This article seeks to discuss the process of the eclipsing of Vilma Chiara (1927-2020) in the history of Brazilian anthropology. It first proposes an overview of her singular trajectory and, immediately thereafter, an analysis of some of her own narratives recorded in unpublished interviews and the presentation of reflections with regard to the question of gender that pervades many aspects of her work. The article explores the complexities of her work in collaboration with her husband, the Brazilian photographer and ethnologist Harald Schultz (1909-1966). These complexities prompt us to think about the trajectory of Vilma Chiara through an ethnography of the particular, one that considers her partial connections with the category "woman anthropologist," while at the same time pointing to the differentiations in relation to other women, both foreign women anthropologists and Indigenous interlocutors. Finally, the article points to the richness of a trajectory and of an ethnographic production that still remain to be better investigated, above all with regard to Chiara's path after Schultz's death.
Indigenous archaeology, the Gordian knot offederal legislation in French Guiana. French Guiana is the last territory on the American continent to belong to a European country. As a result, despite a few specific features, French law applies to the region in the same way as it does everywhere else in France. However, there is a specific dimension to the region, with the age-old presence of indigenous peoples. They also have their own system of justice under their own norms. While the reality of the region is generally more or less accommodating to this duality, it is much more constrained in certain areas. Land law and archaeological legislation pose far more delicate problems. The creation of a regional archaeology service in French Guiana in 1992 has tightened control over heritage assets. The implementation of the law coincided with a rise in indigenous claims. Indeed, the 1984 gathering of some 1,500 natives in Awala-Yalimapo, together with representatives of the prefecture, led to the formation of the Association of French Guianas Indigenous People, whose vocation was to defend the essential rights of the natives. In spite of this, and where necessary or relevant, French legislation made relatively few changes to its compo-sition to adapt it to this new awareness, continuing to ignore indigenous claims. Today, the situation shows a profound mismatch between national jurisdiction and native claims, with a distinct lack of attention to the reflexive handling of this issue. The result is a growing dissonance over the years between republican legislation and indigenous law.
In the analysis of funerary practices, burials that deviate from apparent standards always attract particular attention. In the Maya area, due to the regional variability of these practices, it may be tempting to attribute such anomalies to individuals of foreign origin. However, other possibilities exist. Recent advances in the understanding of the history and dynamics of the Maya city of Naachtun (Guatemala) provide an opportunity to examine this question from a historical perspective. This article explores this issue through a multidisciplinary approach, combining cultural studies and isotopic data from a set of 18 burials. While these initial results suggest that long-distance migration primarily involved elites and members of the ruling dynasty—particularly at the beginning and end of the city’s history—they also highlight a local-scale decoupling between variations in funerary practices and the origins of individuals.
The city of Tikal played a pre-eminent role in the Central Lowlands of the Maya area from the beginning of the Classic period until the fall of its dynasty (250-after 869 CE). At the heart of a heterarchical network of city-states, it established itself as a regional capital from the start of the Early Classic period, then as a key actor in the political, cultural, artistic, and commercial spheres. As a major religious center, Tikal’s influence on its vassals, allies by marriage, diplomatic partners, or enemies is assessed using the exhaustive corpus of ritual deposits from 9 regional capitals and 18 secondary centers or satellite sites. As a result, it will be possible to define the modalities of cultural sharing in the religious field, if any: radiating hegemony from Tikal, mutual interpenetration of beliefs and practices, or local traditions without exchanges?
This article seeks to discuss the process of the eclipsing of Vilma Chiara (1927-2020) in the history of Brazilian anthropology. It first proposes an overview of her singular trajectory and, immediately thereafter, an analysis of some of her own narratives recorded in unpublished interviews and the presentation of reflections with regard to the question of gender that pervades many aspects of her work. The article explores the complexities of her work in collaboration with her husband, the Brazilian photographer and ethnologist Harald Schultz (1909-1966). These complexities prompt us to think about the trajectory of Vilma Chiara through an ethnography of the particular, one that considers her partial connections with the category “woman anthropologist,” while at the same time pointing to the differentiations in relation to other women, both foreign women anthropologists and Indigenous interlocutors. Finally, the article points to the richness of a trajectory and of an ethnographic production that still remain to be better investigated, above all with regard to Chiara’s path after Schultz’s death.
Branislava Susnik (1920-1996) was an anthropologist of Slovenian origin who had a prolific and unique career in Paraguay as director of the Andrés Barbero Ethnographic Museum. Her vast work in ethnolinguistics, ethnography, ethnohistory and comparative ethnology makes her an essential reference for studies of the Gran Chaco and Paraguay, although the hermetic style of her texts and a certain academic seclusion kept her on the margins of the great Americanist lineages. This article offers a review of her life and scientific work. Through documents preserved in archives in Paraguay and Slovenia, it reconstructs her biography from her university studies to her arrival in Paraguay, her accidental introduction to Chaco ethnography, her work as director of the museum, her frustrated project to turn it into a large anthropological research laboratory, and her ethnographic travels to a dozen indigenous groups. It then examines her academic output, highlighting the main lines of her career (from her early and unique linguistic studies, through her ethnographic works, to her work on ethnohistory and comparative ethnology) and tracing the development of her interest in the processes of cultural change and the adaptations of indigenous groups in the face of colonization and evangelization. Finally, the main thematic axes and methodological principles of her work are identified, which certainly deserve to be re-evaluated by ethnology and ethnohistory in the South American lowlands.
French Guiana is the last territory on the American continent to belong to a European country. As a result, despite a few specific features, French law applies to the region in the same way as it does everywhere else in France. However, there is a specific dimension to the region, with the age-old presence of indigenous peoples. They also have their own system of justice under their own norms. While the reality of the region is generally more or less accommodating to this duality, it is much more constrained in certain areas. Land law and archaeological legislation pose far more delicate problems. The creation of a regional archaeology service in French Guiana in 1992 has tightened control over heritage assets. The implementation of the law coincided with a rise in indigenous claims. Indeed, the 1984 gathering of some 1,500 natives in Awala-Yalimapo, together with representatives of the prefecture, led to the formation of the Association of French Guianas Indigenous People, whose vocation was to defend the essential rights of the natives. In spite of this, and where necessary or relevant, French legislation made relatively few changes to its composition to adapt it to this new awareness, continuing to ignore indigenous claims. Today, the situation shows a profound mismatch between national jurisdiction and native claims, with a distinct lack of attention to the reflexive handling of this issue. The result is a growing dissonance over the years between republican legislation and indigenous law.
The Lesser Antilles are a volcanic subduction arc that includes numerous volcanoes that erupt explosively. The Kalinago vocabulary of Dominica that has come down to us shows that, at the time of contact, these Amerindians had a global and sophisticated view of natural hazards, but it does not contain any term concerning volcanoes and their eruptive manifestations. However, in the volcanic complex of Morne Plat Pays in Dominica, in the cave of a soufriere, the Kalinago saw a kind of snake or dragon with a shiny red stone on its forehead, called "Allouebera", which is translated to French as "Escarboucle" (ruby) and mentioned in at least six ethnohistorical accounts by 17th century French chroniclers. The descriptions of this belief could suggest regional eruptive phenomena, expressed in a Kalinago symbolic and mythological register; the last eruption of this volcanic complex is dated by geologists to around 1500 +/- 90. Could the legend of Allouebera then correspond to the definition of a volcanic eruption hidden behind a mythical formulation?
