Humans, Ants, Parasites: Eating and Being Eaten in the Surinamese Amazon

Authors

  • Simon Lobach Geneva Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1344/452f.2024.30.6

Keywords:

Ants, Crops, Amazon, Suriname, Coloniality, Ant eradication

Abstract

The populations of the Surinamese Amazon, whether of indigenous or African origin, have used different crop rotation systems for centuries. The presence of ants in their plots was considered an indicator of fertility exhaustion. The ants were seen as a sign that it was necessary to start a new plot elsewhere and thus played an important role for the communities. Despite being a Dutch colony for centuries, the colonial power in Suriname had little presence in the Amazon region until well into the 20th century. Biologists who participated in the colony’s early scientific expeditions to the Amazon interpreted the interaction between humans and ants as a sign of the “parasitic” nature of both. This essay shows how ant eradication campaigns financed by the colonial power since the 1950s have paved the way for large-scale infrastructure projects with a destructive power many times greater than traditional cultivation methods.

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Published

2024-01-31

How to Cite

Lobach, S. (2024). Humans, Ants, Parasites: Eating and Being Eaten in the Surinamese Amazon. 452ºF. Revista De Teoría De La Literatura Y Literatura Comparada, (30), 114–131. https://doi.org/10.1344/452f.2024.30.6

Issue

No. 30 (2024): Entomologic Drive and Invertebrate Imaginaries in Latin America and the Caribbean

Section

Monograph

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Simon Lobach

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