Name: Sea shells, women’s blood and an Andean bioclimatology of water
Start: 2024-11-12T19:30:00+01:00
End: 2024-11-12T21:00:00+01:00
Location: UCL Anthropology

$Sea shells, women\u2019s blood and an Andean bioclimatology of water$

This talk by Denise Arnold explores the mutual rearing practices between Andean populations and water, in its different manifestations, as a key life-giving element in their mountainous habitat. Andean animist ontologies recognise how humans and water flow are constituted mutually, through a dynamic relationality, which extends to other aquatic phenomena, including the sea-shell spondylus princeps. This knowledge is learned and transmitted between the generations in the rites of passage of adolescent girls and boys, when they learn an interdependence with water, establish relations with water beings, and practice equivalences between their own blood flow and water flow. Examined in this context are Inka rites of passage, a school ritual focused on learning about water flow, a female rite of passage when women learn to use particular designs and colours in their weavings, and a ritual offering of spondylus to high mountain shrines. These practices are situated in the emerging discipline of bioclimatology.
Denise is an Anglo-Bolivian anthropologist. She has been Leverhulme Research Fellow, ESRC Senior Research Fellow, and Research Professor at Birkbeck, University of London. She directs the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara, in La Paz, Bolivia, is Research Fellow (Hon.) at University College London.
She will be speaking LIVE in the Daryll Forde, 2nd Floor, UCL Anthropology. Please arrive in good time before doors close by 6:30pm. You can also join on ZOOM ID 384 186 2174 passcode Wawilak.