Kacper Świerk In memoriam: 1976-2026 (1-29-26)
KACPER ŚWIERK, 1976-2026
IN MEMORIAM
BY FILIP ROGALSKI
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Kacper Świerk, who died on January 19, 2026, in Rzeszów, Poland.
Kacper was born on June 4, 1976, in Rzeszów. He earned his BA (1998) and MA (2001) in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, devoting both his undergraduate and graduate work to the place of animals in Amerindian cultures and cosmologies. After completing his graduate studies, he began fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon. During this time, he met and became deeply involved with the Matsigenka people, to whom he devoted his doctoral research.
His dissertation, “Transformations of the Socio-Cultural Situation of Indigenous Groups in the Early Phase of Contact in Amazonia: The Case of the Matsigenka from the Paquiría River (Eastern Peru) in Comparison with the Matsigenka from the Lower Urubamba Remaining in Permanent Contact with National Society” (2007), was written under the supervision of the eminent Polish Americanist Aleksander Posern-Zieliński.
Kacper was an experienced fieldworker who conducted ethnographic research among several Indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon. He maintained his strongest bond with the Matsigenka of the Lower Urubamba, particularly along the Paquiría River. In addition, he carried out fieldwork among the Wampis, Awajún, and Shapra peoples along the Santiago, Morona, and Marañón rivers. Over the years, he collaborated with numerous organizations and institutions, including Shinai Serjali, the Cabeceras Aid Project, the Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana, the Consejo Aguaruna–Huambisa, the Federación de las Comunidades Huambisa del Río Santiago, the Organización Shuar de Morona, The Field Museum of Natural History, and the Center for Andean Studies at the University of Warsaw. He also participated in the preparation of a report supporting the creation of the protected area Reserva Kugapakori for Indigenous groups threatened by extractive industries.
Kacper was also a talented and experienced teacher and mentor. From 2010 to 2016, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Szczecin, and, from 2021 to 2025, as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Anthropology of the University of Gdańsk. He taught primarily courses on the ethnology of Indigenous peoples of South America and ethnozoology, while also offering classes in anthropology of religion, ethnology of coastal and river peoples, and cultural mapping. For many years, he also taught at the University of Rzeszów.
Kacper was known for his erudition, which extended far beyond his primary area of expertise. His central scholarly interests concerned the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon — their ways of life, relationships with the environment, socio-cosmological systems, and complex interactions with national societies. He was also an expert in ethnozoology and a passionate naturalist, especially interested in the systematics and ethology of vertebrates. He loved birds.
He was the author of scholarly publications, field reports, translations of Indigenous folklore, chapters in children’s books, and articles popularizing anthropological knowledge about Indigenous peoples. He had an unforgettable lecturing style, establishing strong rapport with both academic and general audiences. He possessed a rare talent for making complex ideas accessible and for enlivening them with memorable stories and anecdotes—of which he was an inexhaustible source. He was a great storyteller. He also sang beautifully in Polish, Ukrainian, other East Slavic languages, Spanish, and Matsigenka.
Kacper was a dear friend and colleague. His absence will be deeply felt.
References
Świerk, K. (2007). Perspectivismo, amor y cigarras. Sentimientos, transformaciones y ethos en el cuento de Jerinti, del folklore matsigenka. Estudios Latinoamericanos 17 (2007), 139-177.
Świerk, K. (2020). Monkeys in the Wampis (Huambisa) Life and Cosmology in the Peruvian Amazonian Rainforest. In: Urbani, B., Lizarralde, M. (eds) Neotropical Ethnoprimatology. Ethnobiology. Springer, Cham.
Photograph: Kacper Świerk in a hunting camp on the Arabela River, 2009. Photograph by Filip Rogalski.