Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
By the time Euclides steamed up the Purús, there was already a huge industry of sur-
veyors. Alfredo Rangel, at whose charming book-crammed villa he had awaited his de-
parture, had used his military survey training to make a fortune measuring out the vast
estates to secure claims of uncharted lands for the
seringalistas
of the rubber forests.
Plácido de Castro, the caudillo hero of the Acrean War, had been a surveyor as well and
probably owed his success in guerrilla battles to his familiarity with the rubber estates
of the region—he had mapped out many of them and actually explained
seringal
survey
methods to da Cunha.
ThelargegeopoliticalmapofthePeru-BrazilCommissionprovidedthemacrocontext
ofnationalterritoriality,whilethenewmappingsystemsofthe
seringais
showedtheten-
urial system that spun out behind each of the named posts of the Purús survey map and
the populations implied behind each toponym on the river. Like the system of
varadour-
os
,thiswasatotalizing andintegrating imagination oflandscape settlement. Itprojected
theterritorial sovereigntyofthemicro,acommercial dominionfollowingthe
varadouro
lines, deep into the forests of the river interfluves. The ethnography of this process is
meanttoillustratetheemergingpractices,partofanevolvingandnovelinstitutionalrep-
ertoire. The central point of this map was to fill in empty spaces in the maps, the extens-
ive backwoods, with interior boundaries and holdings. The little paths and partial
estra-
das
suggestaninfinityofconduitsstretchingfromwatershedtowatershed,whichinfact
they did. Da Cunha was perfectly aware of the ambiguous political subtext of his own
maps.Hereishowhedescribed making amapofan
estrada
,thousandsofwhichcircled
through the rubber forests.
TheopeningofarubberestateonthePurúsisataskinaccessibletothewisestagriculturalsurveyor,
so capricious, variable, and malevolent is the geometry required for the division of different lots. In
fact, the value of land is relegated to such insignificance compared with the unparalleled value of
the tree that it has engendered a novel agricultural measurement—the
estrada
, the rubber route or
trail—which alone summarizes the most varied aspects of the new society haphazardly perched on
the banks of the great rivers.
The unit of measurement isn't the meter, it is the rubber tree itself, and in general 100 trees in un-
equal intervals constitute an
estrada
. It is understood by all that disparities in form and dimension of
that singular pattern are the only embellishments to the nature of their work.
There is no need to trace out another. Lost in the exuberant and rich forests with intentions only
of exploiting the coveted
Hevea
, the tapper soon understands that his efforts would flail uselessly in
the tangled jungles were he not able to orient and bind them to secure trails, normalizing his labors,
giving rhythm and structure to his efforts and pattern to toil so apparently disordered and crude.
The
estrada
is, beyond this, indispensable so that the numerous comrades, clients, or indentured
slaves, all fated to work in solitude, do not become confused or disoriented, deluded by detours in the
forest.Therubbertrailsresolvethequestion.Buttracingthemoutisitselfthefirstchallenge facedby
those who want to try to open a rubber estate.
The first task is to quickly set up the rough structure of a barracks, always overlooking the main
river, on an embankment of solid ground, and after a preliminary reconnaissance of the estate that
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