Please join us this Friday, October 4th, for Diana Tung’s pre-fieldwork TPR. Details are below.

Title: People, palms, and edible grubs: Commodification and development in Iquitos, Peru

Location: Milgate Room, A.D. Hope Building #14

Time: 3pm-5pm, Friday, October 4

Speaker: Diana Tung

Abstract:

“Iquitos, the fifth largest city in Peru, is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by car. The city and its surrounds are also home to one of the richest palm populations in the Amazon. The aguajepalm is considered the most important palm species in Peru economically and is symbolically associated with Iquitos. A substantial number of families participate in the highly localised palm economy as part of their livelihood strategies, selling key commodities such as aguaje fruits and the edible suri grub.

In recent years the voracious demand for palm products, coupled with destructive harvesting methods, has led to widespread concerns over environmental sustainability. At the same time, large-scale regional and urban development projects aimed at overcoming the city’s geographic isolation further amplify ecological pressures. These projects also aim to facilitate tourism to Iquitos, which is considered the epicentre of ayahuasca tourism for foreigners seeking authentic shamanic experiences. As such, indigeneity has become increasingly commodified and capitalised upon by local residents themselves.

With the commodification of people, palms, and edible grubs in Iquitos, the overarching question of my project asks how are these parallel processes interrelated and how do they differ? More importantly, how do local residents navigate and respond to these dynamics? Through long-term ethnographic fieldwork among harvesters and stall vendors in Iquitos, I seek to examine the unevenness of transformative economic processes as well as their social and environmental implications.”