Perceived Worlds of the Colonists of Tropical Rainforest, Colombia

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8963458
AutoresJanet Townsend (autor correspondente), Janet G Townsend
Ano1977
Volume2
Fascículo4
Páginas430-430
Data de publicação1977-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2307/622299
OpenAlexW2329535600
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas12
Referências citadas1

Field research in Colombia in 1974 employed repertory-grid interview techniques in the investigation of the perceived worlds of colonists in five areas of tropical rainforest. The application of repertory grids in cross-cultural situations appears to be new and the methodology is briefly described. The results illuminate many aspects of the colonists' decisionmaking environment through the varying relations of standard constructs and elements, portrayed statistically and diagrammatically. It is argued that the colonists' perceptions are much akin to those of the agricultural extension officers who work with them, and that the colonists' behaviour is not 'traditional and irrational' but sharply governed by immediate economic constraints. Colonists and officials alike rank the skilled management of farms far above physical endowment in farm success; and both regard cattle-raising as the ideal land use, conditioned by considerations of credit and transport. Principal Component Analysis of the grids shows a salience of constructs related to management and investment, followed by physical endowment and accessibility, on the total of 8o grids from colonists. Regional breakdown yielded only small variation. It is suggested that the development agencies should concentrate their efforts on the constructive aspects of the colonists' thinking rather than medicating the symptoms of failure. 'THIS is a grave error, to displace in desperation a population excess which is culturally underdeveloped towards regions where, through ignorance, the vegetation is destroyed, erosion provoked and damage caused to coming generations. . . . The colonos . . . lack that which is essential and indispensable for the success of a colonization: individual initiative and fighting spirit.' Thus wrote a distinguished Colombian geographer (Guhl, 1968, 1974). Yet for decades, geographers have been advocating the colonization of the humid tropical lowlands of Latin America, except for a few great dissidents such as Humboldt (1818-29) and Bowman (1916). Such colonization has been accelerating through this century with the 'hygienic revolution', the decline of civil strife (Crist and Guhl, 1957), and above all with increased road penetration of 'frontier' regions such as is currently developing or threatening much of the Amazon Basin (e.g. Nelson, 1972). In Colombia the intense rural violence in the long-settled Andean areas 1948-57 (Guzman et al., 1962) displaced substantial numbers of fugitives from the high and the dry lands of the Andes to the 'empty' eastern lowlands; further waves of movement have been encouraged by government spending. There is effective political pressure in favour of colonization of the rainforest manifest in infrastructure programmes, although the actual migration is largely spontaneous. In the Florencia region there is even a substantial World Bank programme. Yet, while other reports are less sweeping than those of Professor Guhl, no serious reports on the colonization process in Colombia today are favourable. Everywhere the worst features of socio-economic structures in the long-settled Andean regions, such as the latifundia-minifundia syndrome, are but transferred to the lowlands (I.B.R.D., 1972; INCORA-IICA, 1974; CID, 1974)2 and ecological degradation is the rule (Tosi and Voertman, 1964). There is a clamant need for a better understanding of the colonos. It is unlikely in the extreme that the colonization process will be halted; already INCORA, the national land reform

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