Ecuador is the third-largest foreign supplier of crude oil to the western United States. As the source of this oil, the Ecuadorian Amazon has borne the far-reaching social and environmental consequences of a growing U.S. demand for petroleum and the dynamics of economic globalization it necessitates. Crude Chronicles traces the emergence during the 1990s of a highly organized indigenous movement and its struggles against a U.S. oil company and Ecuadorian neoliberal policies. Against the backdrop of mounting government attempts to privatize and liberalize the national economy, Suzana Sawyer shows how neoliberal reforms in Ecuador led to a crisis of governance, accountability, and representation that spurred one of twentieth-century Latin America’s strongest indigenous movements. Through her rich ethnography of indigenous marches, demonstrations, occupations, and negotiations, Sawyer tracks the growing sophistication of indigenous politics as Indians subverted, re-deployed, and, at times, capitulated to the dictates and desires of a transnational neoliberal logic. At the same time, she follows the multiple maneuvers and discourses that the multinational corporation and the Ecuadorian state used to circumscribe and contain indigenous opposition. Ultimately, Sawyer reveals that indigenous struggles over land and oil operations in Ecuador were as much about reconfiguring national and transnational inequality—that is, rupturing the silence around racial injustice, exacting spaces of accountability, and rewriting narratives of national belonging—as they were about the material use and extraction of rain-forest resources.

As migration has not commonly been considered as part of the indigenous experience, the prevalent view of indigenous communities tends to portray them as static groups, deeply rooted in their territories and customs. Increasingly, however, indigenous peoples are leaving their long-held territories as part of the phenomenon of global migration beyond the customary seasonal and cultural movements of particular groups. Diverse examples of indigenous peoples' migration, its distinctive features and commonalities are highlighted throughout this report, and show that more research and data on this topic are necessary to better inform policies on migration and other phenomena that have an impact on indigenous people' lives.

The traditional costumes worn by people in the Andes—women's woolen skirts, men's ponchos, woven belts, and white felt hats—instantly identify them as natives of the region and serve as revealing markers of ethnicity, social class, gender, age, and so on. Because costume expresses so much, scholars study it to learn how the indigenous people of the Andes have identified themselves over time, as well as how others have identified and influenced them. Costume and History in Highland Ecuador assembles for the first time for any Andean country the evidence for indigenous costume from the entire chronological range of prehistory and history. The contributors glean a remarkable amount of information from pre-Hispanic ceramics and textile tools, archaeological textiles from the Inca empire in Peru, written accounts from the colonial period, nineteenth-century European-style pictorial representations, and twentieth-century textiles in museum collections. Their findings reveal that several garments introduced by the Incas, including men's tunics and women's wrapped dresses, shawls, and belts, had a remarkable longevity. They also demonstrate that the hybrid poncho from Chile and the rebozo from Mexico diffused in South America during the colonial period, and that the development of the rebozo in particular was more interesting and complex than has previously been suggested. The adoption of Spanish garments such as the pollera (skirt) and man's shirt were also less straightforward and of more recent vintage than might be expected.

An Archaeology of Ancash is a well–illustrated synthesis of the archaeology of North Central Peru, and specifically the stone structures of the Ancash region. All the major cultures of highland Ancash built impressive monuments, with no other region of South America showing such an early and continuous commitment to stone carving. Drawing on Lau’s extensive experience as an archaeologist in highland Peru, this book reveals how ancient groups of the Central Andes have used stone as both a physical and symbolic resource, uncovering the variety of experiences and meanings which marked the region’s special engagement with this material. An abundant raw resource in the Andes, stone was used for monuments, sculptures and other valuables such as carved monoliths, which were crucial to the emergence of civilization in the region, and religious objects from magical charms to ancestor effigies. Detailing the ways stone has played both an everyday and an extraordinary part in ancient social life, Lau also examines how cultural dispositions towards this fundamental material have changed over time and considers how contemporary engagements with these stone remains have the potential to create and regenerate communities. With an ample selection of color photos which bring these sites and artifacts to life, An Archaeology of Ancash is an essential guide to the key monuments, places and objects that distinguish this region and its rich archaeological heritage.

Since 1978, when the World Bank published its policy paper on forestry, the world's understanding of and concern about the forest sector of the developing world has increased substantially. It has become clear that forests and woodlands play an even more important economic and ecological role than had earlier been recognized. In particular, the importance of tropical moist forests in protecting biological diversity has become more fully appreciated, as has their role in the carbon cycle and in global climatic change. The nature of the challenge; Deforestation and forest degradation; The growing demand for forests and trees for basic needs; Strategies for forest development; The role of the world bank; Challenges for the forest sector; Strategies for forest development; The role of the world bank.

In over sixty articles and country reports, The Indigenous World 2016 provides a comprehensive update on the current situation of indigenous peoples' causes, their human rights, and reports on the most important developments in international processes of relevance to indigenous peoples during 2015. It is an indispensable guide to issues and developments that have impacted indigenous peoples worldwide. Indigenous and non-indigenous scholars and activists write the articles contained in The Indigenous World. It is edited and produced by the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.

"Forest Resource Policy in Latin America" gathers the thinking of a score of experts on sustainable use and management of forests, including incentives for investment. The authors tackle the thorny social issues of property rights, deforestation, and forest management and ownership by indigenous people and take a hard look at the trade and environmental issues in forest production that will affect future directions for sustainable forestry development in Latin America. Some argue that the main opportunity to conserve natural forests lies in recognizing and paying for the environmental services they provide. In addition, compensatory measures such as the establishment and better management of strictly protected areas appear to be the best tools to delay the loss of ecosystems and species. Alternative forest concession policies and trade and environmental issues in forest production are also analyzed.