Abstract
This case will explore two important issues
in development studies. First, it will ask students to explain and
analyze two conflicting paradigms in development thought: an economic
growth paradigm and a cultural survival/sustainable development
paradigm. Students will discuss how enacting community projects adhering
to each of these paradigms would affect a rural, indigenous community.
Second, the case will demonstrate that seemingly homogenous local communities are deeply
divided along intersecting categories of gender, class, age and culture. Students will be asked to
think about how these categories affect individuals' thinking on
development issues and how power influences who gets to finally decide
development outcomes, even in seemingly "democratic"
situations. This case is set in a town meeting in a fictitious
indigenous village in southeastern Costa Rica. At issue is whether the
town should accept an offer to allow mining within its borders or to
pursue some other type of economic development. Presenting their cases
are young, landless men who are pro-mining, middle-aged farmers who
support sustainable development work with non-governmental
organizations, women who urge both groups to consider a gender analysis
and elders who wish for the incorporation of non-Western values into any
development decisions. An overarching theme for this case is the problem
of trying to meet many valid and conflicting needs given limited
resources. Students will be forced to come up with trying to address the
exclusion of the landless, the women, and the elders while recognizing
that grassroots organizations have limited resources. Students should be
pressed to explain what will be eliminated if they propose new programs
or, alternatively, how new resources will be obtained.
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Introduction
It is a typically hot day in the rain
forest. Several dozen people crowd under the cooling shade provided by
the thatch roof of the Bahai'i temple. All in the group are Bribri, the
largest indigenous ethnicity in Costa Rica. They have gathered to
discuss the future of their small village of approximately 700 people,
Di Tsi, located in southeastern Costa Rica. The meeting has been
organized by community members who wish to pursue an offer made to the
village by the Canadian Mining Corporation. The Canadian company
proposes to mine for gold and copper in the region. The room is filled
with lively discussions as the attendees wait for the meeting to begin.
Old men chat amicably in Bribri. Young women nurse their babies,
exchanging news with neighbors they have not seen in several weeks. Male
organizers from the pro- and anti-mining forces cluster in their
respective groups. A few crack jokes, while others look somber, perhaps
in anticipation of the conflicts that will surely arise during the
course of the meeting.
The decision whether to embrace mining or
not is one of the most important the village has faced in over a decade.
Even if mining as an industry is rejected, many alternative paths exist
and compete for community approval. Many in the crowd believe that more
is at stake than whether or not to accept the company's offer; the
meeting feels like a kind of referendum on the future of Di Tsi.
Historical Background
The Local Setting
Di Tsi is located in an indigenous reservation of Talamanca, where a
small population of approximately 5200 Bribri people has maintained an
indigenous language and self-identifies as culturally different from the
rest of the nation. Furthermore, the Bribri are regarded by the Costa
Rican government and numerous international organizations as having a
unique indigenous culture.
Indeed, Talamanca is terra incognita for most Costa Ricans, and the
region's character reflects centuries of isolation from the rest of the
country. Literacy and health statistics for Talamanca county testify to
the lack of many health care and education resources provided by the
state to the rest of the country. In terms of per capita income, it is
the poorest county in the country. The statistics on poverty as measured
by the state cannot truly account for all the economic activity that
takes place in Talamanca. Many families support themselves outside of
the cash economy in ways not counted by per capita income. For example,
many in Di Tsi grow subsistence crops and raise livestock to feed their
families. Additionally, most women and a few men engage in extensive
bartering with their neighbors to obtain goods and services they cannot
afford to pay for with cash. This extensive use of non-cash based
economic activities is partly due to the previously mentioned isolation;
many villages are accessible only on foot or by motorized canoe, as no
roads exist to reach them by car or bus.
These data also obscure the extensive political organizing which takes
place in a nation often criticized for passivity and acquiesce. The
region is the site of an broad network of grassroots organizations which
have launched numerous partnerships with international non-governmental
organizations. The residents of Talamanca have been courted by these
agencies for several reasons, including their location in an important
ecosystem, a thorough local knowledge base regarding sustainable use of
this ecosystem, and a unique indigenous culture. Coupled with a
relatively stable political climate, these factors have led NGOs and
foreign embassies to instigate contacts with Talamanca.
