Langdon, E. Jean

English

Trinity University

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of LowlandSouth AmericaISSN: 2572-3626 (online)Volume 15Issue 1 Remembering William T. Vickers(1942–2016)Article 106-15-2017Bill Vickers: A Pioneer in Engaged and DialogicAnthropologyE. Jean LangdonUniversidade Federal de Santa CatarinaFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipitiPart of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Civic and Community EngagementCommons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Folklore Commons, Gender and SexualityCommons, Human Geography Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Latin AmericanStudies Commons, Linguistic Anthropology Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons,Public Policy Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, and the Work, Economy andOrganizations CommonsThis Memorial is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Trinity. It has been accepted for inclusion in Tipití: Journal of theSociety for the Anthropology of Lowland South America by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Trinity. For more information, please contactjcostanz@trinity.edu.Recommended CitationLangdon, E. Jean (2017). "Bill Vickers: A Pioneer in Engaged and Dialogic Anthropology," Tipití: Journal of the Society for theAnthropology of Lowland South America: Vol. 15: Iss. 1, Article 10, 4-7.Available at: https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol15/iss1/10MEMORIAL ______________________________________________________________________________ Bill Vickers: A Pioneer in Engaged and Dialogic Anthropology    E. Jean Langdon Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina BRAZIL    In 1972, when Bill Vickers began his fieldwork among the Siona-Secoya, South America was characterized as the “least known continent” by anthropologists (Ly-ons 1974), and the Amazon region was even less known (Jackson 1975). However, it was an exciting period due to the virtual explosion of modern anthropological re-search undertaken not only to expand our knowledge about the ethnography of lowland cultures but also to contribute to the construction of paradigms adequate for understanding the complexity of these little known groups (Seeger, Da Matta, and Viveiros de Castro 1979). These studies, stimulated by new interests in shaman-ism, ecology, ritual, mythology, symbolism, social organization, history, archeology, gender, and daily life (Overing Kaplan 1981; Viveiros de Castro 1996) have resulted today in placing both Amazonian ethnography and its analytical discussions at the center of contemporary anthropological debates.   Bill’s research on ecology, subsistence, and adaptation must be recognized as a pioneering ethnographic study that laid the necessary groundwork for the develop-ment of discussions on environment, knowledge, nature, and culture made famous by Viveiros de Castro, Descola, Ingold, and others. His interests in territory, subsist-ence, and change (Vickers 1980) also contributed to the subsequent work of Paul Little among the Secoya and the latter’s concern with a political ecology that goes beyond preoccupations with territory, including the role of the anthropologist in the dispute for resources (Little 1999; Little 2001).  As noted by Cipolletti, his work was also trailblazing in investigating the West-ern Tukanoans in Ecuador. Until 1970, the Western Tukanoan groups in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru were known only through reports by missionaries, naturalists, or ethnologists who occasionally passed through the region collecting isolated data. There were no long-term, in-depth studies of these groups until my research with the Siona of Colombia in 1970 and Bill’s with the Siona-Secoya in 1972.  Our research interests and methods were quite different. I was interested in shamanism, symbolism, and the relation between beliefs, perception, and behavior, exploring these themes through narrative and following therapeutic itineraries. Bill used systematic, precise, and quantitative methodologies to understand Siona-Secoya knowledge of the environment and to record subsistence practices in different eco-logical contexts (Vickers 1983). His studies of medicinal plants offered excellent comparative material for the Siona of Colombia (Vickers 1994), and his data on the varieties of yajé or Banisteriopsis (Vickers and Plowman 1984:18) cultivated and pre-pared by the Siona-Secoya is among the most complete; it supports the argument that knowledge and use of this important sacred plant among the Siona dated long before the arrival of the Spaniards. Its use in hunting, fishing, and other rituals per-formed for the maintenance of community well-being was not of mestizo origin as Peter Gow (1994) argues for ayahuasca shamanism in lowland Peru. His photo-graphic register of exquisite face paintings inspired by yajé rituals (Vickers 1975a) presents