Paper short abstract:

The presentation describes some dialogues between Amazonian indigenous knowledge practices and academic ones in anthropological doing in the field and in academia, interrogating what are the potentialities for research, dissemination and teaching.

Paper long abstract:

The presentation introduces some examples of anthropological practices which have at the core a dialogue between knowledge practices of Indigenous people in the Amazon and academic ones. Anthropologists have a long tradition of building dialogues with knowledge and epistemologies of the people in the field. However, these have often been built on a hierarchical relation, maintaining the primacy of academic perspectives. In recent years, a growing number of Indigenous scholars have been raising multiple epistemological proposals, which gained growing impact on hegemonic academic spaces. Based on these proposals, new insights on how to reformulate academic practices are emerging, redefining epistemological relations. Taking this as a point of departure, this presentation will describe a research action project, the curatorship of an ethnographic exhibition, and teaching/learning activities. The aim is to reflect on how Indigenous knowledge can contribute to the redefinition of anthropological doing, focusing on concepts such as "theory as practice" and "doing together", as proposed by Amazonian Indigenous scholars. The thesis is that these epistemologies can shape anthropology as a discipline in different facets of academic practice, producing impact beyond punctual collaborations toward more inclusive and symmetrical ways of doing academia.