The State of Amazonia - Natalia Buitron (University of Cambridge) and Luiz Costa (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) in conversation

Please join Natalia Buitron (University of Cambridge) and Luiz Costa (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) in a conversation about 

The State of Amazonia 

Chaired by Matei Candea

With comments by Yael Navaro, Sian Lazar, and Rupert Stasch

Amazonian anthropology came of age by identifying what was unique about the region, often in contradistinction with received knowledge from other ethnographic regions. Anthropologists rejected conventional understandings of body, nature, society, and power and put forward new idioms to capture the singularity of the social imagination in the region. A conversation about the concepts and approaches we deploy is particularly welcome at a moment when the region is in rapid transformation, and many Amazonians are eager to voice their own positions and questions.  

In this conversation, Natalia and Luiz discuss the state of Amazonian anthropology. They focus on two concepts - autonomy and ownership - and hope they might help us understand kinship, politics and change. Do we need comparative concepts to study Amazonia, or do we need Amazonian concepts to study the world? Intrigued by the potential of cross-fertilising these concepts, they reflect more broadly on the contribution of Amazonian ethnography to general anthropology.

16:15 – 17:30 – Conversation 

17:30 – 18:30 – Reception generously supported by the William Wyse Fund

All welcome.

Please find a map to the room here