Table Of ContentANATOMY OF THE AMAZON GOLD RUSH
Anatomy of the Amazon
Gold Rush
David Cleary
Research Fellow, Department of Business Studies
Edinburgh University
M
in association with
Palgrave Macmillan
MACMILLAN
© David Cleary 1990
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990 978-0-333-51473-3
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First published 1990
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
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Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Cleary, David
Anatomy of the Amazon gold rush.
1. Brazil. Amazon River Basin. Gold mining industries
I. Title
338.2'741 '09811
ISBN 978-1-349-11249-4 ISBN 978-1-349-11247-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-11247-0
a
Aos companheiros do garimpo, e memoria de Chico Mendes
Contents
List of Plates Vlll
List of Maps IX
List of Figures X
List of Tables xi
Acknowledgements XII
A Glossary oft he Gold Rush xiv
Acronym Glossary xvi
Introduction xvii
1 An Introduction to the Amazon Gold Rush 1
2 Garimpagem in Maranhao 27
3 Fofoca: The Formation of Garimpos 51
4 The Social Structure of the Gold Rush 73
5 Economic Life in the Garimpo 104
6 Social Relations in the Garimpo 133
7 Serra Pelada: The Gold Rush on the National Stage 164
8 Garimpagem, Formal Mining and the State 188
9 The Implications of the Gold Rush 211
Postscript 231
Appendix 232
Notes and References 234
Bibliography 240
Index 244
vii
List of Plates
1 Basic instruments: 'cuia' (1) and 'bateia' (r)
2 The bateia in use: panning
3 Cobra fumando: note bateia being used to catch overspill
4 Supplying water to a cobra fumando
5 The moinho, a portable mechanical crusher, with motor and pile
of alluvium in background; the caixa in the foreground is being
cleaned for gold, with riffles laid out on the right
6 Caixao, as used in chupadeira and raft garimpagem
7 A chupadeira (foreground) with pipes going up to caixao and
down to barranca
8 High pressure hoses in use during a chupadeira operation; the two
men sitting in the water are ensuring that no stones are sucked up
into the chupadeira
9 Manual 'rebaixamento', showing terraced shape it typically assumes
10 A good haul: mercury saturated with gold resists water flow at
bottom of caixa
11 The final stages: excess mercury being drained off in a bateia, with
'pancake' of gold and mercury lodged in centre
12 Mercury being burnt off with butane torch; note it is being done in
area of food preparation - gas cooking rings top left
13 Gold; Santos Neto is holding about 100 grams, worth around
$1000 in 1985
14 Montes Aureos; earth dam constructed by British in 1859 now
planted with banana trees in foreground, modern barrancos cut
into hillside behind
15 Detritus from earlier rushes: in Montes Aureos a steam boiler and
cogwheel abandoned by the British in the 1860s rusts in the middle
of a modern garimpo
16 Serra Pel ada (photograph by Sebastiiio Salgado)
17 The 'fofoca' ofTrinta Cinco in its early days: moinhos amid forest
only partially cleared in rush to get into production
18 Cigarette break
viii
List of Maps
1 Principal goldfields in the Brazilian Amazon xxiv
2 Gurup i goldfield, western Maranhao XXV
3 Serra Pelada and southern Para XXVI
ix
List of Figures
4.1 Age distribution of Gurupf do nos and workers 76
4.2 Origins of Gurupf workers 77
4.3 Origins of Gurupf do nos 78
4.4 Social structure in the garimpo 83
4.5 Social mobility in garimpagem 98
X
List of Tables
1.1 Official gold production figures and DNPM estimates
of real gold production figures, Brazil1975-87
(metric tons) 4
1.2 Official figures for gold production in Serra Pelada,
Tapaj6s and Cum ani garimpos, 1980-6 (metric tons) 4
4.1 When entered garimpagem? Gurupi donos and workers 79
4.2 Worked in other goldfields? Gurupi donos and workers 79
4.3 Father's occupation: Gurupi donos 80
4.4 Father's occupation: Gurupiworkers 80
4.5 Work before garimpo: Gurupi donos 81
4.6 Work before garimpo: Gurupi workers 81
4. 7 Distribution of Gurup i garimpeiros in occupational
hierarchy 96
xi
