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Objects of Attraction:  Understanding Material Goods in Indigenous Amazonian Cosmologies  

Professor Suzanne Oakdale examines an Amazonian feather hat
When: 
Thursday, February 20, 2020 - 7:30pm
Where: 
Hibben Lecture Hall 105
Cost: 
Free and Open to All
Presenter/s: 
Suzanne Oakdale

Indigenous Amazonian societies have long been famous for lacking heirlooms.  Objects do not tend to be passed down through the generations, but rather are often destroyed at death.  Rather than indicating the unimportance of objects, their disposal in fact indicates their extraordinary power to unite subjects across the vast spaces and times of the cosmos.  This talk explores this power of objects for one Amazonian people, the Kawaiwete, as well as draws on comparative cases from elsewhere in Amazonia.

Suzanne Oakdale is Associate Professor of Ethnology and Convener at the Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico

 

The lecture is part of the International Anthro Day celebration by the American Anthropological Association and supports the Brazil exhibition at the Maxwell. It is presented in Hibben Center, adjacent to the Maxwell Museum.

Parking restrictions are lifted in surface lots for the lecture, parking passes are available for Museum reserved parking.