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Gary Urton (born July 7,1946) [1] is an American anthropologist. He was the Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies at Harvard University and the chair of its anthropology department between 2012 and 2019. Urton retired from Harvard in 2020,after multiple former students accused him of sexual harassment. [2] Despite much controversy and opposition,he was given an emeritus title after retirement. Following internal investigation,Urton was stripped of his emeritus status by Harvard in June 2021.
Urton received his B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 1969,and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [3] in 1971 and 1979,respectively. He was a professor at Colgate University from 1978 to 2002. [4] He is married to artist and anthropologist Julia Meyerson.[ citation needed ]
Urton is a specialist in Andean archaeology,particularly the quipu (khipu) rope-based recording system used in the Inca empire in the 15th and 16th centuries. He is one of the most prominent advocates of the theory that the quipus encode linguistic as well as numerical information. [5] He is a class of 2000 MacArthur Fellow. [6]
According to an investigation by The Harvard Crimson ,Urton was the subject of a sexual harassment complaint from a former student in 2016. The student alleged that Urton "pressured her into 'unwelcome sex'" in exchange for a recommendation letter. Urton responded that the allegations were "either untrue,inaccurate,or misleading". [7] More allegations emerged following the publication of the investigation. UC-San Diego professor Jade d'Alpoim Guedes alleged that Urton had inappropriately propositioned her for sex while she was a graduate student at Harvard. [8] [9] It was also alleged that Urton harassed students at his field school in San Jose de Moro, [8] and the anthropology department received further complaints that were not made public. [10] After 25 faculty members and nearly 400 students signed letters calling for his resignation, [11] Urton retired from Harvard in July 2020. In June 2021,the Harvard Office for Dispute Resolution concluded that Urton had engaged in unwelcome sexual conduct and abused power with individuals over whom he had professional responsibility. In response to these findings Urton was stripped of his emeritus status,and was banned from engaging with the Harvard community. [2]
The allegations against Urton surfaced amidst reports of a general culture of sexual harassment and gender discrimination at Harvard's anthropology department. [7] [12] In June 2020,over fifty former students and faculty signed a letter complaining that under Urton's leadership,the department was an "old boys’club" that fostered "an environment that tolerated gender-based harassment,[...] sexual misconduct,sexism,and misogyny." [2] In 2015,while Urton was the chair of the department,a Title IX gender discrimination lawsuit was brought against it by former professor Kimberly Theidon. The lawsuit primarily concerned multiple allegations of sexual harassment against Urton's colleague Theodore C. Bestor,but also included the accusation that Urton had protected Bestor and "intentionally sabotaged" Theidon's application for tenure because of her advocacy for students who experienced sexual harassment. In 2021,the University’s Office for Dispute Resolution arrived at the conclusion that Urton “engaged in unwelcome sexual conduct and abused power with individuals over whom he had professional responsibility.”The University's leadership revocated Urton of his emeritus status,he is now barred from teaching and advising undergraduate or Graduate School of Arts and Sciences students;availing himself of Faculty of Arts and Sciences amenities or resources;and accessing the FAS campus or FAS-sponsored events. FAS dean Claudine Gay noted that President Lawrence S. Bacow agreed to extend the last sanction,barring Urton from the entirety of the University’s campus and all Harvard-sponsored events. [13]
Quechua,usually called Runasimi in Quechuan languages,is an indigenous language family spoken by the Quechua peoples,primarily living in the Peruvian Andes. Derived from a common ancestral language,it is the most widely spoken pre-Columbian language family of the Americas,with an estimated 8–10 million speakers as of 2004. Approximately 25% of Peruvians speak a Quechuan language.
Quipu are recording devices fashioned from strings historically used by a number of cultures in the region of Andean South America.
In the Quechuan languages of South America,a huaca or wak'a is an object that represents something revered,typically a monument of some kind. The term huaca can refer to natural locations,such as immense rocks. Some huacas have been associated with veneration and ritual. The Quechua people traditionally believed every object has a physical presence and two camaquen (spirits),one to create it and another to animate it. They would invoke its spirits for the object to function.
The Inca road system was the most extensive and advanced transportation system in pre-Columbian South America. It was about 40,000 kilometres (25,000 mi) long. The construction of the roads required a large expenditure of time and effort.
Huayna Capac was the third Sapa Inca of Tawantinsuyu,the Inca Empire. He was the son of and successor to Tupaq Inka Yupanki.,the sixth Sapa Inca of the Hanan dynasty,and eleventh of the Inca civilization. He was born in Tumipampa and tutored to become Sapa Inca from a young age.
In recent years,Peru has revised the official spelling for place-names originating from Aymara and the Quechuan languages. A standardized alphabet for done Quechua was adopted by the Peruvian government in 1975;a revision in 1985 moved to a three-vowel orthography.