aesthetic expressions of shamanic knowledge that the Secoya identified as their own. In spite of our different focuses, we shared a commitment to the ethnographic method characterized by language and cultural immersion that made possible a dia-logic relation with our Siona and Secoya collaborators and a more holistic under-4Published by Digital Commons @ Trinity, 2017standing of their lives and concerns. He recognized the relation between ecology, knowledge, and shamanic and ritual practices, themes that today form the basis for Amazonian perspectivism. Bill didn’t just collect information on ecology, knowledge, and subsistence practices. He participated fully in the lives of the Siona and Secoya, observing gender relations, changes in political organization, interac-tions with missionaries and colonists, shamanic practices, and aesthetic expressions. These themes can been seen in his many articles and other publications (Vickers 1975a; Vickers 1981; Vickers 1989). His articles on gender relations, hunting, and change (Vickers 1975b; Vickers 1979) spoke to debates circulating in the 1970s re-garding male dominance in the Amazon. Like other authors who later studied gen-der among the Western Tukanoans, he presented gender relations as more egalitar-ian and based on reciprocity rather than male dominance Another dimension of his work is the connection between the local and the global as well as the relations between the local and the state. His experience and observations of the Siona-Secoya communities fit within the context of transfor-mation caused by greater historical, economic, and political forces (Vickers 1989; Vickers 1992; Vickers 2003). When he began his fieldwork, the Siona-Secoya were little known outside the region and ignored by national interests. Their lives were adapting to the presence of nonindigenous migrants to the region and to Protestant missionaries working to undermine their religious system of shamanism (Vickers 1981). Subsequent to his first fieldwork, the region has undergone even deeper so-cial, political, and ecological transformations due to the structural violences of pe-troleum extraction, drug trafficking, and the armed conflict overflowing from the Colombian civil war (Vickers 2001). In spite of the disastrous situation of Western Tukanonans in both Colombia and Ecuador, they have managed to survive and manifest political agency (Vickers 2003). They have formed indigenous organiza-tions and important nonshamanic leaders have emerged to defend territorial rights and negotiate with the government, NGOs, and mining and petroleum companies. Western Tukanoan shamans have become famous figures among urban profession-als seeking yajé rituals. Because of his capacity as an observer and his continual journeys to visit the Siona-Secoya over the decades, Bill’s publications, beginning with his doctoral thesis, are all concerned with the effects of these historical, eco-nomic, and political forces. His extensive knowledge and experience among the Siona-Secoya has allowed him to make sense of the transformations and adaptations over the last forty-five years. One of his last articles details the introduction of sha-manic tourism among the Siona-Secoya (Vickers 2007). Bill’s commitment to the principles of a dialogical and engaged anthropology was evident during his entire life. He was a “symmetrical” anthropologist long be-fore the colonial position of anthropology became an object of self-reflection and certain anthropologists claimed to be the first to take their native collaborators seri-ously. Not only did he carefully document Siona-Secoya knowledge and practices regarding questions of ecology and subsistence in a rapidly changing and endan-gered environment, but in the early 1990s he founded the Siona-Secoya Foundation Incorporated, a nonprofit intended to support projects proposed by the Indians themselves. He played a role in the early stages of negotiations between the Secoya and the Occidental Petroleum Company. Bill frequently revisited the Siona-Secoya during his life, conducting research and, more importantly, seeking ways to help them individually and collectively.  His Brazilian wife Edite accompanied him on many of the trips, aiding him and also es-tablishing deep and long lasting relations with Siona-Secoya herself. I remember a Christmas card from Bill and Edite with Siona-Secoya face designs that she had re-produced. Both were close friends of the Secoya artist Ramón Piaguaje, whose painting “Eternal Amazon” was selected as the winner of the first prize of the United Nations Millennium Art Exhibition in aid of UNICEF—“Our World in the Year 2000.” Because of our mutual interests, I corresponded and visited him occasionally in Florida. I saw them last in Gainesville in January 2016, when Bill knew he was dying. He and Edite received me in their home with all the warmth and generosity that has 5Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South Americahttps://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol15/iss1/10characterized this couple since they met while pursuing graduate studies at the Uni-versity of Florida.  