Research areas
James Andrew Whitaker (Ph.D. Anthropology, Tulane University) is an Honorary Research Fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews and a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the CNRS (USR 3456, LEEISA) in Cayenne, French Guiana. He has conducted fieldwork with Indigenous communities (primarily Makushi and Akawaio) in Guyana and archival research in the UK, US, and Guyana. His work centres around ethnohistory, historical ecology, and ontologies in Amazonia.
He is currently in the process of expanding his ethnographic work to West Africa (primarily Liberia) and will be conducting new fieldwork there during the summer of 2022.
He is working on a book and two edited volumes.
Selected publications
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Open access
Climatic and ecological change in the Americas: a perspective from historical ecology
Whitaker, J. A. (ed.), Armstrong, C. G. (ed.) & Odonne, G. (ed.), 17 Aug 2023, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 248 p. (New frontiers in historical ecology)Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Open access
Introduction
Whitaker, J. A., Armstrong, C. G. & Odonne, G., 17 Aug 2023, Climatic and ecological change in the Americas: a perspective from historical ecology. Whitaker, J. A., Armstrong, C. G. & Odonne, G. (eds.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, p. 1-13 13 p. (New frontiers in historical ecology).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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Open access
Owning climate change among the Makushi and Akawaio
Whitaker, J. A., 17 Aug 2023, Climatic and ecological change in the Americas: a perspective from historical ecology. Whitaker, J. A., Armstrong, C. G. & Odonne, G. (eds.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, p. 213-228 16 p. (New frontiers in historical ecology).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Sorcery and well-being: bodily transformation at Beckeranta
Whitaker, J. A., 14 Jan 2021, In: Anthropology & Medicine. 28, 1, p. 78-93 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Totemic outsiders: ontological transformation among the Makushi
Whitaker, J. A., 1 Sept 2021, In: Religion and Society. 12, 1, p. 70-85 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Climatic and Ontological Change in the Anthropocene among the Makushi in Guyana
Whitaker, J. A., 2020, In: Ethnos. 85, 5, p. 843-860 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Strategic Alliance and the Plantationocene among the Makushi in Guyana
Whitaker, J. A., 2020, In: Social Anthropology. 28, 4, p. 881-896 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Water Mamas among the Makushi
Whitaker, J. A., 2020, In: Folklore. p. 34-54 21 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Imagination and the Poetics of Being and Becoming an Other in Amazonia
Whitaker, J. A., 2018, In: Anthropology of Consciousness. 29, 1, p. 120-131 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Guns and Sorcery: Raiding, Trading, and Kanaima among the Makushi
Whitaker, J. A., 2017, In: Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America. 15, 2, p. 158-172 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review