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Author: Johann Begel

Publication “Reimaginando el Gran Chaco, Identidades, Política y Medio Ambiente en América del Sur”.

Publication “Reimaginando el Gran Chaco, Identidades, Política y Medio Ambiente en América del Sur”.

We are pleased to announce the publication of the book:

Reimaginando el Gran Chaco, Identidades, Política y Medio Ambiente en América del Sur

Edited by Silvia Hirsch, Paola Canova and Mercedes Biocca.

Published by Editorial Biblos with the support of the Société des Américanistes as part of the 2023 publication grants.

In recent decades, the South American ecoregion of the Gran Chaco has undergone accelerated environmental, social and economic change due to the intensification of extractive industries such as agribusiness, cattle ranching, logging and hydrocarbon exploitation. The region has become a complex arena of political, cultural and economic contestation between different actors, including the state, NGOs and private companies, whose projects and agendas conflict with the livelihoods of local inhabitants. The various chapters explore the dynamics and frictions generated by these changes, and reveal how different local actors experience and negotiate the region’s historical, socio-economic and environmental transformations on their own terms. The book shows how different groups in the Gran Chaco question and redefine their subjectivity, while reconfiguring their political agendas in response to these processes. It also highlights the multiple ways in which peoples inhabiting the vast Chaco region relate to a diverse set of social actors and institutions, even beyond the territorial boundaries of individual nation-states.

ISBN 978-987-814-351-4

376 pages

Coordination

  • Silvia Hirsch

PhD and Master in Anthropology. Bachelor in Anthropological Sciences. Professor and researcher, Escuela Interdisciplinaria de Altos Estudios Sociales, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina. Author of “ El pueblo tapiete de Argentina : historia y cultura” (2006) and co-editor of “Mujeres indígenas de la Argentina : cultura, trabajo y poder” (2008), “Educación Intercultural Bilingüe en la Argentina” (2010), with Adriana Serrudo ; “Movilizaciones indígenas e identidades en disputa en la Argentina : historias de invisibilización y reemergencia”, with Gastón Gordillo” (2011), and “Salud pública y pueblos indígenas en la Argentina : encuentros, tensiones e interculturalidad”, with Mariana Lorenzett (2016). Her research focuses on gender, ethnicity, borders, health and education among indigenous populations.

  • Paola Canova Cabañas

PhD in Anthropology. Human ecology engineer. Bachelor’s degree in German. Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin, USA. Author of “Frontier Intimacies: The sexual economy of the Paraguayan Chaco” (2020), translated into Spanish as “Intimidades de frontera: mujeres ayoreo y economía sexual en el Chaco paraguayo” (Biblos, 2023). She has published articles in journals such as the Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology and the Journal of Mennonite Studies. Her research focuses on gender and sexuality, indigenous urbanity, indigenous-state relations, non-indigenous rurality and the political ecology of the Paraguayan Chaco.

  • Mercedes Biocca

PhD in sociology. Master’s degree in international economic relations. Degree in political science. Currently associate researcher at the Interdisciplinary School of Advanced Social Studies (eidaes), National University of San Martín, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. Author of the book “The Silences of Dispossession, Agrarian Change and Indigenous Politics in Argentina” (2023). She has published in journals such as Tipití. Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America and Población & Sociedad. Her research focuses on rural issues associated with extractivism, and on relations between indigenous populations and the state in contexts of dispossession.

26/06/2025 – E. Katz et A/ Aguilar Meléndez : “Past and present of chillies (Capsicum spp.) in the Americas”

26/06/2025 – E. Katz et A/ Aguilar Meléndez : “Past and present of chillies (Capsicum spp.) in the Americas”

Dear member of the Société des américanistes,

We are pleased to announce that the Society’s next conference will be held on Thursday 26 June 2025, at 6pm in lecture room 2 of the Musée du Quai Branly.

