Love and anger in Amazonia and in academia: a disciple’s account of Joanna Overing’s oeuvre and teachings

In the Caquetá, Colombia, in 1995, I asked an Englishman who was doing fieldwork for his Ph.D. at Oxford for advice about graduate studies in the UK. “Maybe consider going to Joanna Overing,” he recommended. He thought that she and her students were doing the most exciting research in Amazonianist a...

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Main Author: Carlos D. Londoño Sulkin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Société des américanistes 2024-09-01
Series:Journal de la Société des Américanistes
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/23125
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author Carlos D. Londoño Sulkin
author_facet Carlos D. Londoño Sulkin
author_sort Carlos D. Londoño Sulkin
collection DOAJ
description In the Caquetá, Colombia, in 1995, I asked an Englishman who was doing fieldwork for his Ph.D. at Oxford for advice about graduate studies in the UK. “Maybe consider going to Joanna Overing,” he recommended. He thought that she and her students were doing the most exciting research in Amazonianist anthropology at the time. Meeting him was the first in a chain of fortunate events that led to my doing a Ph.D. under Joanna’s supervision and witnessing a golden but embattled era in her career. This is my personal account of her loves and peeves, her generous supervisory style, her theories, and her place in the history of our discipline and regional specialization, as I now see these. Regarding the latter, I focus especially on her brilliant writing on how contingent associations of Western anthropologists’ analytical terms hinder proper understanding of others’ political philosophies and ways of life; I attend as well to her attention to the centrality of moral understandings in social life, and to her participation in debates about Amazonian engagements with alterity, consanguinity, and conviviality.
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spelling doaj-art-c090a11bf87345f5a0da014231c0f6122025-02-05T15:55:02ZengSociété des américanistesJournal de la Société des Américanistes0037-91741957-78422024-09-01110116518610.4000/12kieLove and anger in Amazonia and in academia: a disciple’s account of Joanna Overing’s oeuvre and teachingsCarlos D. Londoño SulkinIn the Caquetá, Colombia, in 1995, I asked an Englishman who was doing fieldwork for his Ph.D. at Oxford for advice about graduate studies in the UK. “Maybe consider going to Joanna Overing,” he recommended. He thought that she and her students were doing the most exciting research in Amazonianist anthropology at the time. Meeting him was the first in a chain of fortunate events that led to my doing a Ph.D. under Joanna’s supervision and witnessing a golden but embattled era in her career. This is my personal account of her loves and peeves, her generous supervisory style, her theories, and her place in the history of our discipline and regional specialization, as I now see these. Regarding the latter, I focus especially on her brilliant writing on how contingent associations of Western anthropologists’ analytical terms hinder proper understanding of others’ political philosophies and ways of life; I attend as well to her attention to the centrality of moral understandings in social life, and to her participation in debates about Amazonian engagements with alterity, consanguinity, and conviviality.https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/23125historyAmazoniaJoanna Overingmoralityethicspolitical philosophy
spellingShingle Carlos D. Londoño Sulkin
Love and anger in Amazonia and in academia: a disciple’s account of Joanna Overing’s oeuvre and teachings
Journal de la Société des Américanistes
history
Amazonia
Joanna Overing
morality
ethics
political philosophy
title Love and anger in Amazonia and in academia: a disciple’s account of Joanna Overing’s oeuvre and teachings
title_full Love and anger in Amazonia and in academia: a disciple’s account of Joanna Overing’s oeuvre and teachings
title_fullStr Love and anger in Amazonia and in academia: a disciple’s account of Joanna Overing’s oeuvre and teachings
title_full_unstemmed Love and anger in Amazonia and in academia: a disciple’s account of Joanna Overing’s oeuvre and teachings
title_short Love and anger in Amazonia and in academia: a disciple’s account of Joanna Overing’s oeuvre and teachings
title_sort love and anger in amazonia and in academia a disciple s account of joanna overing s oeuvre and teachings
topic history
Amazonia
Joanna Overing
morality
ethics
political philosophy
url https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/23125
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