Case Watkins
Case Watkins is a cultural and environmental geographer and Associate Professor of Justice Studies at James Madison University. Dr. Watkins studies the interactions of cultures, politics, and environments; how they shape landscapes and societies, and what they can teach us about social and environmental justice.
Published in 2021, his book Palm Oil Diaspora reconstructs the environmental histories and political ecologies of palm oil landscapes, cultures, and economies in Brazil and across the Atlantic World. Blending ethnography, archival research, and geospatial analyses, the book reinterprets transatlantic flows of power and resistance to reveal a complex African diaspora of people, plants, and knowledge.
Based on fieldwork in Brazil, Portugal, Louisiana, and Virginia, his work has examined geographies of race, class, and Hurricane Katrina; transnational migration and the making of New Orleans; political ecologies of foodways, race, and agriculture in the Atlantic World; and agrarian, development, and environmental politics from the Shenandoah Valley to Brazil.
Published in 2021, his book Palm Oil Diaspora reconstructs the environmental histories and political ecologies of palm oil landscapes, cultures, and economies in Brazil and across the Atlantic World. Blending ethnography, archival research, and geospatial analyses, the book reinterprets transatlantic flows of power and resistance to reveal a complex African diaspora of people, plants, and knowledge.
Based on fieldwork in Brazil, Portugal, Louisiana, and Virginia, his work has examined geographies of race, class, and Hurricane Katrina; transnational migration and the making of New Orleans; political ecologies of foodways, race, and agriculture in the Atlantic World; and agrarian, development, and environmental politics from the Shenandoah Valley to Brazil.
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Books by Case Watkins
• Traces the histories and geographies of palm oil from prehistoric times to the present
• Connects Afro-Brazilian knowledge and cultural landscapes with ecological-commercial exchange in the Atlantic World
• Demonstrates how race and power shape environments, communities, and their relationships
As early as the eighteenth century, the Spanish government used incentives of land and money to encourage Spaniards from other regions of the empire—particularly the Canary Islands—to settle in and around New Orleans. Though immigration from Spain declined markedly in the wake of the Louisiana Purchase, the city quickly became the gateway between the United States and the emerging independent republics of Latin America. The burgeoning trade in coffee, sugar, and bananas attracted Cuban and Honduran immigrants to New Orleans, while smaller communities of Hispanics and Latinos from countries such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Brazil also made their marks on the landscapes and neighborhoods of the city, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Combining accessible historical narrative, interviews, and maps that illustrate changing residential geographies, Hispanic and Latino New Orleans is a landmark study of the political, economic, and cultural networks that produced these diverse communities in one of the country’s most distinctive cities.
Winner of the 2015 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize, awarded by the American Association of Geographers.
http://lsupress.org/books/detail/hispanic-and-latino-new-orleans/
See the companion websites at: https://sites.google.com/site/nolalatinobook/
y la version española: https://sites.google.com/site/nolalatinobookespanol/
Articles by Case Watkins
Free access at the link below.
This paper examines the long-term development of palm oil landscapes in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. In contrast to the agroindustrial monocultures that dominate global production, palm oil in Bahia emerges from a biodiverse cultural landscape constructed through five centuries of transatlantic socioecological exchange. Native to West Africa, African oil palms (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) diffused to the New World during colonial overseas expansion, becoming established in Bahia by the seventeenth century. There the palms helped form a complex cultural landscape that continues to supply local alimentary and spiritual demands for palm oil—an essential resource in many Afro-Brazilian cultural expressions. Extending approximately 70 km south of the capital Salvador, Bahia's traditional palm oil landscapes are now officially dubbed the Dendê Coast (Costa do Dendê), following the Kimbundu Bantu-inspired Afro-Brazilian term for palm oil. Historically colonial officials and elite Brazilians showed little interest in Bahia's palm oil economy, effectively conceding it to Afro-descendants until the mid-twentieth century. Since then, a series of modern development interventions have sought to transform the complex, biodiverse landscapes of the Dendê Coast into a legible oil palm monoculture based on an improved hybrid variety. Yet despite recurrent top-down efforts, emergent or " subspontaneous " groves and traditional polycultural landscapes continue to dominate land use in the region. Drawing on ethnography, landscape interpretations, archives, and geospatial analysis, this paper analyzes the historical development of Bahia's palm oil economy, recounting five centuries of socioecological changes on the Dendê Coast. The study integrates recent geographical treatments of the African diaspora with theories of complexity to comprehend the ongoing proliferation of Bahia's traditional palm oil landscapes despite top-down promotion of modern monocultures.