A grassroots organization customarily works in a single Talamancan
village (like Di Tsi) on projects including plantain farming
cooperatives, documentation of medicinal plants, reforestation, and
hosting researchers and other visitors. Typically, participants in these
organizations are Bribri men and a few women, all of whom own land and
control relatively more wealth than others in the community.
In recent years, many Bribri men who do not participate in grassroots
organizations have begun to search for ways to stimulate wage-based
employment in the region. Simultaneously, a Canadian mining company has
gained rights to gold and copper ore in Talamanca from the Costa Rican
government. The government maintains that although the Bribri have
exclusive ownership to land within the reservation (and cannot,
technically, sell it to outsiders), the Costa Rican state retains all
mineral rights. The corporation believes that enough gold and copper
exists in the nearby mountains to begin mining by leaching the soil with
mercury to extract the minerals. As a result, the mining company has met
with residents hoping for accelerated economic growth and increased wage
employment.
The pro-mining residents know that without their village's support for
mining, national and international public opinion could pressure the
Costa Rican government to rescind mining rights. Also, they reason, a
unified village may extract more concessions from the wealthy Canadian
corporation. However, they also know that the grassroots organizers
staunchly oppose any form of minerals extraction from Talamanca.
To win local support, the pro-mining residents have invited the entire
community to a town meeting, where a vote will take place on whether to
support the mining operations or not. Because the grassroots
organizations have an influential leadership, they have been invited to
send a representative to speak. Hopefully, some of the rank and file
grassroots members will be more open to considering mining in a meeting
at which both sides are heard.
A representative of a Bribri women's organization also requested an
opportunity to attend and address the crowd. At first, the pro-mining
committee resisted. After all, they thought, women know little about
economic matters. The women's group president persisted, insisting that
women's interests must be heard. The pro-mining committee relented after
someone noted that the grassroots and women's organizations have a rocky
history, with heated controversies between them. Perhaps some women
would consider the benefits offered by mining. An unorganized but highly
respected fourth group is present as well. Several Bribri elders,
although lacking an official organization, attend the meeting in hopes
of informing the village about what kind of decision they would like to
see made. Each of the four groups have strong opinions about the subject
at hand. The room is filled with tension as the meeting begins.
Pro-mining residents
The mining proponents hope to win approval of a Canadian mining
corporation's offer to establish a base in their village. Carmelino has
been chosen by the men to address the group. He is 23 years old and
struggling to support his wife and three children. Mining is the
community's only chance, Carmelino thinks, because many young people
like himself have little land. Unlike more prosperous Bribri, his
father's small parcel did not go very far among six children. Wages, he
believes, are the only hope for his family, and up until now he has
worked as a migrant banana worker, traveling between the plantation and
his family.
Carmelino explains that the corporation believes that enough gold and
copper exists in the nearby mountains to begin mining. The mining base
would offer several benefits. Over three hundred wage-paying jobs would
be created. In addition to providing work for Bribri and Cabecar men,
workers hired from outside the reservation would spend their earnings in
the community, generating income for many small businesses. Carmelino
notes that this would help the local Bribri owners of three small
general stores who currently struggle to stay open. Several farms would
be sold to the company in order to transfer the land to mining
operations.
If the community approves the mining project, the Canadian corporation
will provide a health clinic in the village as well as improvements to
the larger clinic located in the county's capital. Carmelino reminds
them that this might have saved their old and dearly missed paísano,
Cristiano, who died of appendicitis because his family could not get him
to the county clinic on time. The corporation will also build a road
giving Di Tsi access to the rest of Costa Rica via motorized road
vehicles. Carmelino also tells of the company's offer to build a high
school. This would mean that local children would no longer have to
leave at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning to further their education, a
traveling hardship that causes many to drop out. Finally, Carmelino
relates, the company, requiring electricity and running water, would lay
the wiring and tubing providing these utilities to the entire community.
The group advocating mining has the Costa Rican government on its side.
The government has approved the Canadian company's proposal. The company
has offered funding to hold meetings such as the one called for today.
Carmelino reminds the meeting's attendees that mining would offer things
that they cannot possibly get any other way: high wages, modern
conveniences, and increased access to the outside world.
