About
About
I am an anthropological archaeologist interested in historical and contemporary representations of peoples and places. I practice an engaged, socially informed anthropology. I have focused my field-intensive research in primarily in Amazonia, bringing a broader perspective on the tropics (and the idea of the Tropics) to bear on Latin American contexts.
My current collaborative work seeks to bring to light the lives and legacies of people of African descent in Southern Brazil, particularly in contexts where heritage work is driven and actively sought by Afro-descendant communities. This work is part of a larger project to reconceptualize histories of places land masses that have been systematically configured (disfigured) by coloniality, putting archaeology and other historical modes of inquiry to work re-telling the stories of historically underrepresented, and currently populations in Latin America. This work has encompassed geoarchaeology, landscape-scale analysis, oral history, and historiography to challenge notions of urbanism, technology, and legitimacy.
Research Interests
One of my other key interests is anthropogenic (human-made) nature and its short and long-term effects. How do legacies of a distant past, including anthropogenic soils like Amazonian Dark Earths and engineered landscapes shape life in contemporary Amazonia. What do landmarks like canals and raised fields, or anthropogenic forests, tell us about ancient Amazonian societies? What can we learn about human agency and our effects on the environment through the study of these remnants of the past? Terra Preta do Índio, a sub-class of Amazonian Dark Earths, are exceptionally fertile soils that stand as evidence of deep, and deep-historical, indigenous modification of tropical forest ecologies that produced a positive result (environmental enrichment rather than degradation). These soils are sought out by contemporary farming communities in Amazonia, who contend daily with threats from changing climate, local and national infrastructure projects, agribusiness, and logging. In light of the urgency of these matters, my research is at once archaeological—in order to learn as much as possible about ancient Amerindian management practices and technologies—and applied—in order to attend to needs of contemporary farmers.
In my historiographical work on Amazonia, I explore how long-held, deeply embedded ideas about technology, the relationships of humans to nature, and moral geographies can limit what we are capable of imagining or understanding about tropical places. These habits of thought constrict understandings of the past, and in the same instant, affordances for the future—whether in terms of human rights, education, health, or sustainable development. It is from this perspective that I build my engaged, collaborative archaeological research.
We began pioneering aspects of this approach in archaeological and heritage work along the Lower Amazon in collaboration with Dr. Filippo Stampanoni of the Museu da Amazônia, and before that, as part of the OCA project in the region of Gurupá with Dr. Helena Lima and the project team. This approach, which foregrounds community needs and benefits, guides my research questions, efforts, and action.