Peru, Purús, Brazil - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 156

forhuntingparties,ritualpractices,raidingtheirenemies,andcapturingwomen,sogath-
ering caucho toreturnitastributetotribalchiefsinexchangeforsteelandmanufactured
goodsfitrelativelywellintoexistingculturalpractices. 6 Part-timecollectionallowedin-
digenes to engage other necessary activities (like agriculture) and kept tribal structures
of authority intact; it may well have augmented the powers of chiefs at the intersection
between indigenous labor deployment for latex extraction and the circuits of exchange
for manufacture. 7
Arana rejected this system as inefficient. Latex gathering shifted from ad hoc to ob-
ligatory collection mediated by violent coercion of natives, although this was not ex-
actly a new invention on his part. Terror was required to control populations that could
move freely through the forest, so an unimaginably more vicious system of control was
installed, enforced by Arana's Barbadian overseers—harsh white/mestizo section chiefs
who were paid on commission for the latex—and his indigenous child warriors who
hunted down fugitives and procured new captives. These power relations were brutal
in the extreme and caused huge dislocations as well as mortality—Bora and Huitoto
Indians were moved around within the Putumayo, and at least thirty thousand died in
the process. 8 Large native populations were relocated by the caucho bosses. Amahuaca,
Piro,Campa,Shipibo,andWitoto,forexampleweretakenintotheMadredeDios. 9 This
“blood rubber” and terror slavery narrative of the Arana reign on the Putumayo eventu-
ally dominated the understanding of labor relations in all the latex economies. 10
Figure 10.2. Armed militias at Carlos Scharff's caucho post.
The differences between the caucho and Hevea economies are explored in greater de-
tailin chapter14 ; indeedproductionprocessesandlaborrelationswerequitedifferentin
these two economies, and this difference would be a key theme in da Cunha's narratives
about the past and future of the upper Amazon.
Fernando Santos-Granero points out that when labor practices began to threaten na-
tional interests, especially as the territorial conflict with Brazil heated up, the Peruvian
state tried to regulate these labor regimes but was at the same time using freelance
caucheiros aswellaspowerful“Cauchokings”toexpandandconsolidatePeru'stropical
territories. The efforts of the Casa Arana to consolidate holdings on the Putumayo trans-