Roger Thayer Stone Center For Latin American Studies

Tulane University

William Balée

Professor - Anthropology

Contact Info
wbalee@tulane.edu

Degrees

  • B.A., University of Florida, Anthropology, 1975
  • M.A., Columbia University, Anthropology, 1979
  • M.Phil., Columbia University, 1980
  • Ph.D., Columbia University, 1984

Academic Experience

  • Professor, Tulane University, 1998-
  • Associate Professor, Tulane University, 1991-1998
  • Visiting Associate Professor, University of Florida, 1990
  • Researcher, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem, Brazil, 1988-1991
  • Research Fellow, New York Botanical Garden, 1984-1988

Research & Teaching Specializations: Brazil; Anthropology; Ethnoecology; Ethnobotany

Related Experience

  • Director, Environmental Studies Program, Tulane University, 2007-2010
  • Editorial Advisory Board, Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America, 2003-2008
  • Academic Consultant and Translator, Our Peoples Exhibit, National Museum of the American Indian, sponsored by the Cultural Resource Center of the Smithsonian Institution, 2000-2004
  • Chair, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, 1998- 2001
  • Chair, Ecology Department, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem, Brazil, 1988-1991

Distinctions

  • World Wildlife Fund Grants, 1991-1993, 2003
  • Wenner-Gren Foundation Grant, “Agroforestry Complex in Southwest Amazonia,” 1993-1994
  • Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation for Research and Training Grant on Comparative Ethnoecology in Eastern Amazonia, 1990-1992
  • Ford Foundation Grant for Research on Transfer of Indigenous Technology, 1989-1990
  • Research Fellow, Institute of Economic Botany, New York Botanical Gardens, 1984-1988

Languages: Portuguese; Spanish; Ka’apor-Urubu (Tupi Guarani), French

Selected Publications

  • 2013. Cultural Forests of the Amazon: A Historical Ecology of People and their Landscapes. Birmingham: University of Alabama Press.
  • 2009. “The meaning of "tree" in two different Tupi-Guarani languages from two different Neotropical forests.” Amazônica, Revista de Antropologia. 1 (1): 96-135.
  • 2006. Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands. Editor, with C. L. Erickson. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • 2006. “The research program of historical ecology.” Annual Review of Anthropology. 35: 75-98.
  • 2003. “Historical-ecological influences on the word for cacao in Ka’apor.” Anthropological Linguistics. 45 (3): 259-280.
  • 1994. Footprints of the Forest: Ka’apor Ethnobotany- The Historical Ecology of Plant Utilization by an Amazonian People. New York: Columbia University Press.

Recently-Taught Latin American-Related Courses: Historical Ecology of Amazonia; South American Indians; Seminar in Historical Ecology

Number of Dissertations or Theses Supervised in the Past 5 Years: 8

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