A new seminar series begins from noon to 1 p.m. on Aug. 25, with a presentation by David Ader titled "What happens to people of the land when they move to the city? Mapuche people and the changing nature of indigenous identity, poverty and status in Chile.”
The seminar, which is open to the public, will be held in 203 Paterno Library and is cosponsored by the Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK) and the University Libraries. It will also be available for live viewing through Adobe Connect at http://breeze.psu.edu/icik online. A friend of Penn State link is available at this site.
Ader, who is a doctoral candidate in agricultural economics and rural sociology, employs quantitative and qualitative methods to describe the changing relationship between cultural identity and the dominant global strategy for economic growth among the Mapuche of Chile.
In the past few decades, Chile has undergone major political and economic changes. The 1970s and 1980s were a time of political unrest, changes in economic policies, and increased reliance on agricultural exports. These changes have drastically impacted the indigenous populations. In the past decade, Chile has been able to significantly decrease the national poverty rate. However, the effects of economic growth have not been evenly distributed throughout the society. Because of rapid economic changes and continued growth of the indigenous population, analyzing the current state of the indigenous population is increasingly relevant. Ader's findings suggest that the way people identify themselves in Chile can have an effect on socio-economic outcomes.
For more information, contact Helen Sheehy at hms2@psu.edu or 814-863-1347. For more about the ICIK, visit http://icik.psu.edu/ online.