Departmental News

Posted:  Jan 10, 2023 - 12:00pm

Christina Lorenzatto, doctoral student in Ethnology, has received a Latin American and Iberian Institute (LAII) Fellowship for her project “What Kind of People are Plants” and Why Are They Important Interlocutors?: Personhood and Well-Being Among the Shipibo-Konibo of Peru.

Her research seeks to ethnographically understand Shipibo-Konibo relationships with plants in Amazonian Peru where nature is typically viewed as an inter-subjective zone, personhood is not restricted to the human, and certain types of plants can be powerful subjects exhibiting the ability to influence human society in profound ways. Given this context, she seeks to understand how the Shipibo construct their personhood and identity in relation to those practices. Furthermore, she asks how these relationships might be changing in light of the interconnected set of political, economic, and ecological challenges they face in the region. 

Daly, Lewis. (2015). What kind of people are plants? the challenges of researching human-plant relations in Amazonia.