CAS Seminar in association with the Oil versus Achuar Working
Group
Presents:
Engaging with Development: A challenge for anthropologists
Wednesday 7th May 2 pm - 5pm:
Social Anthropology Departmental Seminar Room
Speakers
2:00-2:30 Daniela Peluzo (University of Kent)
Inter community video messaging between indigenous communities in
Bolivian and Peruvian Amazon.
20 minutes for Q&A
2:50-3:20 Tom Griffiths (Forest Peoples Programme)
`
Action related research: training indigenous peoples to conduct
anthropological research
20 minutes for Q&A
3:40-4:00 Coffee Break
4:00-4:20 Tony Crook (University of St Andrews)
Indigenous peoples and extractive industries: the role of the
anthropologist and anthropological knowledge.
4:20-5:00 Open Debate
6:30 Drinks at Pub (TBC): A chance to speak to Tony, Daniela and Tom as well as
all other participants after the seminar.
All welcome
Who is the oil versus achuar group?
This group sprang from concern about the disastrous effects of 30 years of oil
exploitation for the Achuar and their forest environment, an indigenous people of the
Peruvian Amazon. We are dedicated to the ongoing discussion of how Anthropology
and other disciplines should best approach tensions rising from increasing presence of
development projects (anywhere from natural resource extractive industries to NGO
volunteering programs) which directly and negatively affect indigenous peoples and
their way of life. Through meetings, seminars, conferences, press releases and web
interfaces we aim to contribute new knowledge to this debate which will address the
serious and immediate concerns of indigenous peoples. At the same time we hope to
discuss and question the role that academics can play to engage with indigenous causes
while also remaining critically aware.
If you are interested in taking part in our first working group discussion, please see the
program attached.
For any questions or comments, or if you would like to get involved in any way. please
contact Katherine (ksn4) or Sarah-Louise (sf58).
Speaker Profiles:
Daniela Peluso is a cultural anthropologist who received her PhD from Columbia
University in 2003. Daniela is now a lecturer in social anthropology at the University of
Kent. Over the last two decades she has worked in Lowland South America, mostly
with Ese Eja communities in the Peruvian and Bolivian Amazon, and in close
collaboration with native federations. She has been involved in various local efforts
ranging from indigenous issues of health, territory and sovereignty. She currently
manages a Lowland South Americanists listserv lowlandsouthamericanists@kent.ac.uk
that provides an interdisciplinary network for European colleagues working in Lowland
South America and neighbouring regions.
Tom Griffiths received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Oxford - with
an ethnographic study of the Huitoto in Colombia. Tom is currently pioneering a new
approach to research methods - training indigenous peoples themselves to do the work
of anthropologists in their own communities.Tom is a coordinator for the Forest Peoples
Programme. Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) advocates an alternative vision of how
forests should be managed and controlled, based on respect for the rights of the peoples
who know them best. FPP works with forest peoples in South America, Central Africa,
South and South East Asia, and Central Siberia to help these communities secure their
rights, build up their own organisations and negotiate with governments and companies
as to how economic development and conservation is best achieved on their lands. For
more information on the program visit: http://www.forestpeoples.org/
Tony Crook is a lecturer in Social Anthropology here at the University of St. Andrews.
His research interests include Anthropology of Melanesia, knowledge-practices,
anthropological epistemology, impacts of and responses to the Ok Tedi mine in Papua
New Guinea and climate change.