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International boundaries in the lowland Amazon forest were historically drawn according to the scramble for natural resources. This paper uses a case study from the Peruvian and Brazilian border and the Ucayali and Jurua watersheds to understand the political ecology of a border process from contact to 2004. Results demonstrate how global resource demand and ecological gradients drove boundary formation and the relocation of indigenous labor to the borderlands. Forgotten in the forest after the fall of rubber prices, the borderland Ashaninka emerged to challenge loggers incited by the global demand for high grade timber. The transboundary impacts of this resource boom highlight discrepancies between the Brazilian and Peruvian Ashaninka's ability to mobilize power. A transboundary political ecology framework is necessary to grasp the heterogeneity and dynamism of natural resource management along boundaries and borderlands forged and tempered by historical resource booms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Located at a strategic crossroads of eastern Amazonia, Marabá has long been known as a volatile, even violent Brazilian boomtown. This study examines the city's sense of place with regard to alternative perceptions of the regional frontier experience: the unstable, resource-extractive “hollow frontier”; the linear, sequential “development frontier”; and the hybrid, socially segmented “post-frontier.” By asking whether, why, and how such understandings resonate with residents, we highlight the social dynamics of place-making. Our interviews suggest that distinctive frontier visions reflect residents' socioeconomic positions and relationships to state-promoted, capital-intensive investment projects. These findings help to explain why citizens favor or oppose dominant forms of regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]