Michael Heckenberger, Professor of Anthropology, has conducted participatory research with Indigenous peoples of the Xingu region in the southern Brazilian Amazon since the early 1990s. His work lies at the intersection of archaeology, cultural heritage, and community engagement and education. It emphasizes place-based studies, including archaeological science and mapping, aligned with linguistic and ethnographic work by Brazilian partners, which are rooted in local immersion – deep listening – and context-sensitive science through sustained collaboration. This multicultural collaboration has made notable contributions in redefining the heritage and place of Indigenous peoples in Amazonia, the world’s largest tropical forest, including local perceptions and practices, and documenting how these are sedimented in landscape and memory. It has revealed the large scale and diversity of Indigenous Amazonian polities in 1492, rivaling other parts of the Americas in size and degree of natural resource management. This reinforces the familiar story of demographic decline and cultural marginalization over the past few centuries, but more importantly helps to document the resilience of the Kuikuro and other Xingu Indigenous peoples, the communal “inner fire.” Through training and partnerships with local communities, the collaboration further equips Indigenous communities with the tools and networks to help address the grave challenges they face in the 21st century, such as forest die-off, pollution and wildfires, and diverse geopolitical and socioeconomic threats. It aims to align modern science and technology, including real-time networks and local user interfaces, with local values and concerns (see AIKAX story map below). In addition to the Xingu, Heckenberger has worked with other Indigenous groups in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as with Native American communities in the northeastern USA, Mesoamerica, and the Guianas. Over the past five years, his seminars focus on Indigenous heritage and community-based collaborative anthropology, particularly in Amazonia, and is launching the keystone seminar for Indigenous Archaeology and Heritage, for the certificate within the new Public Archaeology and Heritage MA program in the UF Anthropology Department.
Xingu Firewall Story Map: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d13c50b64ada4e53856b3d4d64a08bcb