Direct sales in the Amazon: Gender, work, and consumption in Ponta de Pedras, Para, Brazil.

摘要

Over the past 30 years, direct sales corporations have increasingly penetrated rural markets in the Third World, and an array of national and multinational direct sales companies is present in the Lower Amazon. This dissertation aims to understand what direct sales companies, like Avon, do for Amazonian residents, what women get out of working in direct sales, and why direct sales beauty and hygiene products are so popular among people who have relatively small incomes. The author examines two broad topics through the lens of direct sales: 1) the intersection of gender roles and household economic arrangements, and 2) how modernity and self-presentation work through the consumption of beauty products. By directly targeting women as sales representatives and consumers, does direct sales open up opportunities to renegotiate traditional work expectations and the unequal status with men, or does it reinforce inequality, a shopping orientation, and unwise spending on beauty products at the expense of household needs? This dissertation is based on eleven months of ethnographic research in the Amazonian municipality of Ponta de Pedras, consisting of participant-observation, interviews with direct sales managers, a focus group session, and a household survey. The results of this study indicate that women who work in direct sales tend to have greater say in how to spend and manage both household and their own money than women who do not work in direct sales. In terms of consumption, Avon and Natura's beauty products are important tools with which Amazon caboclo women can participate in Brazilian beauty ideals and work on themselves as modern beings. In the Amazon, self-presentation and appearance are an index of "progress" and "modernity." In consuming international products sold by local women, residents of Ponta de Pedras can simultaneously engage in the prestige of using global beauty brands and uniquely local beauty values.