Carmelino concludes his talk with an impassioned plea. "We need to
bring the modern world to Talamanca," he exclaims. "Like many
of my fellow mining advocates, I am a young man. I inherited no land
from my family. I am tired of having to travel to far away towns to
support my Señora and my children. I want to support my family. This is
what a man is supposed to do. Grassroots organizations do not address
the problems that I face. We cannot continue to turn our backs on the
outside world. Some who have already made a living in our village tell
us to wait, that mining will destroy the Bribri way of life. But I say
you can't eat a 'way of life.' My children speak Spanish. They watch
soccer games on TV when they visit the neighboring village. I don't want
them to have to work with a machete like I do. We need to think of how
to help them modernize - good schools, good jobs. Preserving culture is
fine, but we need to improve economically."
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Anti-Mining Grassroots Organizations
The grassroots organizers feel that the mining project would be
extremely detrimental to Di Tsi. Elizondo, the president of Di Tsi's
largest grassroots organization, fears the entrance of mining in
Talamanca. Mining, he dreads, will destroy Talamanca's natural resources
and indigenous culture. Creating a mining base would bring in many
outsiders who would violate the norms valued by the community. For
example, a previous oil exploration project on the reservation brought
an increase in alcohol consumption and the violence and poverty that
accompanied it. Men and women alike, Elizondo knows, are deeply offended
at the prospect the sex trade that develops near mining camps. Also,
Elizondo notes, grassroots organizers struggle to support Bribri
language and farming practices. The influx of outsiders would give
Spanish an even stronger hold as the language of everyday life.
Elizondo tells the group that he and his fellow organizers most fear the
ruin of the nearby forests, which have supported the Bribri people for
hundreds of years. Mining represents a shift towards increasing
dependence on the outside world. Workers cannot eat unless they have a
paycheck signed by the Canadian mining company. The leaching process
could release mercury into the water, threatening the water supply used
for drinking, washing, bathing, and cooking. He fears that the fish and
animals of the forest which provide food would be scared even farther
into the forest, making life harder for those who depend on wild game to
feed their families. Medicinal plants used in an extremely sophisticated
system of healing techniques would be threatened as well. Most
importantly, the forest and the mountains are the divine site where the
Bribri god, Sibu, created the Bribri people. The desecration of the
forest would simply be an end to Bribri culture as understood by
Elizondo and his fellow grassroots organizers.
Just because the grassroots organizations oppose mining, Elizondo notes,
does not mean that they shun contact from the outside world. For several
years, they have worked with environmental non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) to create projects that would allow for economic
production that would not harm the environment. They have also received
extensive funding for cultural survival projects, including Bribri
language education in the schools, documenting medicinal and home
construction uses for plants, and teaching Bribri artisanry.
"We should not allow for the destruction of our community by
mining," shouts Elizondo. "The forest is our way of life. Yes,
we are a poor, humble people. But we should seek an economy that is in
harmony with our way of life. Our organizations are currently following
this path. We invite small groups of tourists in to see our forests and
hear about our culture. We use our farming techniques, which the blancos
call organic, to produce bananas that can be sold at higher prices to
foreign markets. These are projects that the local community can
control. Mining represents a loss of our autonomy and a lack of respect
for our traditions. Perhaps the grassroots organizations cannot address
everyone's needs at this moment, but given the fixed amount of resources
in the area, this is the best option available to the Bribri people. We
must create an alternative that allows for men to support their families
while preserving indigenous culture."
Women's Organizations
The presidents of three women's organizations attended the community
meeting. One of them, Audilia, stood up to address the assembled crowd.
She began by noting that no one had, at first, considered having a woman
speak and that the men seemed surprised that a woman would have an
opinion. No one at the meeting had addressed gender issues, she said.
The mining projects proposed by the Canadian corporation, she continued,
would have distinct ramifications for Bribri and Cabécar women. In
effect, women would lose power within the home. The mining project would
create jobs for men only. Currently, many Talamancan families consist of
two farmers -- both the man and the woman of a household grow plantain
or bananas to sell. Women also make the important contribution of
growing gardens and raising animals to supply the family with food.
