Photographs by Charles L. Briggs
Department of Anthropology,
University of California, Berkeley

June 3-13, 2019
G/F Gallery
Run Run Shaw Tower
The University of Hong Kong

Abstract:

A cholera epidemic killed hundreds of indigenous residents of the Delta Amacuro rainforest in eastern Venezuela in 1992-1993. Then in July 2007, residents began dying from a mysterious disease. Seven out of the 76 residents of Mukoboina, all children, died in three months. Parents reported that “on the way back home after burying a child, another developed the same disease.”

Both indigenous healers and physicians tried to diagnose the disease and save
patients, “but,” parents reported, “they died just the same.” A second wave of cases began in January 2008, spreading to neighboring communities.

A third wave that started in June 2008 covered a wider area and included several young adults.

Related Seminar by Charles L. Briggs:

“Tell Me Why My Children Died: Rabies, Indigenous
Knowledge, and Communicative Justice”
June 13, 2019 at 4:30 PM
Room 4.36, Run Run Shaw Tower, HKU