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It is often argued that various forms of illegality persist in the Brazilian Amazon because of weak frontier governance. However, very little is understood about how this governance can be strengthened in the context of social and spatial change in a way that will counter illegality. Drawing on the concept of heterotopias, as discussed by Michel Foucault, and the life history of an illegal logger in an agrarian reform settlement project in the state of Pará, this paper approaches frontier governance by conceptualising the 'settlement heterotopia' as a real, lived-in place in which the space that makes up various state and nonstate actors' sites of action interact and continually rearrange power relations. This rearrangement process may or may not work to legitimise illegality and, therefore, strengthening frontier governance involves a process by which collaborative power relations emerge and residents decide to work with the state instead of alongside illegality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pavement of faceted pebbles of haematite ore has been discovered in Amazonia. It occurs on the top of a lateritic plateau in Carajás, beside lakes and marshes where the available palynological data indicate dry periods during the Pleniglacial. The pebbles have pyramidal tops and characteristic polished facets. They are interpreted as ventifacts additionally worn by fluvial action. The possible occurrence of ventifacts may represent the erosional manifestation, hitherto unrecognised, of the Ice Age aridity recorded in these Amazonian lacustrine sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]