Audilia tells the group that an economic shift from farming to mining
would change these predominant household arrangements. Men would leave
all the farming to their compañeras and go to work for the
mining company. The farms would become less productive with less hands
to work on them, and more of the household income would come from
mining. Audilia has seen this situation before, in the 1980s when oil
exploration was conducted for several years. The result was that
household income became the domain of the wage-earning men, while
women's income from farming goes down. Why would mining be any
different? At the same time, many compañeros spend their money
on radios, beer, and other items for themselves instead of pooling it to
support the household. Women and their children will definitely suffer
from this arrangement. And it's not just that women will have less money
- Audilia reminds the group that whoever controls the household income
tends to control the household. While some individual men might
experience economic prosperity, this new income would further
marginalize women within the community and within their own homes.
In addition to this shift in economic power, the women's organizations
are concerned that the arrival of mining companies will further erode
the importance of Bribri culture in community decision making and in
everyday life. Children will be further tempted to abandon Bribri
language. Outsiders do not respect the role of the chichada in
the local economy and instead sell liquor and encourage drunkenness.
This always leads to increased spousal abuse and makes life harder for
women whose compañeros drink.
Yet Audilia and the other women fault the pro-cultural survival
organizers for failing to consider women's needs as well. Why don't they
fight for a local clinic like the pro-mining people do? Women are tired
of seeing their babies die of dysentery or snake bites when a local
clinic could solve such maladies in time. Why don't these activists work
to improve the educational system in Talamanca? We need to teach Bribri
values in the school while recognizing that children must be educated in
order to escape a life of hard labor that many women and men currently
face.
"Speaking of hard labor," Audilia notes, "within
grassroots organizations, initiatives for small farmers are not
benefiting women who farm. Why do banana growers receive technical
assistance and small loans while women growing food for their families
are not considered real farmers? Women raise chickens, pigs, tubers,
fruit, medicinal plants and bananas - aren't they farmers, too?
We oppose the ecological destruction and familial inequality that would
be created by the mining project. Yet we believe that the jobs and
health clinics that the company promises would benefit our community.
Neither side is operating with the needs of women in mind. The benefits
that we would receive from mining or are receiving from grassroots
groups are purely coincidental. They do not outweigh the gender
inequalities perpetuated by each side. Women's needs must be taken into
account if any kind of fair community development is to be
achieved."
Community Elders
During the discussion, many older men and women sit quietly, nodding
in approval to some comments and grunting skeptically at others. Anselmo,
an elderly man of 58, listens intently to the proceedings. For many of
these young people, he thinks, this discussion is new. They do not
remember the projects brought by the blancos in years past. His
father told him of how entire villages were expelled from their own land
and forced to flee into the mountains when the banana plantations were
built. Anselmo himself was a small child when the plantations were
abandoned and the Bribri were allowed to return to their lands, the
lands left for them by Sibu. That was not the only interaction the
village had had with the blanco's economy, but it certainly
demonstrated that any time the blancos wanted something from
Bribri land, one should be skeptical.
Of course, thought Anselmo, not all blancos were harmful. There
had been some who had done good work, helping his sons sell their
plantain at higher prices and recording Bribri religion and healing
practices so they could be taught to young people. But, thought Anselmo,
the usefulness of outside aid will continue only as long as the
community remains in control and listens to the principles laid out by
the ancestors. Families should farm their lands as a collective.
Subsistence food should be more important than earning cash. Trees and
plants have important uses and should not be destroyed for convenience
or short term gain. These were the economic values he had been taught.
Too many blancos would tilt the balance of power in their favor,
letting outsiders control the destiny of Di Tsi. Clearly, the men
supporting mining do not take this into account. Also, they forget that
Sibu declared some things for the blancos and other things for
the Bribri. We are not supposed to seek great riches, he thought. We are
supposed to make enough to get the things we need and to ensure the
continuation of the land, the water, and the animals who live there.
Even the grassroots organizers sometimes forget this - they prioritize
working with outside money from the blancos over tending their
farms. The women are right in this respect, he thinks. Any kind of
economic planning should involve our traditional crops and livestock,
since they sustain us and provide us with a definite source of food,
even if the blancos lose interest in Di Tsi.
