Contact: Franklin Crawford Office: 607-255-9737 E-Mail: fac10 at 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 at 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 Jose 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 at cornell.edu .
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 Buffalo Activist Network http://www.buffaloactivist.net
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