Mary Weismantel

About

Mary Weismantel is a Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University and serves as the Co-Director of SPAN (the Sexualities Project at Northwestern). She has previously held positions as Director of the Latin American Studies Program, Director of the Gender and Sexualities Studies Program, and Chair of the Department of Anthropology. Her research and teaching interests focus on the cultures of the Indigenous Americas, particularly the Andes, with an emphasis on sex, gender, and material life in the region. She explores these themes through a combination of ethnographic research, archaeology, and art history, employing methods that bridge auto-ethnography and material culture analysis. Dr. Weismantel has made significant contributions to understanding ancient and contemporary indigenous cultures, with notable publications including her award-winning book 'Playing with Things: The Moche Sex Pots' (2021), which examines material culture and sexuality in ancient South America. Her earlier works, such as 'Cholas and Pishtacos' and 'Food, Gender and Poverty in the Ecuadorian Andes,' reflect her ethnographic research in South America and her focus on issues of race, gender, and inequality. Her scholarship has been recognized with awards such as the Association for Latin American Art-Arvey Foundation Book Award. Her work consistently addresses themes of ontologies, decoloniality, kinship, and the intersections of gender, race, and materiality in Latin American contexts.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Anthropology
• Psychology
• Gender studies
• Art history
• Psychoanalysis
• Art
• History

Selected publications

• Seeing like an archaeologist: Viveiros de Castro at Chavín de Huantar

  Journal of Social Archaeology · 2015-03-30 · 62 citations

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  This article juxtaposes Viveiros de Castro’s theory of ‘perspectivism’ with carved stone monoliths from the Peruvian site of Chavín de Huantar to explore the interactions between humans, animals, and things in Pre-Columbian material culture. Using insights from new work on animal/human relations and the ethnography of shamanism and hunting, it illuminates aspects of the iconography, scale, and style of the stones that were previously opaque. Finally, it challenges archaeologists to address the l…

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• Substances: ‘Following the material’ through two prehistoric cases

  Journal of Material Culture · 2014-09-01 · 53 citations

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  In this article, we argue for a multi-dimensional research strategy incorporating material, social and phenomenological analysis in the study of figurines and other human effigies. We call this approach ‘following the material’. To illustrate, we examine two case studies: figurines from the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük (Turkey) and human effigies from the Formative region of Moche (Peru). We look first at the material substances from which artifacts are made and the material contexts in which th…

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• Ethnopornography

  Duke University Press eBooks · 2020 · 14 citations

  Ethnopornography collects essays that both develop and critique the concept that gives the book its name. Ethnopornography, a term first coined by British anthropologist Walter Roth in the late nineteenth century, refers to the often eroticized observation—for supposedly scientific or academic purposes—of those deemed “other” by the observer. In Roth’s case, he was concerned that the descriptions and images he recorded of the bodily and sexual practices of the Aboriginal people he studied were i…

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• Tierische Geschichte

  2010-01-01 · 8 citations

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  In unseren Geschichtsbüchern kommen Tiere, wenn überhaupt, nur am Rande vor. Glaubt man der bisherigen Geschichtsschreibung, dann haben Tiere keine bedeutsame Rolle in der Entwicklung menschlicher Gesellschaften gespielt. Aber wo wären wir ohne Tiere? Wie hätte sich die Landwirtschaft ohne die Zugkraft von Ochsen und Pferden entwickelt? Wie hätten Menschen sich ernährt oder gekleidet? Wie hätte man ohne Reittiere ferne unbekannte Regionen erkundet? Wie stünde es um das weit verbreitete Ritual de…

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• Have a Drink

  University Press of Florida eBooks · 2009-03-01 · 8 citations

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  Abstract This chapter moves from today's Ecuadorian Amazon to the Moche culture of Peru's north coast (ad 100–700) to consider how alcohol's enduring importance in the Andes may relate to its importance as a gift shared by both friends and rivals. It is also suggested that chicha has been used through the centuries to express the tension between inequality and shared identity that is found in all societies. Chicha today carries meanings of gender, race, nation, and community — some of the most p…

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Frequent coauthors

• Marc Schachter

  9 shared

• Helen Pringle

  UNSW Sydney

  9 shared

• Carina Ray

  9 shared

• Rebecca Parker Brienen

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  9 shared

• Robyn Wiegman

  9 shared

• Rachel O'toole

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  9 shared

• Martha Few

  9 shared

• Gisela Fosado

  Duke University

  9 shared

Awards & honors

• Association for Latin American Art-Arvey Foundation Book Awa…

Similar researchers at Northwestern University

• Thomas McDadeh-72
• William R. Leonardh-68
• Sera Youngh-51