Please email me at casewatkins [@] gmail.com for a copy.
Palm oil is the most produced edible oil. Typically grown in monoculture in denuded tropical rainforests, cultivation practices of the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) have drawn criticism from researchers and environmentalists. Previous research has posited oil palm agroforestry as a sustainable alternative to monoculture. Drawing from a series of interviews and field observations, this article examines Bahian oil palm agroecologies in the contexts of Atlantic world historical processes and modernist agricultural development. The analysis reveals how Bahia's subspontaneous oil palm groves and their ethnoecological management systems represent both an important African contribution to colonial landscape transformation and a baseline model for sustainable agriculture.
Resumo:
O dendê é o óleo comestível mais produzido. Normalmente cultivada em monocultura nos trópicos desmatados, práticas de cultivo do dendezeiro (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) convidaram críticas dos pesquisadores e ambientalistas. Pesquisas recentes sugerem a agrofloresta do dendezeiro como uma alternativa sustentável à monocultura. Com uma série de entrevistas e observações de campo, este artigo examina as agroecologias do dendezeiro da Bahia nos contextos do Mundo Atlântico e o desenvolvimento agrícola modernista. A análise revela como bosques subespontâneos de dendezeiros da Bahia e seus sistemas de gestão etnoecológico representam uma contribuição Africana importante à transformação colonial das paisagens e também o primeiro passa de um modelo da agricultura sustentável.
Please e-mail me at casewatkins [@] gmail.com for a copy
Disasters are acute events that affect populated landscapes at discrete points in their history. In many locations, these discrete events occur repeatedly over time. This chronology has chorological implications in that one generation's disaster reconstruction zone could be the next generation's disaster site. This build-disaster-rebuild approach also occurs within the context of changing social and environmental conditions, the interactions of which have direct implications to the outcome of a specific disaster event. This research focuses on the changing social geography of a large urban disaster site (New Orleans, Louisiana) by employing the U.S. Census, digital inundation data, and a GIS to conduct a spatial analysis of flood patterns during Hurricane Katrina. Following the initial analysis, we replicate our methodology across the three decennial census periods prior to 2000. While the initial analysis discerns the statistical relationship among race, income, and Katrina's deluge, the subsequent temporal analysis illuminates the changing social patterns that preceded the Katrina-era landscape. In this manner, we use hurricane inundation as a lens to view 35 years of socio-spatial change in New Orleans.
Resumen:
Los desastres son eventos agudos que afectan paisajes poblados en puntos discretos de su historia. En muchos lugares estos eventos discretos se producen repetidamente en el tiempo. Esta cronología tiene implicaciones corológicas en esa zona de reconstrucción de desastres de esa generación que podría ser el lugar de catástrofe de la próxima generación. Este enfoque de construcción-reconstrucción de desastres también se produce en el contexto de las cambiantes condiciones sociales y ambientales, de las cuales interacciones tienen implicaciones directas para el resultado de un desastre específico. Esta investigación se enfoca en la cambiante geografía social de un lugar de gran catástrofe urbana (Nueva Orleans, Louisiana), utilizando el Censo de los EE.UU., los datos digitales de inundación, y un SIG para llevar a cabo un análisis espacial de los patrones de las inundaciones durante el huracán Katrina. Siguiendo el análisis inicial, replicamos nuestra metodología en los tres períodos censales decenales anteriores al 2000. Si bien el análisis inicial discierne la relación estadística entre raza, ingreso, y el fenómeno de Katrina, el análisis temporal posterior acentúa los cambiantes patrones sociales que precedieron el paisaje de la era de Katrina. De esta manera, utilizamos las inundaciones del huracán como un lente para ver 35 años de cambio socio-espacial en Nueva Orleans.
Keywords:
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Historical Geography, Socio-Spatial Change
Please e-mail me at casewatkins [@] gmail.com for a copy
This paper examines the historical ties between Cuba and
New Orleans. It makes a summary of the economic relationships
between this country and this U. S. city from the 18th
century until the present day. Additionally, potentially
positive effects these ties could have on New Orleans and
Cuba’s culture and economy when US-Cuba relations are
completely normalized in the future are examined as well.
