Summer Field School in Napo - 2007

Dr. Uzendoski took a group of seven FSU students to Ecuador this summer for a field school focusing on ethnographic fieldwork. The students, all undergraduates, lived with native families in various locations and pursued individual research projects. The native families served as mentors and guided the students in their work. During the program, the students learned firsthand the importance of reciprocity and sharing in native life. In addition to pursuing their own research, students helped their host-communities by teaching English, construction work, food production, and shared in numerous daily activities. The highlight of the summer was when the group came together to prepare for, and participate, in the annual fiesta of the base community. During this fiesta, students danced in traditional dress and served chicha (manioc beer) to the mayor of the capital city and his delegation. The students wrote research papers dealing with the symbolism and social meanings of manioc, the role of sports in the local culture, the sociality of "work" in the native view, child-development, indigenous engagements of politics and world-politics, medicinal plants and healing, and lastly the mythology of human-jaguar transformations. It was a very successful summer and Dr. Uzendoski is proud of how much his students learned in such a short time.

Students Who Participated

• Del Toro, Rebecca
• Hutcherson, Christina E
• Murphy, Jessica L
• Nachtsheim, Joyce K
• Perez-Carpenter, Tony P
• Shellenberger, Vanessa E
• Zinck, Erin A