Here are some of my field photos from the last few months that only skim the surface of the joy, beauty, and resistance in the corner of the Amazon rainforest that I now call home.
I'm also, above all, eternally grateful to the families who welcome me into their homes and chagras and share their stories with me. It is a gift that I cherish.
Happy World Anthropology Day! I'm grateful to be part of a discipline that explores what it means to be human, in a time where understanding our similarities and connections in our collective pasts, presents, and futures seems more necessary than ever. #anthroday
Come join me and a great group of junior scholars working in ethnobotany! Must be an enrolled student, but a major in plant science or masters/PhD in ethnobotany is not required--I'm an anthropologist who started working with plants (academically) just a few years ago!
Classic Amazonian breakfast down at the fish market. Pictured is cucha fish, rumoured to be an aphrodisiac and fertility aid. They have spiky, armored scales and and are bottom feeders. Their suction style mouths enable them to hold onto rocks in fast currents 🐠
Whenever flooding hits, we hear in detail all about the wrecked homes, livelihoods, property, and related misery.
But NEVER the major cause: that Ireland has been totally stripped of the native ecosystems like forest & bogs that would naturally have absorbed the water.
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Submit your work and please share with your networks! We are welcoming abstracts from interdisciplinary + transdisciplinary projects, and non academic practitioners--artists, farmers, community organizers, and more.
This will be a great talk--all are welcome! Registration link in the QR code.
She said “no data entry this morning”
I’m renting a room in a family’s house for my fieldwork and it comes with a cat. 😍 It’s nice to have company where I don’t have to speak my second language after days of interviews and chagra visits
(Information and photos shared with permission) Gracias a todos 🌀
Within the maloca, mambe and ambil (which I will save for another post) are consumed during evening dialogues around the fire called mambeaderos. The ceremonial or social role of mambe usually revolves around community teaching, storytelling, and decision making. (4/4)
You toast the coca leaves, grind them into a fine powder, then mix carefully with ash from a yarumo tree to ensure proper absorption of the coca. Then the mixture is sifted through mesh until it becomes smooth and uniform. The final step is a blessing and request for ancestral guidance. (3/4)
Mambe is a finely ground, aromatic green powder made from toasted coca leaves mixed with the ash of usually the yarumo tree, Cecropia spp. (2/4)
As I prepare for my next few months of fieldwork, I’m reflecting on perhaps one of my favorite nights in the field so far. We learned how to prepare Mambe, from plant harvesting to finished product. (1/4)
Monserrate, Bogotá
Whatever you might think of Maduro, the seizure and kidnapping of a head of state takes us to a very dark place. Vast, arbitrary, extra-legal power, which could be exercised almost anywhere, regardless of the character of the target government.
I can’t wait to find these one day when I’m back in the states for the last year of my PhD!
omg! My cat is named Miss Kitty. Best wishes for Mrs. Kitty ☺️
Do you want to get more engaged with the SEB Society? Now is the perfect opportunity to do so! We are seeking 1 Student Representative-Elect and 3 Student Committee Members for the upcoming council term. (1/3)
Good morning from Bogotá!
I'm now running the (student) Bluesky account for the Society for Ethnobotany. Follow us @sebotanystudents.bsky.social to keep up with news, opportunities, and developing research at the intersection of plants and people, anthropology, botany, geography, plant biology, and more!
I feel strongly that fieldwork is not about your equipment, training, or knowledge-you will learn all of those things along the way if you approach the work with humility and a collaborative approach with your community partners. What makes or breaks a fieldwork season is the relationships you form!
Youyi and I in 2024 on our "girls weekend in Amazonia"! She lived 30 mins by boat from the town I was living in, and we spent the weekend drinking chicha and working in the "mingas" the collaborative community work days in "chagras" (swidden or agroforestry plots).
Had a great time at the American Anthropological Association meeting, geeking out about agroforesty, food, and shifting livelihood strategies in the southern Colombian Amazon! The highlight of my week was reuniting with my friend and colleague Youyi, who I met in Colombia in the forest in 2023.
We ask: how might these forms of stewardship and connection with more-than-human kin push us to rethink development, agriculture, and conservation as culturally embedded and relational fields of practice?
If you will be New Orleans, please join us on Saturday from 2:30-4:30! (3/3)
Drawing on ethnographic insights from 4 Latin American countries, our presentations show how chagras/chakras (agroforestry plots), recipe revitalization, and other land-based practices and livelihoods serve not just as subsistence strategies, but as acts of memory, resilience, and autonomy. (2/3)
I have co-organized a panel with my dear friend and colleague Youyi Xie for the American Anthropological Association meeting this week. Our panel focuses on agrifood systems and explores how Indigenous peoples and local communities across Latin America are navigating socioecological change. (1/3)
In my happy place with dozens of Passiflora at the Jardín Botánico de Bogotá yesterday!
woohoooo!!!
