About the Centre
The Centre has a small suite of offices, and organizes postgraduate seminars and international conferences dealing with different themes of Amerindian interest. It has hosted conferences on “Andean Studies” (1985), “Archaeoastronomy” (1990), “Andean Kinship and Marriage”(1994), “Anthropology of the Emotions” (1998), “Andean and Mexican Comparative History” (2001), “Andes-Amazon: Comparisons, Connections and Frontiers” (2006), "Bodies: ethnographic perspectives from South America" (2009), 'Indigeneity in West Atlantic Intersystems' (2010), as well as a research initiative focused on 'The Riddle of Place in the Caribbean and Latin America' (2010, see seminars).
The Centre has a small specialized library held in its Reading Room, together with good Latin American holdings in the Central Library; a publications series; and a postgraduate computer room. Present research interests include the history and anthropology of the South-Central and Ecuadorean Andes, the Lower Amazon, the Peruvian Upper Amazon and pre-Andean region, and the Caribbean. Current opening hours for the CAS Reading Room are Weds 10-12 or by appointment with the CAS secretary.
A wider framework that links these regional interests is provided by the South American continent and Caribbean as a whole, and the investigation of comparative and connected themes that cross traditional area subdivisions into highlands and lowlands, mainland and archipelago. Research interests also extend to the transfer of technologies, cultural elements and populations between other continents and South America, and the consequences of these for establishing new social groups and power relations.
The Centre for Amerindian Studies is one of several research centres and institutes in the University with related interests. The Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics in the School of Divinity focuses on the practice of religion and its political context in Latin American, Africa and Asia. The School of History incorporates Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. The Institute of European and Cultural Identity Studies in the School of Modern Languages focuses on the formation and negotiation of cultural identities within Europe. The Department of Spanish in the School of Modern Languages fosters literary, historical and inter-disciplinary approaches to the understanding of Hispanic and Hispanic American Societies.
Link to the CAS collection catalogue held in the university's Main Library
Management Committee 2010-11
Prof Katherine Hawley (Head of School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies)
Dr Huon Wardle (Director of CAS, Social Anthropology and Caribbean Studies)
Prof Tristan Platt (Social Anthropology and Andean Studies)
Dr Mark Harris (Chair, Social Anthropology, Lower Amazon)
Prof Peter Gow (Social Anthropology, Upper Amazon)
Dr Stephanie Bunn (Curator of CAS collections, Social Anthropology)
Prof Will Fowler (School of Modern Languages, Department of Spanish)
Dr Emilia Ferraro (School of Sustainable Development and Andean Studies)
Dr. Roddy Brett (School of International Relations)
Christopher Hewlett (CAS Librarian and Secretary, 2011-12. PG Representative, Department of Social Anthropology 2012-2013.)
For further information, please contact:
Centre for Amerindian, Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Department of Social Anthropology
School of Philosophical, Anthropological & Film Studies
University of St Andrews
71 North Street
St Andrews, Fife
KY16 9AL Scotland, UK
Email: amerindian@st-andrews.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1334 462986/2977