Resumen
Exploración de los lazos históricos entre Cuba y Nueva
Orleáns. Se ofrece un resumen de las conexiones económicas
entre las dos localidades desde el siglo xviii hasta
hoy. Además, se argumentan las repercusiones positivas
que estos vínculos podrían tener en la cultura y la economía
de Nueva Orleáns y Cuba, cuando las relaciones
cubano-estadounidenses se allanaran en el futuro.
Book Chapters by Case Watkins
Relatórios de pesquisa by Case Watkins
O azeite-de-dendê, extraído do dendezeiro (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.), conhecido no mercado internacional como óleo de palma, é o óleo vegetal mais produzido e consumido no mundo, e comanda uma indústria global de cerca de 50 bilhões de dólares. Em contraste das empresas e monoculturas agroindustriais que dominam a produção global, uma paisagem da biodiversidade dos dendezeiros na Bahia tem fornecido demandas locais para o azeite-de-dendê, um recurso cultural muito procurado nos mercados locais e nacionais para usos culinários e culturais.
Este relatório reconta a formação histórica das paisagens do dendê na Bahia e analisa a economia contemporânea do dendê no estado. Este relatório apresenta a sabedoria local das comunidades na Bahia que trabalhavam e ainda trabalham com o dendê. Meu objetivo neste relatório é coletar, analisar e devolver essas informações às comunidades com as quais colaboro.
Projeto dendezeiro da Bahia é um projeto de pesquisa acadêmica conduzido por Case “Cássio” Watkins, professor da geografia dos EUA. O projeto realizou a pesquisa de campo analisada na sua tese de doutorado, escrita em inglês e disponível mediante solicitação. De 2009-2015, o projeto realizou entrevistas e outras pesquisas etnográficas, bem como pesquisas arquivísticas, geoespaciais e outras sobre a história e a economia contemporânea do dendê na Bahia-Brasil (veja a Figura 1). Este relatório resume e circula os resultados publicados naquela tese e oferece recomendações para o fortalecimento da economia do dendê na Bahia. Ao reconstruir as histórias socioambientais da formação dos dendezais e analisar a produção contemporânea do dendê na Bahia, este projeto busca promover as heranças ecológicas afro-brasileiras e realizar uma economia do dendê mais justa e lucrativa para todos os envolvidos.
A Paisagem Afro-Brasileira, Vol I: Passado, presente e futuro do dendê na Bahia
A Paisagem Afro-Brasileira, Vol II: Cultura, ecologia e espiritualidade na mata atlântica da Bahia
Ambos disponíveis aqui: https://dendezeirodabahia.wordpress.com/relatorios/
Book Reviews by Case Watkins
• Traces the histories and geographies of palm oil from prehistoric times to the present
• Connects Afro-Brazilian knowledge and cultural landscapes with ecological-commercial exchange in the Atlantic World
• Demonstrates how race and power shape environments, communities, and their relationships
As early as the eighteenth century, the Spanish government used incentives of land and money to encourage Spaniards from other regions of the empire—particularly the Canary Islands—to settle in and around New Orleans. Though immigration from Spain declined markedly in the wake of the Louisiana Purchase, the city quickly became the gateway between the United States and the emerging independent republics of Latin America. The burgeoning trade in coffee, sugar, and bananas attracted Cuban and Honduran immigrants to New Orleans, while smaller communities of Hispanics and Latinos from countries such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Brazil also made their marks on the landscapes and neighborhoods of the city, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Combining accessible historical narrative, interviews, and maps that illustrate changing residential geographies, Hispanic and Latino New Orleans is a landmark study of the political, economic, and cultural networks that produced these diverse communities in one of the country’s most distinctive cities.
Winner of the 2015 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize, awarded by the American Association of Geographers.
http://lsupress.org/books/detail/hispanic-and-latino-new-orleans/
See the companion websites at: https://sites.google.com/site/nolalatinobook/
y la version española: https://sites.google.com/site/nolalatinobookespanol/
Free access at the link below.