Anselmo agreed with many of his contemporaries: grassroots organizers,
including his son and nephew, do offer the best opportunity for cultural
survival and improved income. But they do not think about culture the
same way that everyday community members do. They do not defer to the
elderly they way they should. Instead of caring for their parents in
their last years, they buy them things and spend time working with these
foreigners from non-governmental organizations who come to give our
community money. This is not the way I was taught to interact with the blancos!
That young woman is right, thought Anselmo. I see the importance of
plantain and banana farming, but we need to pay attention to the other
activities we do in this community. She is right; there are problems
like spousal abuse and alcoholism that need to be addressed which
neither side is talking about. However, those women organizers want to
abandon the role that women have played in our communities for years.
They do not understand the dangers of women leaving their homes. They
will fall prey to unscrupulous men. And who will take care of their
children? I agree with much of what they say, but I cannot agree with
all of it. They are too influenced by blanco feminism. And yet
these women may be the only way that we can communicate to the young
people that money or influence with the blancos is not the only
thing our community should be concerned about.
Finally, Anselmo stands and addresses the group in Bribri. "I have
listened to both sides, both the pro-mining and pro-grassroots
organizers. I respect that you are educated men; I cannot read or write.
You are trying to help our community. Yet I have lived for many years
and am concerned that you miss important needs that we elders have. You
reject our wisdom. We do not wish to lose our land to mining, and we do
not trust the blancos you say will help us. You do not see that
we cannot and do not wish to become commercial farmers like you, yet you
do nothing to help us live better. Why can't we be concerned with
growing fruit trees, tubers, and livestock which will help us live
prosperously without more money? After all, this is what Sibu intended
for us Bribri. We want schools and health care for our young people, but
I fear the compromises you young people from both sides are willing to
make with outsiders. Once you give up control of our futures, what will
insure that our people survive?"
"I do not have the backing of the Costa Rican government like you
mining advocates do. I do not have the funding and the influence of the
international environmental community like you grassroots organizers.
But I am one of the abuelos, and you should respect me because I
am your elder. And yet I am not unbending; we must work to improve our
community; our children die of dysentery, many of us our illiterate and
our lives are often hard. I am only asking for a say in the future of my
community, my people. Because you say we have only limited resources, I
want the wisdom of the elders to be considered in shaping a final course
of action."
The community must decide
After a long pause, a young woman stands in the back of the room. No
one is surprised. Ruperta, despite being only twenty, has a reputation
for telling it like it is, often saying what everyone else was afraid to
mention. She begins to address the meeting's speakers, and the crowd, in
Bribri.
"I must say that I thought that this was just going to be a meeting
about mining. I didn't think that there was so many opinions within our
little village. We are one people. We are all Bribri. Yet there are many
conflicting views here. Ket Ket! You all can't even agree completely
across any two groups. The elders disagree with the women on some things
and agree about others. The women support the grassroots groups on some
issues and scream at them for other issues. The pro-mining advocates are
right -- there are many things that our community needs, and the mining
company is offering a unique opportunity to get them. But at what cost?
We never meet like this to discuss how many conflicts and points of
agreement there are, yet our community is slowly being torn apart by the
public rivalry between the pro- and anti- mining forces." Many
heads nodded in agreement.
"I think that we need to discuss several things here. First, we
need to decide if we want to approve the mining company's request. If we
do, we need to think about how this will change our community and how to
protect ourselves from the harms that might occur. If we decide to throw
the mining company out, we need to decide on how to continue. The
grassroots organizations have many good ideas, but they are also causing
harms and excluding many Bribri from any kind of benefit. The side that
wins may not agree with me, but either way we do not have a perfect
situation. What should we do?"
Glossary
Chichada - An exchange in which neighbors go to a
house to work in exchange for Bribri corn liquor and food to be given
after the work is performed.
Indigenous - a person or group who is the original inhabitant of
a land. In Latin America and elsewhere, this is the word used to
describe a person or group that many English speakers would call
"Indian."
Ket Ket - Bribri expression meaning "What a mess!"
Non-governmental organization (NGO) - a non-profit organization
which in theory operates independently from any nation-state. However,
many NGOs receive funding from one or more nations and all are housed
and/or registered with a particular country. Currently, NGOs form the
backbone for many small development projects in Latin America.
Paisano - Fellow member of the same village, ethnicity,
region or nation. In this case, a Bribri neighbor.