Esther Katz (researcher at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR 208 PALOC “Patrimoines locaux, environnement et globalisation” IRD/CNRS/MNHN)

and

Araceli Aguilar Meléndez (teacher-researcher at the Centro de investigaciones tropicales, Universidad Veracruzana Xalapa, Veracruz, México)

will present:

“Past and present of chillies (Capsicum spp.) in the Americas”

The chilli (Capsicum spp.) is more than just a spice in the cultures of the American continent. Its extraordinary diversity in terms of shapes, flavours, aromas and pungency levels is the result of historical processes of management, selection and cultural re-signification that date back millennia. Understanding the biocultural trajectory of chilli requires situating the chilli-culture binomial in specific historical, territorial and social contexts. This paper explores how different American societies have contributed to the domestication, diversification and conservation of this plant, through the maintenance of ritual and food practices. Ethnobotanical data and ethnographic examples illustrating the centrality of chilli will be presented based on fieldwork, mainly in Mexico, and on studies published in the book: Chiles, ajíes y pimentas. Capsicum from the Caribbean, Central and South America (coordinated by Esther Katz, Marco Antonio Vásquez Dávila, Araceli Aguilar Meléndez and Gladys Isabel Manzanero Medina and edited by the Universidad Veracruzana and the IRD).

The conference will be held in Spanish.
Please go directly to the museum entrance (37 quai Branly), without going through the ticket office. The Vigipirate plan requires museum security staff not to allow suitcases (even cabin bags), travel bags, rucksacks, sports bags, etc. to be brought into the museum.

05/07/2025 – C. J. Allen: “Ethnographic Perspectives on Inca Stone Masonry”

05/07/2025 – C. J. Allen: “Ethnographic Perspectives on Inca Stone Masonry”

Dear members, we are pleased to announce that the next conference of the Society will be held on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Salle de Cours 2 at the Musée du Quai Branly.

Catherine J. Allen (Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University) will present: Every Stone Is Unique. Ethnographic Perspectives on Inca Stone Masonry

“The wall was stationary, but its lines were seething and its surface changeable, as that of flooding summer rivers” (J. M. Arguedas, Los Ríos Profundos).

Inca stone masonry has long been a cause of wonder and curiosity. Rather than carving out identical blocks of stone and joining them with mortar, Inca masons treated each stone individually, Thus, every stone in a great wall like Hatun Rumiyuq in Cuzco is unique. Each one was lightly finished and then fitted with the others, seamlessly and without mortar, The irregularity of the stones and absence of mortar make the walls resilient in earthquakes, for the stones can move around during the tremor and settle back against each other when the crisis has passed. Moreover, some Inca walls, like those at Sacsahuaman and Ollantaytambo, are composed of truly gigantic monoliths that had to be transported considerable distances from their quarry sites. Research has cast light on how these feats were achieved, yet what was the point of all that time-consuming effort? Grandiose expressions of imperial dominance? Art for art’s sake? Perhaps. But before leaping to conclusions, we need to understand Inca masonry in terms of what Carolyn Dean has termed a “culture of stone.” What ontological assumptions informed the Inca masons’ relationships with their stone medium? I suggest that ethnographic research into contemporary Andean understandings of stone may shed some light on this question.

The conference will be held in english

Please present yourself directly at the museum entrance (37 quai Branly), without going through the cash desks. The Vigipirate plan requires museum security staff not to allow suitcases (even cabin bags), travel bags, backpacks, sports bags, etc. to be brought into the museum.

Publication prize 2025

Publication prize 2025

CALL 2025

 

The Publication Grant of the Société des Américanistes is intended to help publish books resulting from doctoral theses as well as any other scientific book, single-authored monographs or edited volumes. The manuscript must have been accepted by a publishing house, in France or abroad. It must make a contribution to the same disciplinary, thematic and areal fields as those covered by the Journal de la Société des américanistes. Manuscripts must be written in the one of the main languages of the Société (French, English, Spanish, or Portuguese).The amount allocated will be capped at €3000 per publication project.

 

The deadline for submission shall be May 2, 2025. The candidatures will be evaluated by a panel of experts. Results will be announced in the fall of the same year.

 

The application package consists of:

–Manuscript in pdf form

–Description of the manuscript (approx. 3 pages)

–Author’s CV, including a list of publications

–For manuscripts from doctoral theses : Final Theses Report or Examiner’s report for countries where applicable or letters of recommendation from at least two members of the PhD examination board

–Pre-acceptance letter from the publishing house

–Cost estimates from the publishing house (including other financial aids already obtained or solicited and the specific amount solicited from the Société)

–Any other document deemed relevant

Any package either missing information will not be accepted.

 

Recipients of the Publication Grant must commit to mention the Société’s contribution in the book, as well as its logo, in accordance with agreements made with the publishing house, which is also expected to give a number of copies free of charge. Award winners who are not members of the Société must commit to apply for membership before receiving their grant.