This paper examines the long-term development of palm oil landscapes in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. In contrast to the agroindustrial monocultures that dominate global production, palm oil in Bahia emerges from a biodiverse cultural landscape constructed through five centuries of transatlantic socioecological exchange. Native to West Africa, African oil palms (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) diffused to the New World during colonial overseas expansion, becoming established in Bahia by the seventeenth century. There the palms helped form a complex cultural landscape that continues to supply local alimentary and spiritual demands for palm oil—an essential resource in many Afro-Brazilian cultural expressions. Extending approximately 70 km south of the capital Salvador, Bahia's traditional palm oil landscapes are now officially dubbed the Dendê Coast (Costa do Dendê), following the Kimbundu Bantu-inspired Afro-Brazilian term for palm oil. Historically colonial officials and elite Brazilians showed little interest in Bahia's palm oil economy, effectively conceding it to Afro-descendants until the mid-twentieth century. Since then, a series of modern development interventions have sought to transform the complex, biodiverse landscapes of the Dendê Coast into a legible oil palm monoculture based on an improved hybrid variety. Yet despite recurrent top-down efforts, emergent or " subspontaneous " groves and traditional polycultural landscapes continue to dominate land use in the region. Drawing on ethnography, landscape interpretations, archives, and geospatial analysis, this paper analyzes the historical development of Bahia's palm oil economy, recounting five centuries of socioecological changes on the Dendê Coast. The study integrates recent geographical treatments of the African diaspora with theories of complexity to comprehend the ongoing proliferation of Bahia's traditional palm oil landscapes despite top-down promotion of modern monocultures.
Please email me at casewatkins [@] gmail.com for a copy.
Palm oil is the most produced edible oil. Typically grown in monoculture in denuded tropical rainforests, cultivation practices of the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) have drawn criticism from researchers and environmentalists. Previous research has posited oil palm agroforestry as a sustainable alternative to monoculture. Drawing from a series of interviews and field observations, this article examines Bahian oil palm agroecologies in the contexts of Atlantic world historical processes and modernist agricultural development. The analysis reveals how Bahia's subspontaneous oil palm groves and their ethnoecological management systems represent both an important African contribution to colonial landscape transformation and a baseline model for sustainable agriculture.
Resumo:
O dendê é o óleo comestível mais produzido. Normalmente cultivada em monocultura nos trópicos desmatados, práticas de cultivo do dendezeiro (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) convidaram críticas dos pesquisadores e ambientalistas. Pesquisas recentes sugerem a agrofloresta do dendezeiro como uma alternativa sustentável à monocultura. Com uma série de entrevistas e observações de campo, este artigo examina as agroecologias do dendezeiro da Bahia nos contextos do Mundo Atlântico e o desenvolvimento agrícola modernista. A análise revela como bosques subespontâneos de dendezeiros da Bahia e seus sistemas de gestão etnoecológico representam uma contribuição Africana importante à transformação colonial das paisagens e também o primeiro passa de um modelo da agricultura sustentável.
Please e-mail me at casewatkins [@] gmail.com for a copy
Disasters are acute events that affect populated landscapes at discrete points in their history. In many locations, these discrete events occur repeatedly over time. This chronology has chorological implications in that one generation's disaster reconstruction zone could be the next generation's disaster site. This build-disaster-rebuild approach also occurs within the context of changing social and environmental conditions, the interactions of which have direct implications to the outcome of a specific disaster event. This research focuses on the changing social geography of a large urban disaster site (New Orleans, Louisiana) by employing the U.S. Census, digital inundation data, and a GIS to conduct a spatial analysis of flood patterns during Hurricane Katrina. Following the initial analysis, we replicate our methodology across the three decennial census periods prior to 2000. While the initial analysis discerns the statistical relationship among race, income, and Katrina's deluge, the subsequent temporal analysis illuminates the changing social patterns that preceded the Katrina-era landscape. In this manner, we use hurricane inundation as a lens to view 35 years of socio-spatial change in New Orleans.
Resumen:
Los desastres son eventos agudos que afectan paisajes poblados en puntos discretos de su historia. En muchos lugares estos eventos discretos se producen repetidamente en el tiempo. Esta cronología tiene implicaciones corológicas en esa zona de reconstrucción de desastres de esa generación que podría ser el lugar de catástrofe de la próxima generación. Este enfoque de construcción-reconstrucción de desastres también se produce en el contexto de las cambiantes condiciones sociales y ambientales, de las cuales interacciones tienen implicaciones directas para el resultado de un desastre específico. Esta investigación se enfoca en la cambiante geografía social de un lugar de gran catástrofe urbana (Nueva Orleans, Louisiana), utilizando el Censo de los EE.UU., los datos digitales de inundación, y un SIG para llevar a cabo un análisis espacial de los patrones de las inundaciones durante el huracán Katrina. Siguiendo el análisis inicial, replicamos nuestra metodología en los tres períodos censales decenales anteriores al 2000. Si bien el análisis inicial discierne la relación estadística entre raza, ingreso, y el fenómeno de Katrina, el análisis temporal posterior acentúa los cambiantes patrones sociales que precedieron el paisaje de la era de Katrina. De esta manera, utilizamos las inundaciones del huracán como un lente para ver 35 años de cambio socio-espacial en Nueva Orleans.
