Dr. Silvana Saturno

Silvana Saturno completed her PhD in social anthropology at the University of Marburg, Germany. Her research focuses on personhood, human–nonhuman relationships, and historical consciousness in the Indigenous Lowlands of South America.

At the RCC, she is developing a project with the working title “The Sea Is a Woman: Posthumanist Anthropology and Indigenous Notions of Sustainability in the Caribbean.” This ethnographic study explores the relationships between the Waikerí fishing communities of Margarita Island, Venezuela, and the sea, which the Waikerí conceive as a feminine spirit and the owner of the marine ecosystem. The project examines Waikerí notions of sustainability, challenging the idea of sustainability as a universal concept. It draws on posthumanist anthropology and environmental history to analyze the agency of human and nonhuman actors, while situating current practices within colonial and postcolonial histories. The study also highlights gender dimensions, particularly women’s roles in reinforcing connections with the sea spirit. Through this interdisciplinary lens, the project seeks to expand understandings of sustainability from Indigenous and culturally grounded perspectives

RCC Research Project: The Sea Is a Woman: Posthumanist Anthropology and Indigenous Notions of Sustainability in the Caribbean

Selected Publications:

• with Christian Tym. “Cultures of Power and Politics: Two Cases of the Limits of Anti-Essentialism in the Political Anthropology of Lowland South America.” Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 29, no. 1 (2024): 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12715.
• “What Does It Take to Be a Singer? Ritual and Creativity among the Pume People of Venezuela.” In Creation and Creativity in Indigenous Lowland South America, edited by Anne Goletz and Ernst Halbmayer. Berghahn Books, 2023. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781805390060.
• with Ana Felicien, Christina M. Schiavoni, Eisamar Ochoa, Esquisa Omaña, Adrianna Requena, and William Camacaro. “Exploring the ‘Gray Areas’ of Bottom-up Policy Making: The Battle for Venezuela’s Seed Law.” Journal of Peasant Studies 47, no. 4 (2018): 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2018.1525363.
• with Stanford Zent. “Aspectos Etnoecológicos de la Agricultura entre los Pume” [Ethnological aspects of agriculture among the Pume]. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas 11, no. 3 (2016): 653–76. https://doi.org/10.1590/1981.81222016000300007.