Land, Copper, Flora: Dominant Materialities and the Making of Ecuadorian Resource Environments

• DOI: 10.1353/anq.2014.0010
• Publication Date: 2014-02-23T14:00:16Z
• Authors: Veronica Davidov
• Keywords: Materiality; Commodification; Value (mathematics); Frontier

This article examines the nuances of different constructions and meanings “natural resources” in Ecuador. Focusing on biodiverse copper-rich region Intag, I show how once a process commodification natural materials is underway—in place where biophysical specificities soil, minerals, flora map onto extractive, as well “green” economies value—there an emergence what call “metonymic materiality,” discursive frame which one particular aspect material resources becomes iconic place, assuming dominant significance value for actors. Once such “dominant” materialities emerge, they may be contested through counter-discursive strategies, other constitutive are used to symbolize promote alternative regimes value. present “resource biography” focusing its agricultural frontier, copper treasury, and, finally, rare precious biodiversity. analyze resource environments that emerge around these overlap supplant each other, relationally dynamically.