationby powerful transnational authorities, national governments or local elites, of community-resourcemanagementprojects and policies designed to advance local interests. Oil companies moving in the remote forest communities of Central and South America are creating

new regimes of governmentality,for which they use social scientists and anthropological knowledge. As Moore (1996: 13) has observed, anthropologistsare involved in this process not only as consultants,development workers or providersof ethnographicinformation on which plans and policies depend, but also as teachers and as academics engaged in dialogue on such issues as the futureof rainforestsand rainforestpeoples. Let's continue this dialogue but not leave out the comcompanies and manageparative study of transnational rial regimes. O Laura Rival
1 Brian Atwood, USAID Administrator, in his preface to New Partnershipsin the Americas:The Spirit of Rio, 1994 (Washington, D.C.- USAID and WRI). 2 Oryx, Occidental,Elf, YPF (Maxus), City, Arco. 3. The governmenthas also introduceda clause in the Huaoraniland title that specifies that the state retainsrights to the sub-soils, and that activities aimed at contraveningoil developmentwithin the boundaries of the ethnic reserve are illegal. 4 Permanentstaff usually have BSc or Mastersdegrees in environmentalmanagementor naturalresourceeconomics with some partialtrainingin anthropology,sociology or political sciences. 5. University lecturersat the Catholic University of Quito, Ecuador, were earningUS$70 a monthin 1994. Ecuadorianconsultantsworking for transnational oil companieswere getting US$200 a day on average. 6. One anthropologist told me that while she was stressingthe importanceof not rushingthe negotiationprocess, and of respecting the importanceof informalcommunicationin the collective decision-makingprocess of indigenous communities,the project managerwas pressing her to specify aspects he was far more interested in, such as greeting rules and other culturalidiosyncrasies.

'Born
died a

Lady, Saint'

became

Princess,

The reaction to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales

C.W. WATSON
C.W. Watsonis a lecturer in social anthropologyat the Universityof Kent at Canterbury. He teaches and writes on the anthropologyof the British Isles and on that of Indonesia and Malaysia.

Thanksto Michael Gilbert for sparkingoff one or two ideas, but special thanksto my wife for keeping me abreastof media coverage. 1. That there is a body of opinion even within
anthropological circles

which questionsthe relevance of applying anthropological and historicalinsights to modern

industrial societies is

mentionedby Geertz (1983:

Among all the academic and literary lights who commented on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 31 August and the public reaction to it, there were several social scientists but, at least as far as I could observe, there were no anthropologists.On the face of it - and leaving aside for the moment the fact that the media, even the intellectual weeklies, do not know what anthropologistsare and so rarely call upon them - this is paradoxical. Social anthropologists should have been the first specialists to turnto in the circumstances.After all, they make their living investigating and analysing all those phenomena which came to the fore in the aftermathof the death. Ritual, collective behaviour,the force of symbols, death and mortuaryrituals, surely all these are the very stuff of anthropology?Furthermore, as anthropology moves into the 21st century and a strong case is made for the importanceof anthropologists turningtheir gaze upon the culture and institutions of the societies of which they themselves are members and of which, consequently, they have the most intimate knowledge, what could be more appropriatethan an application of anthropologists' skills to understanding national events in which they are so clearly participant-observers?

And yet it is precisely the word 'national'which perhaps provides a partialexplanationfor the apparentreluctance of anthropologiststo offer any commentary. We are simply not used to dealing with what happens among large populations.Our knowledge and analytical techniques derive from intensive studies of small populations, relatively homogeneous, among whom we live for an extended period and about whom we feel reasonably confident (still, in these post-modernisttimes) that we can make generalizationsregarding core vales and practices. The scale of anythingbeyond the dimensions of the face-to-face community daunts us and so we leave the larger picture - with some misgivings about their methods - to sociologists, psychologists and political scientists. How one's fellow-academics in the Senior Common Room reacted to Diana's death and what conclusions we can draw from that small population are within our reach; but comments on the collective response of the nation will expose us only to the ridicule of straying outside our province, risking the kind of fatuous punditry well exposed by J.C. in her column in the Times Literary Supplementof 26 September(p.16)1. 3

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 13 No 6, December 1997