Past ISE Field Fellows

2004-2006 Field Fellow – Dr. Miguel N. Alexiades

En español

Miguel Alexiades has worked with the Ese eja, a Takana-speaking group in the border regions of Amazonian Peru and Bolivia, since 1985. His applied ethnobotanical work has included setting up a community-based herbarium and registrar of medicinal and useful plants, as well as organizing workshops and preparing written and visual materials to facilitate the exchange and transmission of health-related knowledge. His doctoral dissertation examined Ese eja ethnoecology in the context of the socio-ecological and health changes of the 20th century.

The Darrell Posey Field Fellowship supports Dr. Alexiades’ current work, which involves helping the Ese eja and their representative organization, the FENAMAD (Federación Nativa del Madre de Dios), document social knowledge linked to traditionally occupied and utilized areas. While most Ese eja live in communities with titled lands, much of the Ese eja traditional territory falls outside the communities, and within the area of influence of several protected areas: the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, the Tambopata National Reserve (Peru) and the Madidi National Park (Bolivia). Dr. Alexiades has been helping the Ese eja travel to different parts of their territory, using information technology to document precise locations, and record place names, oral histories and testimonies.

The interrelated goals of Dr. Alexiades’ applied ethnoecological work are to:

1. Provide a legal and moral basis for Ese eja stakeholder rights;

2. Develop written and audiovisual materials (community maps, booklets, videos) to assist the Ese eja in their attempts to secure highly endangered forms of social knowledge;

3. Facilitate the transmission of knowledge across generations and across communities which have in many cases, due to factors linked to social change, become increasingly dislocated and fragmented from each other and from their ancestral territory;

4. Raise the awareness of state and non-state planners, particularly in protected areas, as to the social history of the area and its implications for environmental management and social development; and

5. Facilitate the dialogue between the Ese eja and generate mechanisms for conflict resolution.

During the course of the Fellowship to date, Dr. Alexiades has undertaken several trips along the main course of the Sonene (Heath) River, and a map of the Ese Eja traditional territory associated with the Sonene has been prepared. Over 300 named places and associated narratives have been recorded along a 400km stretch of the river. Named and socially important features of the landscape include: natural features (e.g alluvial beaches and sand bars, tributaries, streams, lakes, cliffs); places of social or historical importance (old settlement sites, burial sites, old footpaths, sites linked to particular mythic events); and sites related to present subsistence (hunting, fishing, gathering) or past subsistence activities or forest management (old fallows and garden sites, and forest plantations of fruit trees, cultivated bamboos, fish poisons, etc.).

Two videos have been edited from footage shot during these trips, one for internal circulation among the Ese Eja, and another for public diffusion. The map of the Ese Eja ancestral territory along the Sonene River and the video were presented to representatives of several government and non-governmental organizations, as well as members of the general public by a delegation of Ese eja from three communities in Peru and the FENAMAD. The Darrell Posey Field Fellowship has also allowed Dr. Alexiades to facilitate the exchange of experiences, skills and resources between the Ese eja and other indigenous cultural landscape initiatives, particularly in western Amazonia.

During this time Dr. Alexiades also diffused some of this work among peers and practitioners through several publications and in a number of scientific meetings and research seminars, including:

Publications:

Peluso, D. M. and M.N. Alexiades. 2005. Urban ethnogenesis begins at home: the making of self and place amidst the environmental economy in Amazonia. Traditional Settlements and Dwelling Review. 18: 7-16.

Research Seminars and Papers Delivered:

London School of Economics, Department of Social Anthropology. Latin America Seminar. May 23, 2005.

University of Durham, Department of Social Anthropology. Anthropology in Development Seminar Series. October 20, 2004.

Conferences, meetings and Research Papers:

Alexiades, M.N. 2005. Headwaters of the past: Ethnoecology, memory, and the struggle for nature in a western Amazonian landscape.” RAI Curl Lecture. “British Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting, Dublin, 7 September 2005.

International Scientific Committee, International Congress of Ethnobotany, August 21-25, 2005, Istanbul, Turkey. Co-organizer with Dario Novellino of Panel titled “Transmission, contact and exchange of Plant Resources and Knowledge between regions: Historical and Contemporary Approaches.”

Invited discussant. “Appropriation regimes and management systems for biodiversity”. International Conference on Biodiversity: Science and Governance, UNESCO. Paris, 26 January 2005.

Videos:

“Río Sonene: Tierra de los Ese Eja”. 43 mins. Producer and editor. FENAMAD, 2004.

“Sonene: Land of the Ese Eja”. 18 mins with subtitles. Producer and editor. FENAMAD, 2004.

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2004 – 2006 Becario de Campo – Dr. Miguel N. Alexiades

Miguel Alexiades ha trabajado con el grupo de habla Takana, Ese eia, en la frontera Amazónica de Perú y Bolivia desde 1985. Su trabajo aplicado en etnobotánica incluye un herbolario comunitario, y un diccionario de plantas útiles o con usos medicinales. También ha organizando talleres y preparado materiales escritos y visuales para facilitar el intercambio y transmisión de conocimiento relacionado con la salud. Su tesis doctoral analizó la etnoecologia Ese eja en su contexto socio-ecológico y los cambios en la salud durante el siglo XX.

La Beca de Campo Darrell Posey ayudará a financiar el trabajo de Miguel Alexiades con el objetivo que los Ese eja y su organización FENAMAD (Federación Nativa del Madre de Dios), puedan documentar el conocimiento social relacionado con áreas tradicionalmente ocupadas y utilizadas. Aunque la mayoría de los Ese eja viven en comunidades con tierras tituladas, muchos de los territorios tradicionales se encuentran fuera de las comunidades y dentro del área de influencia de varias áreas protegidas como el Parque Nacional Bahuaja-Sonene y la Reserva Nacional Tambopata en Perú y el Parque Nacional Madidi en Bolivia. Miguel Alexiades ayuda a que los Ese eja recorran sus territorios utilizando tecnologías de información para documentar lugares precisos, sus nombres, historias orales y testimonios.

Las metas más específicas del trabajo aplicado etnoecológico de Miguel Alexiades son:

1. Conseguir una base legal y moral para los derechos de propiedad de los Ese eja.

2. Desarrollar materiales escritos y audiovisuales (mapas de la comunidad, boletines, videos) para ayudar a que los Ese eja puedan asegurar formas de conocimiento social que se encuentran en peligro;

3. Facilitar la transmisión de conocimiento entre generaciones y comunidades que en muchos casos, debido a factores relacionados con cambio social, se dislocan y fragmentan entre sí y de sus territorios ancestrales;

4. Crear conciencia entre planeadores estatales y no estatales, particularmente en áreas protegidas, sobre la historia del área y su impacto para el manejo ambiental y el desarrollo social; y

5. Facilitar el dialogo entre los Ese eja y generar mecanismos para la resolución de conflictos.

La Beca de Campo Darrell Posey también permitirá que Miguel Alexiades facilite el intercambio de experiencias, habilidades y recursos entre los Ese eja y otras iniciativas indígenas de paisaje cultural, particularmente en la Amazonía Occidental.