 

The application package should be sent by e-mail only to:

prixaidepublication.sda@gmail.com

Call for financial support: organisation of scientific events 2025

Call for financial support: organisation of scientific events 2025

The Society is launching its first 2025 campaign for financial support for the organisation of Americanist scientific events. These events must correspond to the areal and thematic fields of the Society and its Journal. They must be organised in France in order to be accessible to our members, but may also be used to finance travel and/or accommodation expenses for participants living abroad. The Society plans to allocate €2,000 per campaign, spread over two or three projects. Preference will be given to co-financed projects. For this campaign, applications must be submitted by June 1, 2025 for events organised from September 2025 and no later than 18 months later.

 

The application for financial support must include:

– a cover letter

– a one-page description of the event

– the programme and potential contributors

– a detailed budget showing the financial contribution of each partner

– CVs of the event organiser(s).

 

Applications will be selected by members of the Society’s Board of Directors and foreign correspondents. Beneficiaries also undertake to include the Society’s logo on all publications. Submissions should be sent to the following address:

aidemanifestations.sda@gmail.com

Call for applications to the Board of Directors

Call for applications to the Board of Directors

Call for applications to the Board of Directors

(deadline: October 27, 2024)

Dear Colleagues,

In accordance with our Society’s statutes, in the coming months we will be renewing our Board of Directors, which comprises between 20 and 25 members. The new board, which will be elected for the next three years (2025-2027), will appoint a new executive board and determine the composition of a new editorial board for the Journal. In addition, each year, the Board must give its opinion on the Society’s results and future direction, as well as on the Young Researcher Prize, the Publication Grant and the Scientific Event Grant. Board members are also expected to participate actively in the administration and scientific life of the company.

In order to launch the election procedure in mid-November, the Society is collecting, from today until October 27, 2024, applications from those who wish to join the Board.

Eligibility:

– Only members with a statutory function or retired from an institution linked to research, teaching or cultural heritage activities may apply.

– Candidates must also be up to date with their membership fees.

If you have any doubts about these conditions and the payment of your membership fee, please send an e-mail to the Society’s address.

Application form

Please complete the attached form and return it to us (preferably electronically) by October 27, 2024.

03/10/2024 – Extraordinary General Assembly

03/10/2024 – Extraordinary General Assembly

Dear member of the Société des Américanistes,

We are pleased to invite you to an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Société des Américanistes, which will be held just before the next conference on Thursday, October 3, 2024, at 6 pm in the cinema room of the Musée du Quai Branly.
In anticipation of the forthcoming election of a new Board of Directors, the agenda for this meeting will include a vote on a change to the bylaws concerning the number of Board members.
Please present yourself directly at the museum entrance (37 quai Branly), without going through the cash desks. The Vigipirate plan requires museum security staff not to allow suitcases (even cabin bags), travel bags, backpacks or sports bags into the museum.

05/30/2024 – General Assembly and conference by Lourdes de León

05/30/2024 – General Assembly and conference by Lourdes de León

We are pleased to invite you to the General Assembly of the Société des Américanistes on Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 6:00 pm in the classroom 2 of the Musée du quai Branly.

This will be followed by a conference by

Lourdes de Leon

Professor in Linguistics and Anthropology, CIESAS-Mexico, who will present

Between the poetic and the ludic:

Repetition as a key to children’s communicative competence in Tsotsil.

Repetition is ubiquitous in discourse and central to communicative development in childhood. The pragmatic effects of repetition are contingent on the specific discursive activities in which it is inserted, whether in conversation, verbal play, argumentative discourse, ritual speech, among others. There are abundant studies on repetition in Mayan languages in ritual discourse (Bricker 1974, Monod-Becquelin and Becquey 2008, Vapnarsky 2008), above all, but also on the function of dialogic repetition through conversational turns (Brown 1998). The present study shows an overview of different discursive practices in which Tsotsil children use repetition. Productions are analyzed from the stage of one-word utterances in early conversation, the verbal game, the playful recitation, the argument in reciprocal reply, as well as structures with discursive parallels (de León 2007, 2019). To this end, the architecture of repetition and its pragmatic functions in the development of children’s communicative competencies in Tsotsil is examined. The study is based on longitudinal linguistic and anthropological research with ten Tsotsil children. It is rooted in more than four decades of research in Tsotsil communities in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.

The lecture will be given in Spanish.

