Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Brazil Initiative

Manuela Picq - Cosmopolitan Amazons: Disentangling Modernity from the State

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

12:00pm – 1:30pm

McKinney Conference Room, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer Street

How did indigenous peoples come to participate in a parade for gay rights in a place called Benjamin Constant deep in the Amazon? What may appear as anecdotal raises less trivial questions. It is unexpected to find sociocultural modernity in a region epitomizing a wild, isolated, and apolitical nature. How are we to reconcile prevailing understandings of an Amazon detached from political modernity with its cosmopolitan LGBT scene? My project, inspired by this anecdote, explores the imperative of shifting our gaze when looking at modernity.