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183). Such values were to become significant in the different cycles of frontier creation and rediscovery of the Selva Central from the mid-19th century onwards. 19th-century frontier agency Whereas the 18th-century snapshot pointed to the discursive reformulation of indigenous knowledge and practices into scientific categories as frontier knowledge, the 19th century involved intensified government efforts to incorporate the Selva Central (Santos-Granero and Barclay 1995). The drama of moving European immigrants to Amazonia is particularly revelatory in terms of the nature – and limitations – of frontier ideologies of the time.

My affiliation with IBC was a golden opportunity to access local environmental processes, in which they were actively taking part. Access was easiest in relation to conservation professionals, government officials and indigenous leaders. While it was practical and provided easy access to have some level of recognition, the ambiguity of my role was particularly challenging during the first months. Among NGOs I was The Peruvian Amazon and Post-frontier Ethnography 33 a colleague, friend and professional with NGO experience, but also someone potentially “monitoring what we are doing”, as one ingeniero put it.

I define this shift as linear in the sense that it conveys linear causality and opportunity through purposeful and morally sound action leading to (more) sustainable outcomes building on, rather than replacing, local subjectivities, knowledges and practices. This linear causality in narrative terms resolves the frontier drama through projections of expected social change with actors, act, scenes and agency “plotted” to achieve sustainability at the frontier. Bateson spoke of the “systemic nature of the world” and against the idea of governments thinking only in terms of “purpose and common sense”.