About the Course

The Amazon basin is among the most biodiverse regions of the world. This diversity of plant and animal life is matched by equally complex variations in the human societies inhabiting the region – it is home to several hundred indigenous groups. The course focuses mainly on the original inhabitants of the Amazon – indigenous people and their life. Its program aims to shed light on the interrelatedness of people and their environment and the relations between the material and social world as well as the most current events that influence the life of the Amazonian people. Topics undertaken during the course will also present the controversy of conducting research between indigenous people as well as ethics of such research.

Course Syllabus

• Welcome to the course
• Amazon rainforest
• Life in the Amazon
• Indigenous groups of the Amazon
• Development of the Amazon region
• Ethics of research between indigenous people of the Amazon

Recommended background

None; all are welcome.

Suggested readings

The materials provided during the course can be supplemented by additional reading if students want to expand their knowledge. Some of the suggested readings are listed below and additional ones will be recommended throughout the course.

Donald Lathrap, 1973, The Hunting Economies of the Tropical Forest Zone of South America: An Attempt At Historical Perspective [In:] Peoples and Cultures of Native South America, ed. D. Gross, New York.

Kris Lane, 2003, Haunting the Present: Five Colonial Legacies for the New Millenium [In:] Millenial Ecuador. Critical Essays, ed. N. Whitten, Urbana.

Veronica Davidoff, 2010, Shamans and Shams. The Discoursive Effects of Ethnoturism in Ecuador, “The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology”, vol. 15, No. 2, p. 387.

Judith Kimerling, 2006, Indigenous Peoples and the Oil Frontier in Amazonia: the Case of Chevron Texaco and Aguinda vs. Texaco, “The Journal of International Law and Politics”, Vol. 38, No. 3, p. 547.

Bruce Albert, Alcida Ramos, 1989, Yanomami Indians and Anthropological Ethics, “Science”, May 12, p. 632.

Philippe Bourgois, 2007, Confronting the Ethics of Ethnography [In:] Ethnographic Fieldwork. An Anthropological Reader, ed. A. Robben, Oxford.

Course format

The course consists of five sessions: three with voice-over presentations and two with texts in pdf format. Open-source movie clips will accompany some of the sessions. The students are obligated to take a test in order to complete the course as well as in-lecture assessments.

FAQ

Q: Will all of the course content be visible from the start of the course?

A: Yes, all presentations and texts will be available to the student from the beginning of the course.

Q: Is it possible to take the course at the quicker pace than one session per day?

A: Yes – the materials are available so the enrolled student can go through the course at her/his own pace.

Q: Is it possible to take the final test before actually finishing the course?

A: Yes, the test can be taken anytime during the course.