Keywords:
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Historical Geography, Socio-Spatial Change
Please e-mail me at casewatkins [@] gmail.com for a copy
This paper examines the historical ties between Cuba and
New Orleans. It makes a summary of the economic relationships
between this country and this U. S. city from the 18th
century until the present day. Additionally, potentially
positive effects these ties could have on New Orleans and
Cuba’s culture and economy when US-Cuba relations are
completely normalized in the future are examined as well.
Resumen
Exploración de los lazos históricos entre Cuba y Nueva
Orleáns. Se ofrece un resumen de las conexiones económicas
entre las dos localidades desde el siglo xviii hasta
hoy. Además, se argumentan las repercusiones positivas
que estos vínculos podrían tener en la cultura y la economía
de Nueva Orleáns y Cuba, cuando las relaciones
cubano-estadounidenses se allanaran en el futuro.
O azeite-de-dendê, extraído do dendezeiro (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.), conhecido no mercado internacional como óleo de palma, é o óleo vegetal mais produzido e consumido no mundo, e comanda uma indústria global de cerca de 50 bilhões de dólares. Em contraste das empresas e monoculturas agroindustriais que dominam a produção global, uma paisagem da biodiversidade dos dendezeiros na Bahia tem fornecido demandas locais para o azeite-de-dendê, um recurso cultural muito procurado nos mercados locais e nacionais para usos culinários e culturais.
Este relatório reconta a formação histórica das paisagens do dendê na Bahia e analisa a economia contemporânea do dendê no estado. Este relatório apresenta a sabedoria local das comunidades na Bahia que trabalhavam e ainda trabalham com o dendê. Meu objetivo neste relatório é coletar, analisar e devolver essas informações às comunidades com as quais colaboro.
Projeto dendezeiro da Bahia é um projeto de pesquisa acadêmica conduzido por Case “Cássio” Watkins, professor da geografia dos EUA. O projeto realizou a pesquisa de campo analisada na sua tese de doutorado, escrita em inglês e disponível mediante solicitação. De 2009-2015, o projeto realizou entrevistas e outras pesquisas etnográficas, bem como pesquisas arquivísticas, geoespaciais e outras sobre a história e a economia contemporânea do dendê na Bahia-Brasil (veja a Figura 1). Este relatório resume e circula os resultados publicados naquela tese e oferece recomendações para o fortalecimento da economia do dendê na Bahia. Ao reconstruir as histórias socioambientais da formação dos dendezais e analisar a produção contemporânea do dendê na Bahia, este projeto busca promover as heranças ecológicas afro-brasileiras e realizar uma economia do dendê mais justa e lucrativa para todos os envolvidos.
A Paisagem Afro-Brasileira, Vol I: Passado, presente e futuro do dendê na Bahia
A Paisagem Afro-Brasileira, Vol II: Cultura, ecologia e espiritualidade na mata atlântica da Bahia
Ambos disponíveis aqui: https://dendezeirodabahia.wordpress.com/relatorios/
Palm oil extracted from the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is the world’s most produced vegetable oil, commanding a roughly 50 billion dollar global industry. In contrast to the agroindustrial firms and monocultures that dominate global production, a biodiverse cultural landscape of African oil palms in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia has for centuries supplied local alimentary and spiritual demands for palm oil—an essential resource in Afro-Brazilian cultures. Drawing on fieldwork, ethnography, archives, GIScience, quantitative analysis, and travelers’, rare, and secondary accounts, this dissertation provides the first comprehensive study of Bahia’s palm oil landscapes, cultures, and economies. Analyzing seven centuries of social and ecological change, the study contributes to environmental histories of colonialism and the African diaspora, and advances theories and practices of agricultural development, environmental governance, and the politics of knowledge.