Ollantaytambo is a town and an Inca archaeological site in southern Peru some 72 km (45 mi) by road northwest of the city of Cusco. It is located at an altitude of 2,792 m (9,160 ft) above sea level in the district of Ollantaytambo,province of Urubamba,Cusco region. During the Inca Empire,Ollantaytambo was the royal estate of Emperor Pachacuti,who conquered the region,and built the town and a ceremonial center. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru,it served as a stronghold for Manco Inca Yupanqui,leader of the Inca resistance. Located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas,it is now an important tourist attraction on account of its Inca ruins and its location en route to one of the most common starting points for the four-day,three-night hike known as the Inca Trail.
Roland Gerhard Fryer Jr. is an American economist and professor at Harvard University. Following a difficult childhood,Fryer earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas at Arlington,but once there chose to concentrate instead on academics. Graduating cum laude in 2+1⁄2 years,he went on to receive a Ph.D. in economics from Pennsylvania State University in 2002 and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago with Gary Becker. He joined the faculty of Harvard University and rapidly rose through the academic ranks;in 2007,at age 30,he became the second-youngest professor,and the youngest African-American,ever to be awarded tenure at Harvard. He has received numerous awards,including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2011 and the John Bates Clark Medal in 2015.
Chin, together with Cu,Cavil,and Maran,is mentioned as the name of the male deity said to have demonstrated sexual intercourse with other male deities and humans.
Theodore C. Bestor was a professor of anthropology and Japanese studies at Harvard University. He was the president of the Association for Asian Studies in 2012. In 2018,he resigned as director from the Reischauer Institute following an investigation by Harvard officials that found he committed two counts of sexual misconduct.
The High Academy of the Quechua Language or AMLQ is a Peruvian organization dedicated to the research,promotion,and dissemination of the Quechua language.
The Cusco School or Cuzco School,was a Roman Catholic artistic tradition based in Cusco,Peru during the Colonial period,in the 16th,17th and 18th centuries. It was not limited to Cusco only,but spread to other cities in the Andes,as well as to present day Ecuador and Bolivia.
Jorge I. Domínguez,a scholar of Latin American studies in the United States,taught at Harvard University from 1972 to 2018,when he retired as the Antonio Madero Professor for the Study of Mexico.
Jean Comaroff is Professor of African and African American Studies and of Anthropology,Oppenheimer Fellow in African Studies at Harvard University. She is an expert on the effects of colonialism on people in Southern Africa. Until 2012,Jean was the Bernard E. &Ellen C. Sunny Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago and Honorary Professor of Anthropology at the University of Cape Town.
Willem F. H. Adelaar is a Dutch linguist specializing in Native American languages,specially those of the Andes. He is Professor of indigenous American Linguistics and Cultures at Leiden University.
John L. Comaroff is Professor of African and African American Studies and of Anthropology,Oppenheimer Fellow in African Studies at Harvard University. He is recognised for his study of African and African-American society. Comaroff and his wife,anthropologist Jean Comaroff,have collaborated on publications examining post-colonialism and the Tswana people of South Africa. He has written several texts describing his research and has presented peer-reviewed anthropological theories of African cultures that have relevance to understanding global society.
Basilio Pacheco de Santa Cruz Pumacallao (1635–1710) or Basilio de Santa Cruz Puma Callao was a Peruvian painter of Quechua (Inca) and Ladino origin from Cusco,Peru. He was part of the Cuzco School,a colonial movement of indigenous painters educated in the Baroque religious painting tradition of Spain.
Reiner Tom Zuidema was professor of Anthropology and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is well known for his seminal contributions on Inca social and political organization. His early work consisted of a structural analysis of the ceque system. He later extended this approach,based on French and Dutch structuralism,to other aspects of Andean civilization,notably kinship,the Inca calendar and Incaic understanding of astronomy.
The Harvard Graduate Students Union (HGSU),officially known as Harvard Graduate Students Union United Auto Workers (HGSU-UAW),is a labor union representing graduate students,teaching assistants,and other student employees at Harvard University. The bargaining unit comprises about 5,000 student employees,including graduate students working as research assistants and teaching fellows as well as several hundred undergraduate students holding teaching positions. Contract negotiations with the university are scheduled to begin in Fall 2018. HGSU is affiliated with the United Auto Workers labor union,whose 400,000 members include 45,000 graduate students and 30,000 academic workers.
Luis Eduardo Valcárcel Vizcarra was a Peruvian historian,anthropologist,writer and activist. He was a researcher of pre-Hispanic Peru and one of the protagonists of the Indigenismo movement. He is considered the father of Peruvian anthropology,and his work focused on two fundamental axes:the revaluation of the Inca Empire and the vindication of the Andean culture. He brought awareness to the continuity that links the peasant of the Andes with the man of the Tahuantinsuyu.