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SUMMARY:Where is Amazonia on display (today)? A global approach to underst
 anding Amazonian collections - Neil Safier (Brown University)
DTSTART:20250227T153000Z
DTEND:20250227T170000Z
UID:TALK227068@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr. Rosanna Dent
DESCRIPTION:Over the past several decades\, significant changes have taken
  place in the way that the Amazon River region has come to be understood a
 cross a range of disciplines. In the field of anthropology\, interventions
  by anthropologists Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Philippe Descola\, as w
 ell as Indigenous knowledge-keepers including Davi Kopenawa Yanomami and A
 ilton Krenak\, have transformed the academic (and public) understanding of
  how Amerindian communities perceive and describe their own histories in e
 quatorial South America\, and beyond. Amazonian archaeology\, in the work 
 of Anna Roosevelt\, Eduardo Neves\, and Denise Schaan\, among many others\
 , has likewise revealed new ways of understanding the relationship between
  physical remnants of communities past and the longer histories of habitat
 ion and engagement within the vast and diverse Amazonian ecosystem. Even m
 ore recently\, Amazonian artists from Peru to Venezuela and Brazil have en
 gaged in a creative and politically ambitious rethinking of colonialism wi
 thin the broader Amazon basin\, presenting their work at venues from Braun
 schweig to Vienna and from Princeton to Venice. And mega-exhibitions like 
 that of Sebastião Salgado's 'Amazonia' or the even more recent 'Amazonias
 : El Futuro Ancestral' (CCCB\, Barcelona) have helped bring the visual lex
 icon of Amazonian rivers\, forests\, and communities to even more global a
 udiences.\n\nToday\, Amazonia is being presented and displayed like never 
 before in its history: in the news media\, in scholarly books and publicat
 ions\, in museums\, in political discourse\, and in visual art. How are we
  to understand this visibility historically\, especially through the prese
 nce of Amazonian objects and collections in museums and art exhibitions\, 
 and given the multidisciplinary and transgeographical nature of the region
 ? What historically have been considered the confines of 'Amazonia' as a c
 oncept and what kinds of discourses exist that place different kinds of ob
 jects\, works of arts\, and histories together under a single category of 
 'Amazonia' today? This presentation aims to present the broad outlines of 
 an interdisciplinary research project that will examine Amazonia historica
 lly\, materially\, and ideologically in museum collections around the glob
 e. As digital repatriation comes to be better understood\, what role/place
 /function does it have for the Amazon River region in particular? How do t
 hese politics change across the range of media\, across geographical front
 iers\, and distinct legal and ethical regimes of this megaregion? As we co
 ntemplate these questions\, are there particularly good scholarly models w
 e can use to understand the historical processes of collecting Amazonia in
  the present day?
LOCATION:Hopkinson Lecture Theatre\, New Museums Site
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