Publication prize and subsidies 2024

Publication prize and subsidies 2024

CALL 2024

  1. Young scholars Publication Prize of the Société des américanistes: (an award for young scholars to help publish a volume resulting from their doctoral thesis)
  2. Publication subsidy (open to all)

The Young scholars Publication Prize aims to assist young scholars with the publication of a book resulting from their doctoral research and already accepted by a publishing house in France or abroad. The Société will not accept thesis manuscripts that have not been reworked into a book. The original dissertation should have been completed less than 5 years ago and the resulting book must make a contribution to the same disciplinary, thematic and areal fields as those covered by the Journal de la Société des américanistes. Manuscripts may be submitted in French, English, Spanish or Portuguese. The award amount is capped at 3000€.

The Publication Grant is intended to help publish books contributing to the same disciplinary, thematic and areal fields as those covered by the Journal de la Société des américanistes. Single-authored monographs as well as edited volumes are eligible. The submitted volumes may be written in French, English, Spanish or Portuguese but must have been previously accepted by a publishing house, based in France or abroad. A manuscript can only be submitted once. The allocated amount is capped at 2500€ (per project).

The deadline for submission shall be May 31, 2024. The candidatures will be evaluated by a panel of experts chosen by the Société’s executive board. Results will be announced in the fall of the same year.

The application package consists of:

– Author(s) or Editor(s)’s CV, including a list of publications

– Final Thesis Report or Examiner’s report for countries where applicable or letters of recommendation from at least two members of the PhD examination board (only for the young scholar’s Publication Prize)

– Description of the manuscript (approx. 5 pages: table of contents, detailed summary, main arguments…)

– Manuscript in pdf form

– Pre-acceptance letter from the publishing house

– Cost estimates from the publishing house (including other financial aids already obtained or solicited and the specific amount solicited from the Société)

– Person to contact at the Publishing house (role, email and postal addresses)

– Any other document deemed relevant

Any package either missing information will not be accepted.

Recipients of the Publication Prize or Publication Grant must commit to mention the Société’s contribution in the book, as well as its logo, in accordance with agreements made with the publishing house, which is also expected to give a number of copies free of charge. Award winners who are not members of the Société must commit to apply for membership before receiving their grant or Prize.

The application package should be sent by e-mail only to: prixaidepublication.sda@gmail.com. Please indicate in the subject line of the message the application category (Prize or Publication subsidy).

14/12/2023 – Annual General Meeting and Conference by Olivier Le Guen

14/12/2023 – Annual General Meeting and Conference by Olivier Le Guen

Dear members of the Société des Américanistes,

We are pleased to invite you to the General Assembly of the Société des Américanistes on Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 6 pm in Salle de Cours 2 of the Musée du Quai Branly.

This will be followed by a lecture presented by Olivier Le Guen, Profesor-investigador at CIESAS, Mexico:

A new approach to the prophecies of the Chilam Balam based on a reasoned translation

Existing translations of the prophecies of the so-called Chilam Balam books, whether in English (Edmonson 1982; 1986) or Spanish (Barrera Vázquez y Rendón 1948), have often suggested that the content of these writings contains an esoteric dimension, hinting at a mystical world of the Maya and their pre-Hispanic past. The reason for this “mystery” derives largely from the cryptic nature of the texts, and more precisely of their translation. In fact, if the texts appear opaque, it’s usually the result of a word-for-word translation that ignores the grammatical rules of the language.

Although recent work has uncovered some of the diphrasisms present in older texts (stelae and codices) (Raimúndez Ares 2021), the majority of prophecies are in fact adaptations of Christian texts, revisited by the Maya. As some authors have clearly described, with colonization and the onset of evangelization, some Mayans became literate and converted to Christianity, but decided to join the rebel Mayans, where they became prophets and proposed a “Mayanized” rereading of biblical texts.
In this presentation, I will attempt to show how a linguistic approach to the texts, taking into account their historical context, not only offers the possibility of an intelligible reading of the texts, but also demonstrates the agentivity of the Maya during the process of Christianization of the Yucatecan peninsula.

The conference will be held in French


For information, the Society’s next meeting will be held on January 11.

Please present yourself directly at the museum entrance (37 quai Branly), without going through the cash desks. The Vigipirate plan requires museum security staff not to allow suitcases (even cabin bags), travel bags, backpacks, sports bags, etc. into the museum.