Beth Conklin
Associate Professor (Medical Anthropology , sociocultural Anthropology)
Professor Beth Conklin is a cultural and medical anthropologist specializing in the ethnography of indigenous peoples of lowland South America (Amazonia).
Her research focuses on the anthropology of the body, religion and ritual, health and healing,death and mourning, the politics of indigenous rights, and ecology, environmentalism, and cultural and religious responses to climate change. She teaches courses on anthropological theory, medicine and healing, indigenous peoples, and environmental issues.
Her publications include Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society, “Body Paint, Feathers, and VCRs: Aesthetics and Authenticity in Amazonian Activism,” “The Shifting Middle Ground: Brazilian Indians and Eco-Politics” (with Laura Graham), “Ski Masks, Nose Rings, Veils and Feathers: Body Arts on the Front Lines of Identity Politics,” and “Environmentalism, Global Community, and the New Indigenism.”
Specializations
Medical Anthropology, sociocultural Anthropology
Representative publications
Books
Conklin, Beth A. 2001. Consuming grief : compassionate cannibalism in an Amazonian society / Beth A. Conklin. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Journal Articles
Conklin, Beth A. 2020. Shifting Cultivation in Amazonia's Middle Grounds: Propagating Connections Across Eco‐Political‐Economic Landscapes. The journal of Latin American and Caribbean anthropology 25(2):340-350. View Article.
Conklin, Beth A. 2013. Last of the Stone Age Warriors: Book Reviews. American anthropologist 115(4):671-674. View Article.
Conklin, Beth A., and Laura R. Graham. 2009. The Shifting Middle Ground: Amazonian Indians and Eco-Politics. American anthropologist 97(4):695-710. View Article.
Gingging, Flory Ann Mansor, Beth A. Conklin, and Cristina Bacchilega. 2007. 'I Lost My Head in Borneo': Tourism and the Refashioning of the Headhunting Narrative in Sabah, Malaysia. Cultural analysis 6:1.
Conklin, Beth A. 2005. Intercambio fractal en una cosmologia canibal: dinamicas de oposicion y amistad en las fiestas de la Amazonia. Boletín de arqueología PUCP 9:45. View Article.
Conklin, Beth A. 2002. Healing Powers and Modernity: Traditional Medicine, Shamanism, and Science in Asian Societies. Medical anthropology quarterly 16(2):254-256. View Article.
Conklin, Beth A. 2002. Shamans versus Pirates in the Amazonian Treasure Chest. American anthropologist 104(4):1050-1061. View Article.
Conklin, Beth A. 2000. Katsa Baba: Humorous Dramas:Katsa Baba: Humorous Dramas. American anthropologist 102(2):350-351. View Article.
Conklin, Beth A. 1997. Body paint, feathers, and vcrs: aesthetics and authenticity in Amazonian activism. American ethnologist 24(4):711-737. View Article
Conklin, Beth A. 1997. Consuming Images: Representations of Cannibalism on the Amazonian Frontier. Anthropological quarterly 70(2):68-78.
Conklin, Beth A. 1996. Reflections on Amazonian Anthropologies of the Body. Medical anthropology quarterly 10(3):373-375. View Article.
Conklin, Beth A., and Lynn M. Morgan. 1996. Babies, Bodies, and the Production of Personhood in North America and a Native Amazonian Society. Ethos (Berkeley, Calif.) 24(4):657-694. View Article.
Conklin, Beth A.. 1995. “thus are our bodies, thus was our custom”: mortuary cannibalism in an Amazonian society. American ethnologist 22(1):75-101. View Article.
Conklin, Beth A. 1993. Hunting the Ancestors: Death and Alliance in Wari' Cannibalism. The Latin American Anthropology Review 5(2):65-70. View Article.
Conklin, Beth A. 1990. Yuqul: Forest Nomads In a Changing World:Yuqul: Forest Nomads In a Changing World. The Latin American anthropology review 2(2):64-65.
Book chapters
Conklin, Beth A. 2020. Burning sorrow: engaging the animacy of social-ecological life processes in native Amazonian death rituals. In Sacred matter: animacy and authority in the America. S. Kosiba, J.W. Janusek, and T. Cummins, eds. Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian symposia and colloquia. Washington, D.C: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
Conklin, Beth A. 2018. Matters and Mattering. In Investigating the Ordinary : Everyday Matters in Southeast Archaeology. S.E. Price and P.J. Carr, eds. Pp. 185-191. Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. View Book Chapter.
Conklin, Beth A. 2018. Reflections on the Work of Recovery, I and II. In A Companion to the Anthropology of Death. Pp. 103-116. View Book Chapter.
Conklin, Beth A. 2015. Biopolitics of Health as Wealth in the Original Risk Society. In Images of Public Wealth or the Anatomy of Well-Being in Indigenous Amazonia. F. Santons-Granero, ed. Pp. 60: University of Arizona Press.
Conklin, Beth A. 2013. Subverting StereotypesThe Visual Politics of Representing Indigenous Modernity. In Anthropology and the Politics of Representation. G. Vargas-Cetina, ed. Pp. 66-77. Tuscaloosa: University Alabama Press. View Book Chapter.
Conklin, Beth A. 2010. Ethnographic and Anthropological Approaches. In Encyclopedia of Religion in America. C.H. Lippy and P.W. Williams, eds. Pp. 775-783: CQ Press.
Conklin, Beth A. 2005. Cannibalism. In New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Pp. 261-262.
Conklin, Beth A. 2001. Women’s Blood, Warriors’ Blood, and the Conquest of Vitality in Amazonia. In Gender in Amazonia and Melanesia : An Exploration of the Comparative Method. T.A. Gregor and D.F. Tuzin, eds. Pp. 141-174. Berkeley: University of California Press. View Book Chapter.