Sibu - The divine creator within Bribri cosmology.
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Teaching Notes
This case will explore two important issues
in development studies. First, it will ask students to explain and
analyze two conflicting paradigms in development thought: an economic
growth paradigm and a cultural survival/sustainable development
paradigm. Students will discuss how enacting community projects adherent
to each of these paradigms would affect a rural, indigenous community.
Briefly, a growth approach advocates increasing economic production,
integration into the market economy and resource exploitation as a means
of generating income and reducing poverty. It is somewhat related to a
"modernizationist" perspective we discuss in the sociology of
development. A cultural survival/sustainable development paradigm also
envisions capitalist integration of local communities, but emphasizes
either the preservation of indigenous cultures and natural resources or
a policy of balancing economic growth goals with other long term
community defined needs related to local practices and the environment.
Second, the case will demonstrate that local communities are deeply
divided along intersecting categories of gender, class, age and culture
even within a seemingly homogenous community. Students will be asked to
think about how these categories affect individuals' thinking on
development issues and how power influences who gets to finally decide
development outcomes, even in seemingly "democratic"
situations.
An overarching theme for this case is the problem of trying to meet many
valid and conflicting needs given limited resources. This theme comes
from my own experiences observing the struggles of grassroots and
women's organizations in Latin America. Students will be forced to come
up with trying to address the exclusion of the landless, the women, and
the elders while recognizing that grassroots organizations have limited
resources. Students should be pressed to explain what will be eliminated
if they propose new programs or, alternatively, how new resources will
be obtained.
The Role Play
One challenge of the case is to encourage
students to think creatively about how coalitions and actual solutions
could be created out of a very divisive set of conflicts. To this end, I
recommend that not all the case be taught as a role play. Instead, a
role play could serve to set the scene at the beginning with a class
discussion of possible solutions being used for the bulk of the
available time. Students should be divided so that there are at least
two students brainstorming on the positions of each group. Several
students may participate in the actual role play, or one student may
represent each group. The groups should present their case, perhaps
using some of the teaching questions 1-6, in the order they appear in
the case narrative, with earlier groups being allowed to respond later
groups. After fifteen to twenty minutes, the entire group should create
a list of options that attempt to meet as many of the community needs as
possible given that no additional financial resources are available if
the mining option is rejected. This could be done outside of the role
play or from Ruperta's perspective. Within an hour class time, one
possible allocation of time could be as follows:
5 minutes - students meeting within their group to outline the main
points of their presentation
15-20 minutes - each group presents their points to the rest of the
group, with the earlier groups given a chance for rebuttal. If this is
done, the earlier groups need less initial time, since they will be
given a bit more time in the open discussion. As an alternative, if the
instructor wishes to emphasize power inequalities in development
processes, the women and elders can be given less time to speak,
something which would correspond to what would probably happen in real
life.
30 minutes - Outside of the specific roles assigned and using the
questions below, students should create a list of possible options for
Di Tsi which address the community's multiple interests and concerns.
Teaching questions which may be used in preparation for the case:
-
What are the main points your group wishes to make?
-
What kind of vision does your group have for the future of Di
Tsi?
-
How does your group define development?
-
How does your group define indigenous culture?
-
How does this group incorporate this definition into its view of
development?
-
What are at least two points of agreement and disagreement your group
has with each of the other groups?
These questions should be answered by all participants or by the whole
class:
-
Ask students to consider how some of the following factors influence
the point of view of each group: gender, age, wealth, definitions of
Bribri culture.
-
What kind of power and authority does each group exercise? Consider
these sources of power: the Costa Rican government, international
non-governmental organizations, control of resources, public opinion,
control of the family, wisdom of the elders. Whose interests are most
likely to be represented in a final decision?
-
Should the people of Di Tsi support the mining activities of the
Canadian Mining Corporation? Why or Why not?
If yes, what problems or harms will each group experience due to mining?
What should the community and your group do to address these potential
problems?
If no, what are the problems or exclusions fostered by the grassroots
organizations? How can women's, landless people's and older people's
ideas and needs be addressed within the resources currently available?
(There are no offers of increased expenditures for grassroots
organizations.)
- What do you think is the best position for the future of Di Tsi? For
your group?
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