Posted: April 29th, 2016

discuss the stakes for indigenous people such as the Wari’ in their relations with outsiders;

Your mid-term exam will consist of an essay of 4-5 pages, written in response to a discussion (post and comments) that appeared on a blog called Savageminds.org (“Are there ‘uncontacted tribes’? The short answer: No.”, online https://savageminds.org/2008/07/01/are-there-uncontacted-tribes-the-short-answer-no/). Read the post by Rex (the anthropologist Alex Golub) about the use of the term “uncontacted” by Survival International (SI), a human rights organization that campaigns for the rights of indigenous peoples. Pay particular attention to the comments section, where a debate developes between Stephen Corry, an anthropologist and the Director of Survival International, and Rex.

Your task is (1) to lay out the argument on each side, Rex’s and Corry’s; then, (2) drawing on your reading of Beth Conklin’s Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society (2001), to discuss the stakes for indigenous people such as the Wari’ in their relations with outsiders; and, finally, (3) to weigh in on the debate: is the term “uncontacted” a useful term, a misleading characterization, or a neutral word?