LaTosky, Dr. Shauna
PhD (Johannes Gutenberg University)
Biography
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. As a cultural anthropologist, I am interested in gender and pastoralism, customary land use practices and indigenous cultural heritage in East Africa.
Research and Expertise
As a qualitative methodologist, I use ethnography, visual and material analysis, and indigenous methodologies as modes of inquiry to pursue theoretically-informed empirical studies in Ethiopia and beyond.
I have conducted extensive field research in southern Ethiopia since 2003, publishing on the interaction of gender, rhetoric, material cultural heritage and development on practices of relatedness, and processes of social change in the Lower Omo Valley.
I have conducted most of my research with the Mun (Mursi) agro-pastoralists on contemporary themes relevant to the communities with whom I continue to work, from conservation and tourism to Indigenous education, food sovereignty, and customary land-use practices.
I am currently working on an ethnobotanical film project, together with Olisarali Olibui, called "Milking the marula (choboy): How the Mun agro-pastoralists relish the foods of the forest", for the Guardians of Productive Landscapes (GPL) project and film series. I am also planning a handbook of Mun edible plants and a website for young Mun girls and women, some of whom are now being schooled in outsider languages.
My recent interest in visual anthropology focuses on how visual ethnography can be applied, participatory, rhetorical, and interventional. My future research will look at endangered Indigenous heritage and UNESCO heritage sites in the Horn of Africa.
- Anthropology
- Community
- Conservation
- Culture
- Education and Development
- Environment
- Ethics
- Farming
- Gender and Women's Studies
- Health and Well-being
- Human Rights
- Indigenous Health
- Indigenous Peoples
- International Studies
- Migration and Development
- Peace and Conflict Studies
- Religion
- Rural Health Services
- Sustainability
- Tourism
- Wildlife
- Youth
- German
- English
- Munen
Supervisor: Prof. Emeritus Günther Schlee
PhD Anthropology and African Studies (2004-2010):
Dissertation: Predicaments of Mursi (Mun) Women in Ethiopia’s Changing World
Supervisor: Prof. Emeritus Ivo Strecker
MA Interdisciplinary Studies (Anthropology, Environmental Studies and German Cultural Studies), University of Victoria, Center for Religion and Society (1998-2000).
Thesis: Understanding Hutterian Perceptions of Nature: A Life History Approach.”
Supervisor: Prof. Emeritus Peter Stephenson
BA Honours, Environmental Studies and German Cultural Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C., Canada (1991-1995).
Honours thesis: A Huttrisch-English Dictionary
Supervisor: Prof. Emeritus, Michael Hadley
Selected Publications
LaTosky, S. and P. de Robert. 2024. “To Wear, or Not to Wear: Symbolism and Technology of Labrets in Mun (Ethiopia) and Mebêngôkre (Brazil).” In F. Manni and F. d’Errico (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Body Modification. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-53.
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197572528.013.23
LaTosky, S. and O. Olibui. 2023. Performing Dônga. The restorative benefits of ritual stick duelling in Mursi (Mun). Antropologia Pubblica, 9 (1): 115-140. https://riviste-clueb.online/index.php/anpub/article/view/301
Hariman, R., LaTosky, S., Mokrzan, M., Pelkey, J. and Strecker, I. 2022. “Rhetoric Culture Theory.” Oxford Encyclopedia of Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.588
LaTosky, S. 2022. “When the milk containers are empty, the children ‘milk’ the marula!” The role of wild food plants for food security in Mun (Mursi), Southern Ethiopia. Journal of Ethiopian Studies/Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 6(3a):233-256.
LaTosky, S. 2021. “The Social Role of Purging in Mun (Mursi).” In J. Abbink and S. LaTosky (eds.), Rhetoric in Social Relations (Rhetoric and Culture Series 8). Oxford and London: Berghahn Books, 142-167.
Abbink, J., and LaTosky, S., (eds.). 2021. Rhetoric and Social Relations: Dialectics of Bonding and Contestation (Studies in Rhetoric and Culture Series, Volume 8). Oxford and London: Berghahn.
LaTosky, S. 2021. “Customary land use and local consent practices in Mun (Mursi): A new call for meaningful FPIC standards in Southern Ethiopia.” In Lands of the Future: Anthropological Perspectives on Pastoralism, Land Deals and Tropes of Modernity in Eastern Africa. In C. Gabbert, F. Gebresenbet, J.G. Galaty and G. Schlee. Oxford and London: Berghahn Books, pp. 268-291.
LaTosky, S. 2016. “Maternal health (in)equity in Mursi (Mun), Southern Ethiopia: behind the hype of ‘harmful cultural practices’”. In Missing the Mark? Women and the Millennium Development Goals in Africa and Oceania, ed. N. McPherson. Demeter Press, 2016, pp. 153-175.
LaTosky, S. 2013. Predicaments of Mursi (Mun) Women in Ethiopia’s Changing World. Mainzer Beiträge zur Afrikaforschung Volume 33). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.