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PANEL 03: Indigenous futures

PANEL 03: Indigenous futures: anthropology of the forthcoming in native Amazonia

SALSA XII Sesquiannual Conference – Vienna, 2019

 

Indigenous futures: anthropology of the forthcoming in native AmazoniaOrganizers:
Camilla Morelli, University of Bristol, UK
Amy Penfield, University of Bristol, UK

Chairs: Camilla Morelli, Amy Penfield

Abstract: This panel considers how indigenous Amazonians imagine, discuss and negotiate the future amidst radical economic and political changes that are affecting Amazonia and Latin America more broadly – such as growing urbanisation, migratory processes, the arrival of new materialities, the impact of state policies and globalised media, and so forth. Our aim is to focus on how indigenous peoples navigate and envisage transformative futures in ways that intermingle with political, cosmological and practical aspects of Amazonian life; but also how emerging narratives on “the future of Amazonia” promoted by the state, NGOs and other external agencies impinge on indigenous cosmologies and ontologies. We invite participants to consider the following questions: What emerging subjectivities take form with increased engagement with the state and non-indigenous society, whether discordant or consistent with their existing ethos, morality and cosmology?; how are ongoing economic and political changes affecting indigenous notions of, but also expectations for, their future lives? How have indigenous temporal frames been affected by this contemporary engagement?; how do different generations of Amazonians envisage their future amidst radical transformations that are affecting Amazonia and Latin America at large such as resource extraction, party politics, NGO ideologies, beauty contests, and increased technology use?, how can indigenous people and anthropologists engage in a mutual conversation and explore paths towards establishing a sustainable future?

Panel Schedule

Friday, 28 June, KHM Vortragssaal
Session 1
14:30 14:50 Amy Penfield, The Terror of Imminence: Temporality and approaching non-indigenous worlds in Amazonia.
14:50 15:10 Victor Sacha Cova, “I will kill everybody, then the army will kill me”: Extermination scenarios among the Shuar.
15:10 15:30 Luis Garcia-Briceño, The future is (almost) now: Immediatism and Change in Christian Dhe’kwana’s understandings of time.
15:30 16:10 Discussion
Session 2
16:40 17:00 Camilla Morelli, The Right to Change: Social Transformation and the Uncertain Futures of Matses Children in Peru.
17:00 17:20 Glenn H. Shepard Jr., Kaya-Pop: Appropriation, authenticity and indigenous modernity in Brazil.
17:20 17:40 Discussion
Saturday, 29 June, KHM Vorgragsraum
Session 3
11:00 11:20 Anibal Arregui, Corporeal Afrofuturism: Quilombola Horticulture, Kinesthesia and the Ecopolitics of Abundance.
11:20 11:40 Oscar Espinosa, Ancestors and Descendants: Different indigenous youth’s ways for dealing with their ethnic identity and their future in the Peruvian Amazon region.
11:40 12:00 Louis Forline, What’s next? Prospects and challenges for the Awá-Guajá in the times of Bolsonaro.
12:00 12:40 Discussion
Session 4
14:30 14:50 Virgilio Bomfim, Culture in our hands: Semantic bridges between indigenous peoples and Western society in the era of projects.
14:50 15:10 Aleksandra Wierucka, Between Oil and Tourism – Young Huaorani’s Plans for the Future.
15:10 15:30 Natalia García Bonet, The future is in the past: Indigenous people and the Bolivarian revolution’s “new man”.
15:30 16:10 Discussion

SALSA 2019 Panels