Native to West Africa, African oil palms have supported cultures and economies on that continent for millennia. During colonial overseas expansion, Elaeis guineensis and its products traversed the Atlantic as early African contributions to the Columbian Exchange of beings, biota, and ideas. The palm’s subsequent diffusion in Bahia combined African traditions of palm oil production and consumption with European and Indigenous knowledges in the Americas to found and sustain diasporic Afro-Brazilian cultures and economies. This study examines the early and ongoing development of Bahia’s African oil palm cultures and landscapes, connecting transatlantic cultural, ecological, and economic circulations to reconstruct the emergence of an Afro-Brazilian landscape. Building on its historical analyses, the study culminates with an ethnography of Bahia’s contemporary palm oil economy. Integrating theories of resistance, development, and complexity, the final chapter maps the constituents of, and flows of power through, Bahia’s palm oil economy to scrutinize the modern policies and interventions that seek to redirect and control the network.
The dissertation concludes by juxtaposing Bahia’s Afro-Brazilian landscape with the epistemological constraints of modern development. It argues that diasporic knowledges, such as those underpinning Bahia’s palm oil economy, represent potent but generally untapped fonts of place-based development practice with potential to transform global palm oil production and enact more viable and abundant forms of development.
RESUMO:
O azeite-de-dendê (ou óleo de palma) extraído do dendezeiro (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) é o óleo vegetal mais produzido no mundo, em torno do qual se estrutura uma indústria global que movimenta cerca de 50 bilhões de dólares. Ao contrário do que ocorre na maioria dos empreendimentos agroindustriais baseados na monocultura, que dominam a produção global, a paisagem cultural de dendezeiros localizados no estado da Bahia, na região Nordeste do Brasil, é marcada pela biodiversidade. Por séculos dendezeiros na Bahia têm suprido a demanda por este óleo, tanto para uso alimentar, como também religiosos e cultural. Tais demandas evidenciam também o papel do azeite-de-dendê como um recurso fundante de tradições culturais afro-brasileiras. Pesquisas de campo diversas, estudos etnográficos, pesquisas em arquivos, análise georeferenciada, estudos quantitativos, registros históricos e antropológicos dos primeiros exploradores, documentos raros e diversas outras fontes secundárias foram insumos para esta pesquisa, a qual resulta em um estudo abrangente das paisagens culturais e economias do azeite-de-dendê no estado da Bahia.
A análise de sete séculos de mudanças sociais e ecológicas, auxilia este estudo no estabelecimento de conexões entre histórias coloniais, ambientais e a diaspóricas com políticas contemporâneas de desenvolvimento agrícola, produção de biocombustíveis e governança ambiental. O intuito de tal esforço é ampliar e diversificar o conhecimento sobre a história e economia do dendê na Bahia e detalhar sua ligação empírica com iniciativas de promoção do desenvolvimento em sentido mais amplo.
Nativo da África Ocidental, o dendezeiro tem apoiado o desenvolvimento cultural e econômico do continente africano por milênios. Durante a expansão colonial ultramarina, o dendezeiro e seus produtos derivados atravessaram o Atlântico, no intercâmbio colombiano de seres, biota e idéias. A difusão subsequente da palma pela Bahia acabou por promover a combinação de tradições africanas de produção e consumo do azeite-de-dendê, com conhecimentos europeus e indígenas, que serviram para ajudar a fundar e sustentar culturas e economias afro-brasileiras em diáspora. Este estudo examina o desenvolvimento inicial e contínuo de paisagens de dendezeiros da Bahia, conectando circulações transatlânticas culturais, ecológicas e econômicas para reconstruir analiticamente o processo de desenvolvimento de uma paisagem afro-brasileira. Com base em suas análises históricas, o estudo culmina com uma etnografia da economia contemporânea do dendê na Bahia. Integrando teorias de resistência, complexidade e desenvolvimento, este estudo mapeia os fatores fundantes e fluxos de poder que orientam a economia de dendê na Bahia para assim examinar criticamente a produção do azeite-de-dendê como uma iniciativa moderna de desenvolvimento.
Esta tese justapõe a paisagem afro-brasileira da Bahia com as limitações epistemológicas típicas de processos modernos de desenvolvimento. Assim sendo, conhecimentos diaspóricos, como os que se materializaram na economia do dendê na Bahia, representam potenciais oportunidades de desenvolvimento de base local, geralmente inexploradas, que poderiam transformar a produção global de óleo de palma e ao mesmo tempo disseminar formas mais justas e efetivas de desenvolvimento socioecológico.