University of Liverpool

Faculty Member, School of Cultures, Languages, and Area Studies

Reader in Latin American Anthropology

Thesis Title: Death in a Distant Place: The Politics of Shuar Shamans of the Ecuadorian Amazon

About

As a graduate student at Columbia University I focused on Amazonian ethnology, globalization and development, and interpretive anthropology. As a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell university's Society for the Humanities, and as a summer fellow of the School for Criticism and Theory, I pursued my interest in post-colonial and post-structuralist theory. Through graduate school, my postdoctoral year, and eight years as an assistant and then associate professor at Ohio University, my primary commitment has been to the Shuar nation in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Prior to Ecuadorian colonization of the region in the 20th century, Shuar (like many other sub-Andean hunter-gardeners) lived in small clusters of semi-nomadic households, connected by the loosest of kin and political ties. In the 1950s, with the support of Catholic missionaries, they coalesced into nucleated settlements called centros, and in the 1960s they formed a federation - the first indigenous political organization the Amazon, and arguably the first indigenous political organization in Ecuador - with an elected, centralized, and hierarchically organized leadership. My dissertation research documented this ongoing process through a history of changing conflicts, both among Shuar and between Shuar and settlers. My research has since shifted to two other themes that were implicit in my dissertation and fundamental to the study of colonialism: the processes (material as well as discursive practices) through which historical subjects emerge, and how they take shape in shifting fields of power and desire.

I am currently pursuing three projects that explore the ongoing transformation of ethnic identity as Shuar participate in new economic and political arenas. (1) One area of research concerns the intersection of gendered and ethnic identities. For much of the twentieth century, most anthropologists portrayed Amazonian women as subordinate to men. Over the past twenty years several researchers have proposed more sophisticated models of indigenous notions of "power," and have called attention to complex forms of gender politics hitherto ignored. I have recently collected life histories of Shuar women that clearly illustrate the important role women play in Shuar politics. (2) Another area of research focuses on the way indigenous identity and modernity are constructed through "community-based eco-tourism." Currently, Shuar are interested in developing tourism not only as a way to underwrite community development, but as a way to resist state-promoted oil-exploration. After finishing a book on Shuar women and politics, I hope to begin a year-long collaborative study that will assess the current impact of tourism, discuss expectations and aspirations, and explore alternative models for tourism and tourism-based development. (3) A third area of research focuses on the involvement of Shuar Federation leaders in the national indigenous movement and the plurinational political movement. Although indigenous people constitute as much as 40% of Equador's population, prior to 1996 they were practically excluded from all political institutions. Since then, indigenous people have been elected to mayorships and to the National Congress. Through local and national political participation, the plurinational movement is explicitly challenging prior notions of indigenous identity, as well as the viability of the modern liberal nation-state.

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