The recent exhibit Amazonia: the right of nature at the Museum of Anthropology has been inspiring some thinking for me. The exhibit’s focuses were on the Amazonian ecosystem and its relationship with human activities from the indigenous population and commercial activities. The exhibit provided me with insights on how some of mine classroom materials are related to real-world problems, especially in relation to some topics discussed in the Geography classroom.

One of the displayed items that caught my attention is a set of rubber figures. These figures were molded from the latex of trees in the rainforest. The exhibit explains that the indigenous population had a long tradition of molding these figures, but the figures displayed were molded by the settlers from the rubber booms. The rubber booms are periods when the extraction of latex from the trees became a profitable business. As a result of the blooming rubber economy, cities were constructed in the jungles of the rainforest. Prior to the industrialized rubber production, the indigenous population had a harmonious relationship with the rainforest. Although resources were also acquired to meet their needs, there was no conflict between nature and human activities.

The history behind these latex figures is an perfect evidence for the argument of capitalocene. Capitalocene and anthropocene are two different approaches to understanding our current geological epoch. The idea of capitalocene emphasize on the effect of capitalism on Earth’s geography, rather then presenting the entire humanity as a factor, which is the central idea of anthropocene. As demonstrated by the history of the latex figures, the extraction of latex by the indigenous people for their demand wasn’t enough to affect the ecosystem of Amazonia. The long-term impacts on the Amazonian rainforest became a fact only after the introduction of commercial extraction and exportation of rubber.

The exhibit continuously emphasizes on the harmony between the indigenous people and nature before industrialization took place in the Amazonian rainforest. Upon entrance, the first set of artifacts are some traditional garments for the indigenous people. The pieces are decorated with birds and bird feathers. To my mind, these artifacts symbolized the relation with nature, that although they take from nature, they remain part of the harmony by respecting it. The exhibit also emphasizes on the impact of industrialization, on the wall of the exhibit hall, statistics on deforestation and etc are listed in bold letters, contrasting the harmony presented by artifacts from the indigenous cultures.

The case of Amazonia isn’t along. Before industrialization and the global capitalist economy, human activity and nature’s relationship were harmonious for the most part. But as the idea of capitalocene has theorized, a fraction of humanity have exploited nature for economic growth. This has been seen in virtually every civilization on the face of the planet, physically changing the geography characteristics of Earth.