Audrey Joan Butt Colson (born 15 March 1926), is a social anthropologist with a particular interest in the Amerindian peoples of Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela. She was, together with

Peter Rivière Peter G. Rivière (born 1934) is a British social anthropologist, Emeritus Professor of Oxford University and, with Audrey Butt Colson, a pioneer in the study and teaching of Amazonian peoples in England. In 1957-8 he took part in the Oxford a ...

, one of the pioneers of Amazonian anthropology at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Part of the permanent endowment of the University of Oxford is a fund to support South American Amerindian Studies known as the Butt Colson Amerindian Studies Bequest.

Oxford University

Audrey Butt studied at Oxford under

Edward Evans-Pritchard Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, Kt FBA FRAI (21 September 1902 – 11 September 1973) was an English anthropologist who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University ...

, and carried out fieldwork among the

Akawaio people The Akawaio are an indigenous people who live in Roraima (Brazil), Guyana, and Venezuela. They are one of several closely related peoples called Ingarikó and Kapon. Akawaio language used by 5,000 to 6,000 speakers. History Akawaio were known as ...

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

in 1951-1952 and in 1957, later broadening her study to include other

Pemon The Pemon or Pemón (Pemong) are indigenous people living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana.See pp.112,113 and 178 of ''Venezuela: the Pemon'', in ''Condé Nast Traveler'', December 2008. They are also known as Arecuna, Aricuna Jaricuna, ...

and Kapon groups in Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. She obtained the Diploma in Ethnology in 1949, the B.Litt. degree in 1950, and the D.Phil. in 1955. She then spent a year in Spain to learn Spanish in preparation for further fieldwork in South America. In 1956 she lectured on South American societies at Oxford's Department of Ethnology.

Pitt Rivers Museum

The South American collections of the

Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed t ...

contain 310 Amerindian objects donated by Butt Colson as a result of her fieldwork. The museum also holds two reels of 16mm film shot by

Bassett Maguire Bassett Maguire (August 4, 1904 – February 6, 1991) was an American botanist, head curator of the New York Botanical Garden, and a leader of scientific expeditions to the Guyana Highlands in Brazil and Venezuela. Life Maguire was born in Gadsd ...

in 1952 and a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

recording of Akawaio music and songs made in 1961, all produced with Butt Colson's assistance.

Amerindian land disputes

In 2012 a judge in the Demerara High Court ruled that Dr Colson could not appear as an expert witness in a land suit brought by Akawaio and Arekuna Amerindian communities because of her prior support of the plaintiffs' position. In September 2013

Survival International Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969, a London based charity that campaigns for the rights of indigenous and/or tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples. The organisation's campaigns generally focus on tribal peopl ...

published her report, ''Dug out, dried out or flooded out? Hydro Power and Mining Threats to the Indigenous Peoples of the Upper Mazaruni District, Guyana'', demonstrating that the government of Guyana's plans to build hydroelectric dams on the upper

Mazaruni River The Mazaruni River is a tributary of the Essequibo River in northern Guyana. Its source is in the remote western forests of the Pakaraima Mountains and its confluence with the Cuyuni River is near Bartica. As it descends from the Guiana Highlands ...

would flood the entire territory of the Akawaio indigenous people.

Works

Books

* * *

Stewart Wavell Stewart Brooke-Wavell, or Stewart Wavell (1921–2010), was a British Malayan broadcaster, sound recordist and writer, and a member of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Life Born in British Malaya, Wavell became a broadcaster wit ...

, Audrey Butt,

Nina Epton Nina Consuelo Epton (1913 – 29 October 2010) was a British radio producer, broadcaster and travel writer, particularly active in the 1950s and 1960s. She travelled alone through Spain, North Africa, and Indonesia. In the 1970s she published a ...

, ''Trances'' (London: Allen & Unwin, 1966) * (see also

Cuthbert Cary-Elwes Cuthbert Cary-Elwes (1 October 1867, Boulogne (France) - 22 August 1945, London) was an English Jesuit priest, itinerant missionary and founder of the Rupununi Mission, in South-Guyana. Youth and Formation After studying at Downside Abbey and Sto ...

) * Reviewed by Christopher Carrico in ''

New West Indian Guide The ''New West Indian Guide'' (''Nieuwe West-Indische Gids'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies. It was established in 1919 by Herman Benjamins and covers resea ...

'', Vol. 86, No. 1/2 (2012), pp. 157-159.

Journal articles and chapters in books

* * Butt, Audrey J. (1958). "Secondary urn burial among Akawaio". ''Timehri. Journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana''. 37: 74–88. * * * * * Butt Colson, Audrey J. (1976). "Binary oppositions and the treatment of sickness among the Akawaio", in Loudon, J.B. (ed.), ''Social Anthropology and Medicine'', London: Academic Press, pp. 422–499. * * Butt Colson, Audrey J. and Morton, J. (1982). "Early Missionary Work among the Taruma and Waiwai of Southern Guyana". ''Folk. Journal of the Danish Ethnographical Association''. 24: 203–206. * Butt Colson, Audrey J. (1983–84). "The Spatial Component in the Political Structure of the Carib Speakers of the Guiana Highlands: Kapon and Pemon". ''Antropológica''. 59-62: 73-124. * Butt Colson, Audrey J. (1985). "Routes of Knowledge: An Aspect of Regional Integration in the Circum-Roraima Area of the Guiana Highlands". ''Antropológica''. 63-64: 103–149. * Butt Colson, Audrey J. (1989). "La naturaleza del ser: conceptos fundamentales de los Kapón y Pemón (Area del Circum-Roraima de las Guayanas)", in Bottasso, J. (ed.), ''Las religiones amerindias. 500 años después'', Quito: Ediciones Abya-Yala, pp. 53–90. * Butt Colson, Audrey J. (1994–96). "'God's Folk'. The evangelization of Indians in Western Guiana and the Enthusiastic Movement of 1756". ''Antropológica''. 86: 3–111.

Reports

*
Dug out, dried out or flooded out? Hydro Power and Mining Threats to the Indigenous Peoples of the Upper Mazaruni District, Guyana
',

, September 2013.

External links

* *Audrey Butt Colson website: https://buttcolson.com

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butt Colson, Audrey 1926 births Alumni of the University of Oxford Anthropology educators British anthropologists British women anthropologists Academics of the University of Oxford Living people British expatriates in Guyana