November 4–5, 2022
Ephemeral architecture has been long overlooked by scholars, with few exceptions, because of its relatively short life span, the lack of extant structures, and most importantly, the need to understand its complex ecological context. Our first conference, “Ecology” (November 4–5, 2022), seeks to address this lacuna by exploring the complex and dynamic ecologies from which ephemeral architecture arises in the Indigenous Caribbean and South America worlds, and their transformation with the arrival of Africans and Europeans (with their flora, fauna and technologies). Scholars from a diversity of disciplines and countries are brought together to explore and challenge a variety of perspectives and theoretical approaches to local and cross regional ecologies and histories, from unique plants and cultural knowledge, to complex ecosystems and critical human interventions. In the case of thatched roofs, which often drew upon short-lived grasses and had to be remade regularly, even slight ecological changes would have had profound impacts. It is precisely the material condition of this ephemeral architecture that ties its existence to even subtle changes in local ecologies, while also revealing overlooked histories and silenced voices of the early modern world.
Speakers:
Michael D. Carrasco (Florida State University), “The Enduring Maya Home”
Mónica Domínguez Torres (University of Delaware), “Between rancherías and fortalezas: Empire, Extractivism, and Ecology at the Pearling Centers of the Early Americas”
Justin Dunnavant (University of California, Los Angeles), “Beyond the Provision Ground: Towards a Black Historical Ecology in the Atlantic World”
Christine Hastorf (University of California, Berkeley), “The Movement and Tempo of Plant Domesticates throughout the Americas: Implications of Values”
Corinne L. Hofman (University of Leiden & Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies–KITLV), co-author of “Grounding the Táboüi. Recognizing Traditional Knowledge Practices Embedded in the Life Histories of the Caribbean’s Islandscapes of Dwelling”
Irvince Nanichi Auguiste (Former Chief of the Kalinago People), co-author of “Grounding the Táboüi. Recognizing Traditional Knowledge Practices Embedded in the Life Histories of the Caribbean’s Islandscapes of Dwelling”
Eduardo Góes Neves (University of São Paulo), “Landscape and Urbanism in Ancient Amazonia”
Jonah Rowen (Ahmanson-Getty Fellow), “‘Little Empires’: Mahogany, from Forests and Forced Labor to Furniture and Fittings”
Glenn H. Shepard, Jr. (Goeldi Museum, Belém do Pará, Brazil), “The House-Forest Continuum in Indigenous Amazonia, from Architecture to Ecophilosophy”
Pamela Villaseñor (Executive Director of Pukúu Cultural Community Services), “Indigenous Knowledges and Futurisms: Native Villages of Los Angeles”