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Jean Langdon: transformations and perspectives from half a century of research about shamanism
Full text linkThis text reviews some of Jean Langdon’s most important classical and contemporary writings about shamanism, highlighting her key contributions to the area, as well as her relevance to the anthropology of health and Indigenous health policies. The paper also reflects on Langdon’s influence in the discussions surrounding gender and female agency in ethnographies of lowland South America. Jean Langdon was one of the pioneers in the revival of the research on shamanism in the 1980s. During a period when male anthropologists largely dominated studies on this topic, she highlighted the complexity and diversity of Indigenous shamanisms, proposing that they should be seen as cosmological systems. In her more recent works, she suggests that shamanisms emerge from specific political and historical contexts and proposes to approach this phenomenon as a dialogical category resulting from the interactions of actors with very diverse origins, discourses, and interests. Langdon also discusses contemporary shamanic networks, circuits that have expanded significantly over the past two decades in Latin American countries such as Brazil and Colombia, as well as in other parts of the world. With ayahuasca playing a central role, these growing networks connect multiple Indigenous and non-Indigenous social actors across geographic, symbolic, and conceptual boundaries. Langdon particularly emphasizes the dynamic, creative and constantly transforming nature of Amerindian shamanisms, which often challenges the anthropological imagination
“We will fight for them”: The defense of the ´isolated´ Piriti people by the Waimiri Atroari, Amazonas and Roraima, Brazil
No full textThe Pirititi are a little known ´isolated´ Indigenous group occupying a highly threatened territory on the border between Amazonas and Roraima states in Brazil who have rejected all previous attempts at contact and encounter. The Waimiri Atroari previously had conflicts with the Pirititi, who occupy a contiguous area, but over the past decade have taken it upon themselves to defend the Pirititi and their territory, relying mostly on their own resources. Given the slow pace of official Brazilian governmental responses to land invasions and other threats to the Pirititi, the Waimiri Atroari have become the main protagonists of protection and surveillance strategies in defense of their isolated neighbors. Indeed, given their own traumatic history of forced contact and decimation beginning in the 1970s with the construction of the Manaus-Boa Vista highway, the Waimiri Atroari now view the Pirititi\u27s rejection of contact with all outsiders as a reflection of their own history of resistance and survival. This article, written in collaboration with the Waimiri Atroari Association, summarizes what is known about the Pirititi, describes the evolving relationship the Waimiri Atroari have maintained with them, and underlines the importance of greater involvement of Indigenous organizations in the defense of isolated peoples with whom they share territory. Moreover, we present a general overview of the situation including the legal framework
Women’s routes: gender, mobility, and knowledge among the Makushi of southern Guyana
Full text linkExploring the journeys of some Makushi women, this article highlights the relevance of gender in the question of (im)mobility and female engagements with the world as central to contemporary Makushi life. Departing from the understanding that the category of space has proven crucial in the theoretical groundwork of the Guiana ethnographic area and drawing on the region’s classical ethnographies, it explores everyday practices of movement of the Makushi people who live along the triple frontier of southern Guyana. Rather than disruptive, these in and out journeys—collective or individual—prove to be crucial to the weaving of community. They are also central to the production of knowledge, acquired on the move and when travelers exchange stories, and highlight the value the Makushi attribute to their encounters with others. The experiences of those on the move and their encounters with the unpredictable and unknown can therefore be said to occupy a significant role in taming the other and in bringing back new interpretations of the world outside. Whether in the form of shamanic journeys or hunting trips, mobility in lowland South America is commonly assumed typical of men. Revisiting female mobility, however, unveils subtle nuances of the static and stable image of women’s trajectories and shows that women’s agency and learning derive from the outside just as much as men’s
Enhancing Haptic Fingertip Feedback via Pneumatic Actuators
Full text linkIn this work, we present the design and proof-of-concept for a soft pneumatic actuator that employs a pneumatic transmission to provide haptic feedback to four areas of the fingerpad. With this feedback, users can sense where force is applied on a remote palpation tool. The pneumatic actuator’s performance was evaluated through two preliminary experiments: one measuring force versus pressure and a second assessing participants’ ability to discriminate cues felt on different areas of their fingerpad through the device. Three participants were all able to identify which chamber was being activated with 100% accuracy at a pressure selected for easy identification; even at a second lower pressure, participants averaged 99.2% of chambers correctly identified, with a mean information transfer of 1.95 bits, indicating that it was very easy for participants to distinguish which part of their fingertip was being cued. This passive pneumatic feedback method has potential for applications in soft robotics, haptics, and medical robotics as its ability to provide force feedback could be leveraged in various fields requiring control
Pre-Conference Workshop: Affect and Identity in Engineering Education: Understanding How Emotions, Feelings, and Values Shape our Students\u27 Work and Contribute to Their Engineering Identity
Full text linkIn this workshop, we introduce participants to vocabulary and theory to understand their students\u27 affective experiences of doing engineering work. As attention to emotions and other affective elements of engineering student experiences has grown in the literature, this workshop will aid instructors in considering the importance of attitudes, emotions, and values/beliefs for student learning and identity development. The workshop will provide ample opportunity for discussion and reflection, and will empower instructors both to consider scaffolding of assignments with affect in mind and to survey students about their affective experiences in order to iterate on assignment design
Just the perfect touch of rebellion: Young adult dystopian film and political participation among Gen Z
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