CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – More than 7,000 years ago, indigenous peoples in Mexico domesticated corn. What was once a commodity for barter among indigenous tribes and empires is now one of the most important crops in the world. On March 27 (Tuesday), the Center for Advanced Study will host Corn and Indigenous Communities in the Americas, a daylong workshop examining the ancient relationship between indigenous cultures and maize, as well as the modern challenges of GMO cultivation, NAFTA and global price pressures now facing indigenous farming communities.
The workshop, free and open to the public, will begin at 9:30 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. at the center, 912 W. Illinois St., Urbana.
The scheduled speakers:
• Jane Mt. Pleasant, a professor of horticulture and the former director of the American Indian Program at Cornell University, is the author of “Traditional Iroquois Corn: Its History, Cultivation, and Use.” In 2005, the Smithsonian Magazine listed her among the “35 People Who Made a Difference in the World” for her work revitalizing interest in “the ancient Iroquois tradition of growing food through polyculture.”
• Elizabeth Fitting is a professor of sociology and social anthropology at Dalhousie University and the author of “The Struggle for Maize: Campesinos, Workers, and Transgenic Corn in the Mexican Countryside,” based in part on her field research in Tehuacan Valley, known as “the cradle of corn,” where cobs dating to 5000 B.C. have been discovered.
• Jolene Rickard is a professor of art and the director of the American Indian Program at Cornell University. She is conducting research, funded by the Ford Foundation, in the Americas, Australia, Europe and New Zealand on indigenous aesthetics.
• Stephen Brush, the author of “Farmers’ Bounty,” is a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California at Davis, where he is master adviser for international agricultural development. He has worked as a consultant to the World Bank, the United Nations and UNESCO.
• Scott Manning Stevens, a member of the Akweasne Mohawk Nation, is the director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago.
The workshop is co-sponsored by the American Indian Studies Program, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the departments of anthropology and history, the George A. Miller Endowment and the Spurlock Museum.
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