Amazonia's Cassava and Manioc Through Historical Times

ABSTRACT This provocation calls readers to think more deeply about the role anthropology could play in radically disrupting plant blindness. Thanks to Environmental Humanities, the natural world is no longer apprehended as a mere backdrop to human activity. The taken‐for‐grantedness of plants has given way to a recognition of their biological complexity. However, a preference for “relational” over “classificatory” thinking, linked to a desire to pay greater attention to nonhuman agency, has resulted in portraying “humanity” as a homogenous category. A rush to let vegetal voices be heard could lead to the silencing of forms of collective existence organized around values perceived to be essential for life to flourish. This risk can be avoided by applying the lessons of twentieth‐century historical anthropology to the analysis of contemporary communities, whose assertions of the good life wax and wane according to complex historical and ecological dynamics. To show how anthropological methodology could best contribute to Environmental Humanities, I interrogate my early work on manioc domestication through a new kind of ethnographic exploration. A journey I took with two Waorani friends to a ribeirinho community on the Upper Rio Negro forms the starting point for a more intimate and intersubjective interrogation of the creative potential of cross‐cultural exchange. On the basis of ethnographic insights triggered by this encounter, I revisit explanations of the historical and spatial divide between manioc brewers and manioc flour makers. I also re‐analyze the historical role played by manioc flour during the rubber boom. I underscore the importance of history as lived and remembered. I conclude that environmental humanistic sensibilities may not be sufficient to explain the resilience of agrifood systems. The biological plasticity of manioc matters, but manioc becomes a protagonist only when people carry their memories through.