"Indigenous Knowledge: how far from Marcgraf are we now?"

Professor Manuela Carneiro da Cunha (Universidade de São Paulo and University of Chicago) will give a lecture on "Indigenous Knowledge: how far from Marcgraf are we now?" This lecture is also the keynote for the GI Advanced Seminar on the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. All are welcome.

Date & Time   
Wednesday, 12 October 2016 
3-5pm

Venue 
Gravensteen, Room 11 
Pieterskerkhof 6 
2311 SR Leiden

Reception to follow at Het Prentenkabinet

Indigenous Knowledge: how far from Marcgraf are we now?

Marcgraf was a superb naturalist of the early modern era, before the hegemony of modern Science silenced for two centuries the contribution of indigenous and local knowledge. The recognition and status of traditional knowledge has considerably risen in the past thirty years, under the auspices of the United Nations. Looking into recent work of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), we will analyse how indigenous and local communities ecological knowledge is re-entering the world scene.

Manuela Carneiro da Cunha studied mathematics at the Paris Faculty of Sciences before specializing in anthropology under the tutelage of Claude Lévi-Strauss. Upon returning to Brazil, she successively held the position of Professor of Anthropology at the University of Campinas and at the University of São Paulo. In 1994, she was appointed Professor at the University of Chicago where she taught until 2009. Her areas of expertise are Amazonian ethnology, ethnic identity, indigenous history, Brazilian law on indigenous people, as well as traditional knowledge and its associated intellectual rights. Since 1978, she has played an active role in defending the rights of traditional populations. She is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Third World Academy of Science, and recipient of the Prix de la Francophonie awarded by the Académie Française for the promotion of the French language throughout the world.

The Gravensteen Lecture Series is a joint initiative started by Global Interactions and AMT. This series brings out leading international scholars at the forefront of thinking through historic, contemporary, and emergent transcultural and international connections and their impacts. First Fridays, Gravensteen, 3:00-5:00pm. For the full schedule of speakers and more information about the series, click here.