TCS Talk | Keepers of the Universe | March 22nd 2019

G.05, 50 George Square, Edinburgh |  17:30-19:00
Friday 22nd March

On Friday March 22nd, Dr Lucie Vinsova will give a public lecture entitled ‘Keepers of the Universe’. Dr Visnova is a Czech scholar hailing from Masaryk University in Brno, and has conducted fieldwork with various indigenous communities living in Colombia, both in the mountainous areas of the South West and in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in the North.

In her lecture, Dr Vinsova will describe the special relationship these ethnic groups have with water. She will explain how indigenous communities in those areas have always appreciated the crucial role played by water in ensuring the well-being of their society and life in general. Indeed, the notion of human responsibility in managing such precious resource can be traced in a number of water-related myths: Dr Visnova will provide insight into various mythological and cosmological motifs, all linked to the importance of water.

She will also comment on more recent developments, however. With páramos (alpine tundra ecosystems, which constitute the main source of water in the Colombian Andean areas) now continuously threatened by mining industries, and with climate- and civilization- related changes altering the delicate cycle of water, members of those communities – she will argue – are increasingly struggling to fulfil their cultural obligations as “Keepers of the Universe”.