And the creator began to carve us of cocobolo: Culture, history, forest ecology, and conservation among Wounaan in eastern Panama

This dissertation is about alternative narratives of history, culture, resources, and landscapes of eastern Panama and the political contexts in which they are engaged. Grounded within the lived Wounaan landscape this research explores Wounaan ethnogenesis and how that enduring but dynamic identity is tied to diachronic struggles over resources and lands at the margins of the state. Based on over two years of multi-sited fieldwork in eastern Panama I use a framework of historical ecology and political ecology to unpack the vernacular representation of pristine forests and primitive peoples in eastern Panama. I begin by illustrating these pervasive representations and then demonstrate alternative historical narratives of the region, examining the elevation and suppression of historical actors and events in the production of landscape on the periphery of the state. I contrast this with the less narrated histories of Wounaan ethnogenesis to demonstrate confusion with Embera peoples, Wounaan histories in Colombia and Panama, long interactions with extra-local actors, and differences between Wounaan subgroups. I follow-up by revealing Wounaan cosmology of landscapes and discuss how shamanism and the custom known as ombligando tie Wounaan to the greater cosmos. Wounaan use of forest resources is related to temporal concepts and I consider these with differential resource availability. I also examine commodity chains of artisanal non-timber forest products to illustrate changing commercial resource use and how forest resources are complemented by aquatic and marine ones. Wounaan forest resources are imbedded in a spatial landscape mosaic that results from previous use and tenure regimes. I use chronosequences of plots in different land use and cover types to assess forest succession and then find that these same plots are obscured in remotely sensed satellite imagery. I connect this technology to the modernist activities of conservation and development projects in the region, detail the agency of multiple actors in the tierras colectivas collective land bill, and examine how the politics and participation of projects reinforce stereotypes of people and place. I conclude by summarizing how people at the margin of the state are constantly contesting and negotiating identity and resources and make recommendations about conservation praxis in an ethnically pluralistic landscape.