Geographical Areas of Specialization: Peru;
Amazonia/Andes; elsewhere, although mostly Latin America
Topical Interests:
Social theory, political economy and ecology, race, ethnicity,
multiculturalism, social movements, indigenous, afro-descendent,
and human rights, sustainable development, cultural property, activist
anthropology, historical anthropology, medical anthropology, ethnobotany
Current Courses:
E210 Human Diversity Across Space and Time, E600 Modernities
Profile:
My initial forays into the field of social/cultural anthropology
led me to do work on medicine and healing, particularly on the inter-cultural
convergence of and political-economic conflict between biomedical
development campaigns and shamanic healing in Amazonia . This interest
also led me to explore contemporary instances of pharmaceutical
bioprospection, cultural property claims over traditional medical
knowledge, and sustainable development initiatives, based on research
in Peru . Eventually, I became very interested in the strategies
contemporary indigenous peoples, other local groups, and economically
impoverished nation-states use to confront transnational bio-prospectors
and to stake ownership claims over their various cultures and natures.
My work on cultural property, political ecology, and
indigenous rights has taken me in a variety of directions. I am
currently working on a manuscript titled CUSTOMIZING INDIGENEITY
. This book project aims to present a compelling theoretical
and ethnographic account of the ways in which indigenous movements
dialectically politicize and practice culture in and through more
global histories. Based on dissertation work with the Awajun
of Peru 's selva alta , I demonstrate how and why
this ethnic group came to occupy a vanguard position within Peru
's indigenous movements. More importantly, I show how their representatives
rearticulate modern leadership in terms of the culturally familiar
(and male-gendered) practices and values associated with visionary
warriors in an attempt not merely to confront "modernity" but rather,
more precisely, to customize it.
The discovery of a deep interest in Peruvian history and contemporary
multicultural politics has also required a broader regional, geographic,
and political economic/ecological understanding. And this is reflected
in my comparative interests in social movements, development policies,
eco-politics, and ethnic community/state relations throughout Latin
America , but particularly in the Andean/Amazonian countries. Hence,
I am also currently writing about the ups and downs of indigenous/afro-descendent/state
politics and contemporary multicultural policies within simultaneously
national, Latin American, and global frameworks. Another current
writing project deals with the isomorphism between race, geography,
and ethnic identity politics by looking at the Peruvian state's
multicultural negotiations with Andean, Amazonian, and Afro-descendent
representatives.
In the near future, I envision launching another research project
on indigenous entrepreneurialism within a broadly comparative Latin
American (and possibly more global) framework. In particular, I
am interested in how indigenous groups and indigenous advocates
perceive the fate of group identity in the face of a global market,
how they understand local relations to nature in the face of a global
political ecology, and how they view customary practice in the face
of opportunities for cultural entrepreneurialism.
Selected Publications:
| In Preperation |
Customizing Indigenteity: Paths to a Cultural Polics in Neoliberal Peru. (book manuscript) |
| Forthcoming |
"Introduction: On Roots, Race, and Multicultural Sovereignty in Latin America" for special issue of Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology |
| Forthcoming |
"Negros, Noble Savages, and Noble Indians: The Historical Hierarchies of Difference behind Peru's Multicultural Curtain" for special issue of Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology |
| Under Review |
"Tiwi's Creek: Indigenous Movements and Masculinity on the Contested Peruvian Border" invited contribution for a special issue of Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies |
| 2006 |
"Incas, Indios, and Indigenism in Peru" Reprinted in Dispatches from Latin America: On the Frontlines Against Neoliberalism. NACLA. Leftword Press. |
| 2006 |
"Negotiating Multicultural Citizenship and Ethnic Politics in 21st Century Latin America" In Turning the Tide? Latin America After Neoliberalism. New Press. |
| 2006 |
"Getting over the Andes: The Geo-Eco-Politics of Indigenous Movements in Peru's 21st Century Inca Empire" Journal of Latin American Studies. |
| 2005 |
"Incas, Indios, and Indigenism in Peru" NACLA Report on the Americas, Jan./Feb. 38(4) |
| 2004 |
"Indigenous People Incorportated? Culture as Politics, Culture as Property in Contemporary Bioprospection Deals" Current Anthropology 45(2):211-237. |
| 2002 |
Co-authored with Mamais Juep Greene "Settlers Clash with Aguaruna in Peru's Amazon" Cultural Survival Quarterly, Spring, 26(1): 72-73 |
| 2002 |
Co-authored with Mamais Juep Greene "La Jungla sin Justicia" Quehacer, Enero-Febrero, 134:20-23 |
| 2002 |
"Intellectual Property, Resources or Territory? Reframing the Debate over Indigenous Rights, Traditional Knowledge, and Pharmaceutical Bioprospection." In Truth Claims: Representation and Human Rights, Marck Bradley and Patrice Petro, eds. p. 229-249. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press |
| 1998 |
"The Shaman's Needle: Development, Shamanic Agency, and Intermedicality in Aguaruna Lands, Peru." American Ethnologist 25 (4):634-658 |
