The volume Ensayos de Etnografía Teórica Tierras Bajas de América del Sur [Essays on Theory and Ethnography in Lowland South America] by Nola Publishers (Madrid, Spain) addresses a diverse panorama of critical theory in the Lowland South American literature. Students at the School of Anthropology and Conservation are already exposed to such theories through the optional Amazonian Social Worlds and Lowland South American Anthropology modules offered by Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology, Dr Daniela Peluso, available across all of our programmes.
It is enthusiastically welcomed among Amazonianists that this volume is in Spanish and the chapters by authors who generally tend to publish in Engish. Dr Peluso’s chapter, Mujeres Ese Eja: conflicto social y la actuación social del género en la Amazonía boliviana y peruana [Ese Eja Women: Social conflict and social performance of gender in the Bolivian and Peruvian Amazon], is about women’s social power in Amazonian communities. It offers a critique of how current western gender theory is misread by scholars who try to write about it in Amazonian contexts. However, her own approach finds an alignment and unique bridge forward through a re-reading of the work of the American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler, challenging existing Amazonianist feminist positions.
This work is also a continuation of Daniela’s dedication to publishing in Spanish, which is only one aspect of her commitment toward decolonising anthropology in academia.
Image: Amazonian Kayapo leaders and activists protest a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River (AP Photo/Andre Prenner).