A new paper and a new series; Joanna Overing and the Art of Anthropology

[Huon Wardle]

This is to highlight a new paper the OACpress has published. Joanna Overing has worked with the Piaroa of the Venezuelan Amazon for decades and is considered by many as a doyenne of Amazonian Studies. Here she brings us her vision of Piaroa myth, shamanism and egalitarian worldview. Check the OAC press page on the toolbar above. We thought her paper would be a fine opportunity to launch a series we have been planning for a while; the Art of Anthropology.

 

For more details, including a seminar involving Joanna in July look here.

[John McCreery]

This paper is a marvel. As I read it I feel the same liberating rush that accompanied my reading of David Graeber's piece on Shilluk divine kingship in the first issue of Hau. This seminar should be a  good one.

[Huon Wardle]

Thanks John. Yes, I am looking forward to it. We've been thinking a lot at OACp about how to gain a generous spread of perspectives: if not a full (not possible in the current state of the discipline), then a wide and diverse range of intellectual projects, and this paper is an important element of that thinking. Joanna has generously agreed to be part of the experiment.

[John McCreery]

Please convey my appreciation to Joanna for agreeing to participate. This paper really tickles the humanist side of the anthropologist in me.

[Huon Wardle]

Will do with pleasure.