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6 results on '"Whitaker, James"'

1. Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas

Author

Whitaker, James Andrew, Armstrong, Chelsey Geralda, and Odonne, Guillaume

Subjects
anthropology, climatic, ecological, ecology, environmental anthropology, bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JH Sociology & anthropology::JHM Anthropology
Abstract

This book offers a comparative analysis of the experiences, responses, and adaptations of people to climate variability and environmental change across the Americas. It foregrounds historical ecology as a structural framework for understanding the climate change crisis throughout the region and throughout time. In recent years, Indigenous and local populations in particular have experienced climate change effects such as altered weather patterns, seasonal irregularities, flooding and drought, and difficulties relating to subsistence practices. Understanding and dealing with these challenges has drawn on peoples’ longstanding experience with climate variability and in some cases includes models of mitigation and responses that are millennia old. With contributions from specialists across the Americas, this volume will be of interest to scholars from fields including anthropology, archaeology, geography, environmental studies, and Indigenous studies.

Published
2024
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2. Shamanic alliance in the touristic borderzone: Strategic hospitality at Surama Eco‐Lodge in Guyana

Author

Whitaker, James Andrew and Whitaker, James Andrew

Abstract

This article explores how villagers in Surama form alliances with outsiders through strategic hospitality within the touristic borderzone. Surama is a primarily Makushi village in Guyana. Tourism began during the 1990s and is now central to the village economy. Villagers' efforts to form relationships with certain visitors (particularly tourist leaders) as partners or yakos through hospitality reflect an ontological framework associated with shamanism. This involves relational modes of interaction that are common across Amazonia but have been underexamined in the context of tourism. However, Makushi alliances with outsiders in Surama are unique in their emphasis on mutuality and symmetry, which stems from past Makushi experiences of enslavement during the colonial encounter and antipathy towards asymmetric relations. Based on fieldwork involving interviews and participant observation in Surama, this article links debates in Amazonian ethnology and the anthropology of tourism to examine how villagers in Surama manage relations with tourists to obtain external resources., Este artigo explora como os aldeões de Surama formam alianças com estrangeiros por meio da hospitalidade estratégica dentro da zona de fronteira turística. Surama é uma aldeia principalmente Makushi na Guiana. O turismo começou durante a década de 1990 e agora é central para a economia da vila. Os esforços dos aldeões para estabelecer relacionamentos com certos visitantes (principalmente líderes turísticos) como parceiros ou yakos por meio da hospitalidade refletem uma estrutura ontológica associada ao xamanismo. Isso envolve modos relacionais de interação que são comuns em toda a Amazônia, mas que têm sido pouco examinados no contexto do turismo. No entanto, as alianças Makushi com estrangeiros em Surama são únicas em sua ênfase na mutualidade e simetria, que decorre de experiências anteriores de escravidão Makushi durante o encontro colonial e antipatia por relações assimétricas. Com base em trabalho de campo envolvendo entrevistas e observação participante em Surama, este artigo relaciona debates em etnologia amazônica e antropologia do turismo para examinar como os aldeões de Surama gerenciam as relações com os turistas para obter recursos externos.

Published
2024
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6. Plant Agency in the Guianas: Attraction, Assault, and Animacy

Author

Whitaker, James Andrew, Tamboli, Vikram, Daly, Lewis, and Lewy, Matthias

Abstract

This article uses ethnographic and ethnobotanical methods to examine relationships between animate and agentive plants and human beings among the Makushi, Pemon, Karinya, and other Indigenous and mixed-Indigenous peoples in the Guianas. It considers representations of these plants and related ontologies in the archival record and contrasts these accounts with more recent ethnographic descriptions based on the authors’ fieldwork across Guyana and Venezuela. It thinks about these plants as agentive beings (with regard to animist ontologies and sometimes physical properties) within a variety of contexts. Today, the territories of these Indigenous peoples tessellate with extractive frontiers, which center around gold, diamond, and bauxite mining, as well as oil prospecting, forestry, and plantation agriculture. In this context, these plants emerge as active and animate agents. They also emerge as such agents in contexts of subsistence, shamanism, and assault sorcery, as well as sexual and romantic attraction, which can act with or without human impetus. The question arises as to the nature of the relationships between such plants and their users, for example, shamans (piaimen), assault sorcerers (kanaima), hunters, gardeners, and miners, within a variety of contexts. Based on the authors’ long-term fieldwork, the article examines animate plants and argues that they evince special botanical agencies among the Indigenous communities with whom the authors have worked in the Guianas. How are animate plants positioned within these practices and contexts? And how do they exert agency therein as plant persons?

Published
2024
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