Indigenous History, Historical Ecology, and the Environmental Tipping Point in the Southern Amazon INT 100/201 APPROVED!
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
6:00 p.m.
Online
Alumni, Community, Faculty, Staff, Students
The Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program and The
Department of Geography and Sustainable Planning
present our
special guest speaker:
Dr. Morgan Schmidt
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Indigenous History, Historical Ecology, and the Environmental
Tipping Point in the Southern Amazon
Tuesday evening, March 30,
at 6 pm. Virtual Presentation via Zoom:https://gvsu-edu.zoom.us/j/96775514185
Morgan Schmidt is a geographer, archaeologist, and Post-doctoral Associate in the Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science Department at MIT. His research combines geography, archaeology, ethnography and soil science to study historical landscapes and the formation of Amazonian dark earth or “terra preta” in partnership with the Kuikuro Community located in the Upper Xingu. Xingu Indigenous Territory stands out as an island of green forest surrounded by deforestation. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Upper Xingu was a populous complex society with large, interconnected town and villages and a fully “domesticated” cultural landscape.
The population was drastically reduced from conflicts and epidemics after the arrival of Bandeirantes and Old World diseases. Surviving indigenous communities in the southern Amazon’s “Arc of Deforestation” have seen drastic changes in the past two decades with deforestation and encroachment on their land and waters from the surrounding non-indigenous culture. Severe droughts and devastating forest fires brought on by deforestation and climate change, causing the region to reach a possible tipping point of forest loss and environmental degradation.
Location Information
https://gvsu-edu.zoom.us/j/96775514185
Contact Information
For more information, contact Professor Jim Penn: [email protected]
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This event was added to the calendar by Amanda Reader (readera@gvsu.edu) on Thursday, March 18, 2021 and was last updated on Monday, March 22, 2021 at 4:17 p.m.