From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Mon Mar 25 2002 - 20:46:46 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: cunews@cornell.edu
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 5:08 PM
To: CUNEWS-SOCIAL_SCIENCE-L@cornell.edu; CUNEWS-CAMPUS-L@cornell.edu; CUNEWS-SCIENCE-L@cornell.edu
Subject: Cornell News: Yanomami-anthropology ethics conference
Cornell to host historic meeting of Amazonian leaders and Patrick
Tierney, author of Darkness in El Dorado, April 5 to 7
FOR RELEASE: March 25, 2002
Contact: Franklin Crawford
Office: 607-255-9737
E-mail: fac10@cornell.edu
ITHACA, N.Y. -- To shed light on the ethical debates sparked by
Patrick Tierney's book "Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and
Journalists Devastated the Amazon," Cornell University will host a
three-day public conference April 5-7, 2002 that includes speakers
from the Yanomami tribes of Brazil and Venezuela as well as leading
anthropologists and cultural-rights activists.
Organizers hope the conference will provide an important missing
element of this ongoing debate about the ethics of native research --
namely, the Yanomami themselves.
The conference, "Amazon Tragedy: Yanomami Voices, Academic
Controversy and the Ethics of Research," begins Friday, April 5, at
3:15 p.m. in the David H. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall. The
event continues Saturday, April 6, at 8:30 a.m. in Kennedy Hall. On
Sunday, April 7, the conference begins at 9:30 a.m. in Uris Hall G08.
All talks are free and open to the public, but preregistration is
required. To preregister or to request a full conference listing,
call the Latin American Studies Program office at (607) 255-3345 or
send an e-mail query to Gail Zabawsky, program office manager,
<gaz2@cornell.edu>.
Published in 2000, Tierney's controversial book examined the impacts
of biological and social scientific research on Amazonian indigenous
peoples, principally the Yanomami. In addition, Tierney's findings
alleged that researchers engaged in exploitative filmmaking, as well
as takeovers of native lands and resources with the collaboration of
anthropologists, from the 1960s on. The author also alleged
questionable methodology in the research, films and writings of
anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon and in his collaboration with the
late geneticist James Neel.
Three Yanomami representatives will speak April 6 starting at 9 a.m.
Among the indigenous speakers will be Davi Kopenawa, leader of the
Brazilian Yanomami; Toto Yanomami, leader of the community of
Tootobi, Roraima, Brazil; and José Seripino, a prominent
Venezuelan Yanomami leader and ex-president of the Yanomami
Cooperative Association of Venezuela. Their appearance at Cornell
marks the first-ever meeting of Yanomami leaders representing two
separate areas of the Amazon frontier. Tierney will speak April 6 at
3:30 p.m. in Kennedy Hall. Other speakers will include Terence
Turner, Cornell professor of anthropology, and Leslie Sponsel,
professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii. Both Turner
and Sponsel were drawn into the controversy after reviewing galleys
of Tierney's book in the summer of 2000. The academics reported their
concerns about the allegations in the book to officers of the
American Anthropological Association, advising a formal
investigation. That memo was anonymously leaked to the press, adding
fuel to what U.S. News and World Report called an "ethics firestorm."
Turner will speak April 5 at 4 p.m. in Kennedy Hall; Sponsel will
offer closing remarks April 7 at 11 a.m. in Uris Hall.
For the Yanomami speakers, the event marks the first leg of a journey
that will includes visits to Washington, D.C., and New York City. In
Washington, they will meet with lawyers from the Indian Law Resource
Center, which is representing the Yanomami in an effort to receive
compensation for biological samples allegedly collected by scientists
without the Yanomami people's informed consent. The Yanomami seek the
return of these samples, some still preserved in U.S. laboratories,
for burial. In New York City, the Yanomami will meet with members of
the Rain Forest Foundation to seek support for their cause. At the
Cornell conference, Native American representatives will share their
experiences of allegedly unethical research practices and discuss how
to regulate research for the benefit of their own communities.
For more information about the Yanomamis and the conference, contact
Terence Turner at (607) 255-3109, (607) 273-4840 or e-mail at
<tst3@cornell.edu>.
-30-
The web version of this release may be found at
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March02/amazon.conf.april.html
Cornell University News Service
Surge 3
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-4206
cunews@cornell.edu
http://www.news.cornell.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Mon Mar 25 2002 - 20:55:39 PST