Dr. Richard J. Chacon, an associate professor of anthropology at Winthrop University, will speak on Wednesday, Nov. 7, in the Shawkey Dining Room of the Memorial Student Center (2E28) on Marshall University’s Huntington campus. The presentation and discussion will run from 4 to 6 p.m.
Chacon’s presentation, part of the speaker series of Marshall’s department of sociology & anthropology, is titled “Conservation or Resource Maximization? Analyzing Subsistence Hunting Among the Achuar of Ecuador.”
In this presentation, Chacon will discuss findings from his extensive anthropological fieldwork experience among the indigenous peoples of South America in which he has employed methodological and theoretical approaches that range from those basic to the biological and health sciences to studies of the role played in natural resource use by particular systems of belief and associated ritual practices.
Chacon will examine whether observed behavior among the Achuar (and other indigenous groups of the Americas) can be attributed to Western contact as well as ethical issues raised by his findings.
Chacon has conducted anthropological investigations throughout Latin America, documenting the subsistence patterns and belief systems of the Yanomamö of Venezuela (known by many as the “Fierce People” through a book of that name by the anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon), the Yora of Peru and the Achuar (Shiwiar) of Ecuador. He has also examined ritual violence among the Otavalo and Cotacachi Indians of Highland Ecuador.
His publications include: The Ethics of Anthropology and Amerindian Research: Reporting on Environmental Degradation and Warfare (Eds., R. Chacon and R. Mendoza), New York: Springer (2012); North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence (Eds., R. Chacon and R. Mendoza), Tucson: University of Arizona Press (2007); Latin American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence (Eds., R. Chacon and R. Mendoza), Tucson: University of Arizona Press (2007); and The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians (Eds., R. Chacon and D. Dye), Springer: New York (2007).
Chacon’s presentation is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
For more information, contact Dr. Brian A. Hoey at hoey@marshall.edu.
