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"Composing Toxic Landscapes: an Evidential Ethnography of the Destruction of the Amazon Forest and the Creation of Soy Monocultures," by Fábio Zuker, LACS Seminar Series

Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 4:30pm to 5:45pm

G-01 Stimson Hall

The Lower Tapajós River is a multiethnic territory located in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon Forest, in the Pará state. This region is the dwelling place of 13 indigenous peoples, hundreds of traditional riverside communities, and dozens of quilombos (formerly enslaved communities with a background of anti-racist struggle). One of the main perils they are now facing is the expansion of both soy monoculture plantations and the infrastructure the exportation of the grains demands. In this presentation, I want to approach the process of creating a soy monoculture landscape over the place where a multispecies tropical forest existed, by following two traces left behind in this process: the remaining of forests and communities as a "farce" and the emergence of viruses (especially hantavirus). I will particularly focus on the role of pesticides in emptying communities and allowing more space for soy plantations to expand.

 

Fábio Zuker is an anthropologist and journalist. He is the author of The Life and Death of a Minke Whale in the Amazon (forthcoming May/22 with Milkweeds editions). He holds a master’s degree from Paris’s School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and is a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo. As a journalist, he has been three times a Pulitzer Center grantee and has written articles for different media outlets, including Thomson Reuters Foundation and Mongabay.

Dial-In Information

Zoom registration link:  https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f8JKkv-dRVaWO6dL8xNxjA

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Event Type

Seminar

Departments

Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, Latino Studies Program, Anthropology, History, Government, Natural Resources, Diversity, Environmental Science, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Global Cornell, Minority, Indigenous, Third World Studies (MITWS rg), Environment and Sustainability, Global Development

University Themes

Diversity, Research, Sustainability

Contact E-Mail

wjp22@cornell.edu

Contact Name

William Phelan, LACS Program Manager

Contact Phone

607-255-1468

Speaker

Fábio Zuker, Anthropology

Speaker Affiliation

University of São Paulo, Brazil

Dept. Web Site

http://lacs.einaudi.cornell.edu

Disability Access Information

Please contact us at your earlierst ability with any accessibility needs

Open To

Free and open to the Cornell community in-person, in adherence with Cornell University's current COVID-19 guidance. Free and open to the public virtually via zoom

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