#751 Leslie Sponsel - Yanomami in the Amazon: Toward a more Ethical Anthropology beyond Othering
NOTE: All of the royalties from Dr. Sponsel’s book are donated to Survival International on behalf of their continuing vital help with the Yanomami.
RECORDED ON NOVEMBER 28th 2022.
Dr. Leslie Sponsel is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at UH Mānoa, Hawai’i. He is an expert in spiritual ecology, which is the vast, complex, diverse, and dynamic arena of intellectual and practical activities at the interfaces of religions and spiritualities with ecologies, environments, and environmentalisms. He is the author of several books, including the most recent one, Yanomami in the Amazon: Toward a more Ethical Anthropology beyond Othering.
In this episode, we focus on Yanomami in the Amazon. We start by talking about the Yanomami society, what drew anthropologists to studying it, and common misconceptions and stereotypes about it. We discuss the work of Napoleon Chagnon on aggression, and the work of Patrick Tierney. We talk about the motivations and biases that drive fieldwork and research. Finally, we discuss the ethics of anthropology, and human rights.
Time Links:
Intro
Who are the Yanomami?
What drew anthropologists to the Yanomami
Common misconceptions and stereotypes about the Yanomami
Aspects of human nature attributed to the Yanomami and considered universal
Napoleon Chagnon’s work
The work of Patrick Tierney
An anthropology of anthropologists: the motivations and biases in fieldwork and research
The ethics of anthropology, and human rights
Follow Dr. Sponsel’s work!
Follow Dr. Sponsel’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3Ry9dyE
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3P8ZLjI
Yanomami in the Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Cjqi8P