Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ChildEmp (Understanding children's empathy: an ethnographic study among the indigenous Runa of the Ecuadorian Amazon)
Période du rapport: 2018-01-12 au 2020-01-11
Connecting the various interdisciplinary approaches to empathy and the anthropological literature on Amazonian human-nonhuman relationships, the proposed project aims to fill this important gap by investigating how indigenous children in the Ecuadorian Amazon become empathetic towards nonhumans through early intersubjective processes of learning and material interactions. It raises larger philosophical and anthropological questions of how empathy is culturally acquired, manifested and actively learnt during childhood. With a focus on the process of learning empathy, this project is a particularly timely endeavour as it may provide an alternative model for interacting with nature, which could help us face the challenges of the current environmental crisis.
Extending on my previous research among indigenous Runa people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the main objective of this research is understand how empathy towards nonhumans is gradually learnt during childhood. This overall aim can be broken down into other objectives: 1. To explore how children learn to perceive others as human-like in a setting which is inductive to such learning. The following questions will guide my methodology: How is perception shaped by intersubjective encounters with nonhumans? In such interactions, which phenomenal aspects are highlighted, which are downplayed? How do adults emphasise particular characteristics of nonhumans? What sensorial faculties are deployed by children in the recognition of human-like features? 2. To explore children’s perception and understanding of personhood and intentionality (including emotions and other dispositions). In particular I will focus on the following issues: What are the Runa children’s conceptions of personhood? How do Runa children understand ‘intentionality’? Do children’s views differ from adults’? 3. To understand the nature of ‘empathy’ among indigenous Runa people and compare it with Western ideas of empathy.
The project was concluded in January 2021. Outputs of the project included: 1) Publications (including an edited volume forthcoming with Routledge) 2) Dissemination activities (workshops, organisation of panels at major disciplinary conferences) 3) Ongoing contribution to the writing of a report on indigenous schooling and learning in Ecuador.
During WP2 and WP3 I undertook 8 months of fieldwork in Ecuador and I worked towards publication of results. As part of dissemination activities I organised an international interdisciplinary workshop, Conversations on Empathy held in May 2019 at the University of Kent, a panel at the Meetings of the Association of European anthropologists in June 2019 and a panel at the Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in November 2019. I also edited an interdisciplinary volume that focuses on empathy which will be forthcoming in 2022 by Routledge.
Preliminary results of my research have been presented in a public meeting in the town of Puyo (Ecuador) are currently being integrated into a proposal for an intercultural curriculum in Amazonia by the local indigenous council in Pastaza.