Bill should be remembered not only for the importance of his excellent and timely scholarship on the Siona-Secoya, but also as a considerate colleague for those of us who worked in the same region. Even more important were his dedication to the Siona-Secoya and deep preoccupation with their survival in a turbulent and vio-lent region. His caring for the Siona-Secoya did not falter with his declining health, and Edite told me that on the day he died, one of his last acts before he slipped away was to answer a request for aid from a Secoya friend who had called from Ec-uador.  References  Gow, Peter  1994 “River People Shamanism and History in Western Amazonia.” In Nicholas Thomas and Caroline Humphrey (eds), Shamanism, History, and the State. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 90–113. Little, Paul E. 1999 “Political Ecology as Ethnography: The Case of Ecuador’s Aguarico River Basin.” Série Antropologia 258. Departament of Anthropology, Universidade de Brasilia. 2001 Amazonia, Territorial Struggles on Perennial Frontiers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Lyons, Patricia J.  1974 Native South Americans: Ethnology and the Least Known Continent.  Boston: Little Brown and Co. Jackson, Jean  1975 “Recent ethnography of indigenous Northern lowland South America.” Annual Review of Anthropology 4:307–340. Overing Kaplan, Joanna  1981 “Amazonian Anthropology.” Journal of Latin American Studies 13(1):151–164. Seeger, Anthony, Roberto Da Matta, and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro  1979 “A Construção da Pessoa nas Sociedades Indígenas Brasileiras.” Boletim do Museu Nacional, Série Antropologia 32:2–19.  Vickers, William T.  1975a  “El Mundo Espiritual de los Siona.” Periplo 1(4):12–23. 1975b  “Meat is Meat: The Siona-Secoya and the Hunting Prowess-Sexual Reward Hypothesis.” Latinamericanist 11(1):1–5.  1979 Sex Roles and Social Change in Amazonian Ecuador. Paper presented the 78th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Cincinnati, Ohio. 1980 “An Analysis of Amazonian Hunting Yields as a Function of Settlement Age.”  In Raymond B. Hames (ed), Studies in Hunting and Fishing in the Neotropics, Working Papers on South American Indians 2:7–29. 1981 “Ideation as Adaptation: Traditional Belief and Modern Intervention in Siona-Secoya Religion.” In Norman E. Whitten, Jr. (ed), Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 705–730.   1983 “The Territorial Dimensions of Siona-Secoya and Encabellado Adaptation.” In Raymond B. Hames and William T. Vickers (eds), Adaptive Responses of Native Amazonians. New York: Academic Press, pp. 451–478. 1989 “Traditional Concepts of Power among the Siona-Secoya and the Advent of the Nations-State.” Latin American Anthropology Review 1(2):55–60.   6Bill Vickers: A Pioneer in Engaged and Dialogic AnthropologyPublished by Digital Commons @ Trinity, 20171992 “Siona-Secoya and Inca Religions: A Comparison of Sacred Systems in the Amazon and Andes.” In Juan Bottasso (ed), II Tomo de las Religiones Amerindias: 500 Años Después. Quito: Abya-Yala, pp. 185–199.  1994 “The Health Significance of Wild Plants for the Siona and the Secoya.” In Nina L. Etkin (ed), Eating on the Wild Side: The Pharmacologic, Ecologic, and Social Implications of Using Noncultigens. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 143–165.  2001 “Ecuador's Strategic Policies toward Indigenous Communities in Sensitive Border Areas.”  In John Mukum Mbaku, Pita Ogaba Agbese, and Mwangi S. Kimenyi (eds), Ethnicity and Governance in the Third World. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 195–211. 2003 “The Modern Political Transformation of the Secoya.” In Norman E. Whitten, Jr. (ed), Millennial Ecuador: Critical Essays on Cultural Transformations and Social Dynamics. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, pp. 46–74.   2007 “La Historia Temprana del Turismo en las Comunidades Secoya.” In Stella de la Torre and Pablo Yépez (eds), Caminando en el Sendero: Hacia la Conservación del Ambiente y la Cultura Secoya. Quito: Fundación Vihoma, pp. 53–68. Vickers, William T. and Timothy Plowman  1984 “Useful Plants of the Siona and Secoya Indians of Eastern Ecuador.” Fieldiana Botany (N.S.) 15:1–63. Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo B.  1996 “Images of Nature and Society in Amazonian Ethnology.” Annual Review of Anthropology 25:179–200.  7Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South Americahttps://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol15/iss1/10

Bill Vickers: A Pioneer in Engaged and Dialogic Anthropology

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Bill Vickers: A Pioneer in Engaged and Dialogic Anthropology

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