Polygons

Anthropologists have extensively examined the material politics of bureaucratic rule and technical expertise. But ethnographic analysis must also attend to mathematical abstractions that cannot be reduced any specific kind materiality. A key site appreciate such is georeferentiation Indigenous property polygons in Peru's Amazonian region Loreto. In context climate change biodiversity loss, both Peruvian state communities pinned their hopes on mathematically stabilizing polygons. these are haunted by confusing accumulations informal attempts make sense territories over time. To accumulations, engineer (ingeniero) can serve as a privileged prism. Thinking through provides an opportunity interrogate emerging forms territoriality Amazonia, well contentious contemporary global environmental governance.