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Andes and Amazon Field School 2018
Florida International University and the UW Madison join the University of Pittsburgh as sponsors of the AAFS
We are very happy to announce that in 2018 the Title VI National Resource Centers at Florida International University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison joined the University of Pittsburgh as official sponsors of the Andes and Amazon Field School's Title VI FLAS Indigenous language program. .
Congratulations to our fourteen graduate FLAS Fellows for Summer 2018!
Andes and Amazon Field School #1 receptor of Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships for indigenous languages of the Americas. Since 2001 170 FLAS Fellowships have been awarded from over 40 universities. This makes the Andes and Amazon Field school the number 1 receptor of FLAS Fellowships for the teaching of the indigenous languages of the Americas. For Summer 2018 14 graduate students from 12 universities were awarded Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships from the US Department of Education to study indigenous languages at the Andes and Amazon Field School. Of these 3 studied Achuar and 9 studied Kichwa.
Noah Diewald, University of Ohio
Ulises Espinoza, UCLA
Travis Fink, Tulane University
Stephanie Flores, Texas Christian University
Luisiana Lightsey, University of Georgia
Pablo Lituma, University of New Mexico
Barret Hamp, Brigham Young University
Amanda Fontaine, Florida International University
Chris Jarret, University of Texas
Sydney Jensen, University of Hawaii
Chris Hebdon, Yale University
Lindsay Ofrias, Princeton University
Andrew Smith, UCLA
John White, Tulane University
70 Undergraduates attended in 2018
In our June session we taught 26 undergraduate students divided into two groups . These include 18 students from the university of Pittsburgh taught by Professor Kathleen Dewalt a medical anthropologist and former president of both the Latin American Studies Association and the Society of Applied Anthropology.
Professor William Baleé, of Tulane University, one of the founders of the discipline of Historical Ecology brought 7 undergraduates.
In our July session we taught 33 students. 13 of these were in Tropical Ecology taught be Professor Walter Carson. 14 were from Brigham Young taught by Professor Samuel StClaire and 6 were Anthropology students from Florida International University taught by Professor Juliet Erazo. The remaining 11 undergraduates participated in our University of Pittsburgh Spring Break Program.
Construction starts on our Waorani extension on the Río Nushino
Directed by our Iyarina staff member Pedro Andi working in partnership with the Waorani Community of Gomataon construction has begun on our Waorani Nushino extension. If all goes well students will be housed there for shorter field study sessions in the summer of 2019.
Publications:
Several recent publications have emerged from research carried out at the Field School including:
Janis Nuckolls and Tod Swanson, A Pedagogical Grammar of Pastaza and Upper Napo Quichua. 325 manuscript pages. Under Review at Georgetown Press.
Janis Nuckolls and Tod Swanson. “Respectable uncertainty and pathetic truth in Amazonian Quichua speaking culture.” Invited chapter to appear in: Martin Fortier and Joelle Proust (editors) Interdisciplinary Approaches to metacognitive diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp 170-192 (22 pages). June, 2018.
Tod Swanson, “Relatives of the Living Forest: The Philosophy Underlying Amazonian Quichua Ecological Action.” In Evan Berry and Robert Albro, editors, Churches and Cosmologies: Religion, Environment, and Social Conflict in Latin America. New York: Routledge, 2018. 123-44.
Tod Swanson and Jarrad Reddekap, "Looking Like the Land: Beauty and Aesthetics in Quichua Philosophy and Practice." Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 85, Issue 3, 1 September 2017, Pages 682–708, https://doi-org.ezprox- y1.lib.asu.edu/10.1093/jaarel/lfw086 .
Grants:
Language for Sustainability
David Manuel Navarrete and Tod Swanson received an 80,000 grant entitled “Language for Sustainability: Sustaining Biodiversity and Bio-cultures through Indigenous Languages and Participatory Science” to facilitate extensions of the Andes and Amazon Field School in the Waorani and Achuar areas. A key purpose of the grant is to provide income from Study Abroad to Waorani and Achuar families that overtime will help to reduce economic pressure on hunting endangered animals. Key to this extension is creation of materials to teach two new Amazonian languages Achua and Wao Tededo.
Oral Traditions preserved in Amazonian Kichwa, Achuar and Wao Tededo
Key to our work is the preserving of oral literature in the Native languages. In 2018 we uploaded 25 narratives in Amazonian Quichua. Most of these relate origin stories, uses, or cultural encounters with various plant and animal species. These videos are linked to a digital catalogue of species accessible by clicking on either the latin or native language name. We have also posted more than 20 Wao Tededo narratives and 12 narratives or songs in Achuar.
Indigenous Language Learning Materials Produced
I am a Co-PI with Co-PI with David Manuel Navarrete in GIOS on an $80,000 grant “Language for Sustainability: Sustaining Biodiversity and Bio-cultures through Indigenous Languages and Participatory Science” July, 2018-July, 2019 from the Global Consortium for Sustainability Outcomes. I submitted a second grant proposal “Historical Ecology of Waorani Ridgetops, Ecuadorian Amazon” to National Geographic (Co-PI with William Baleé, Tulane University) August, 2018 (under review). I hosted and co-led (with ASU Professors Leah Gerber and John Sabo) a 3 day Environmental and Leadership Workshop modelled on the Leopold Institute for the faculty of the Biology Department of Ecuador’s leading educational institution the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, January 3-5, 2018. In December I hosted a 1 week “All Hands Grant Writing Workshop” in Ecuador which included 3 faculty members from ASU, 2 from UNAM, 3 from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, 3 from the German Leuphana Universitet as well Waorani and Quichua community leaders and an editor from the journal “Science.” Finally I have worked with Wao Tededo Native speakers to develop online language learning exercises in preparation for the first ever Wao Tedero University leve class which we will off to FLAS Fellows in June and July of 2019.
n our June session we taught 26 undergraduate students divided into two groups . These include 18 students from the university of Pittsburgh taught by Professor Kathleen Dewalt a medical anthropologist and former president of both the Latin American Studies Association and the Society of Applied Anthropology.
We partnered with Ikiam University professor Gabriela Zurita-Benavides to visit her research site on the Nushino River. There we were hosted by Manuela Ima, president of the Waorani womens, organization. The collaboration led to the submission of a grant proposal to the Nation Geographic Society entitled "Historical ecology of Waorani Ridgetops, Ecuadorian Amazon."
