Economic Cycles and Surges in Parintins: Historical Change in Socio-spatial Organization and Urban Structure

Abstract

This article treats the economic history and the process of urbanization in
an Amazonian city. Differently from other regions in Latin American, the occupation of the Amazon region involved specific processes of the short-lived surge of an export product induced externallyfollowed by a long period of economic stagnation before the rise of another export product. Since the first colonial occupation of the Amazon, Parintins (Amazonas State) passed through different phases of territorial and socio-spatial organization characterized by the advance and collapse local economic activities. Settlement followed an agricultural and collecting pattern until attaining today's citybased on cultural tourism, the most important event being the Folklore Festival. Located on an island combining floodplain and off-floodplain land use systems, a diversified division of labor arose over time employing workers from different regional originsto meet demand arising from different scales.