Sigma Gamma Rho Soror Larrisa Smith, Ph.D. student to study indigenous Filipino group

Source

Larrisa Smith, a University of Illinois at Chicago Ph.D. student in anthropology, says she loves her academic field because of its goal to “show the beauty that exists in all cultures.”

The Ata tribe of the Philippines, an overlooked and understudied group, caught Smith’s interest during a visit to the island nation two years ago. Now she is preparing for 10 months of on-site research among the Ata beginning in September, using a $32,000 American Council of Learned Societies dissertation research fellowship funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Smith will interview Ata people living on a highland reservation near the municipality of Mabinay on Negros, the Philippine’s third largest island. Ata livelihood has traditionally depended on hunting and gathering activities, but the archaeological history of hunters and gathers living in highland areas of the Philippines has remained largely undiscovered.

Smith says her research approach is “ethno-archaeological.”

“Many have been on this reservation for 20 years, but where were the Ata centuries before that? I hope to find out where they lived before that, then excavate at those sites. I hope to find material covering key timeline points over the past thousand years of Philippine history. How has their culture changed over that time? What’s different now?”

Smith will work with anthropologists at the University of the Philippines and attempt to gain the confidence and build close relationships with the Ata to get them to tell their stories.

“I’m an African American who grew up in Chicago’s inner city, so that helps me understand where they’re coming from as a minority group,” Smith said. “As a member of a minority, this helps me recognize their culture and unique values that beg to be shared with others.”

Smith plans to publish her findings about the Ata after completing her doctoral dissertation in 2012.

A resident of Chicago’s South Side Chatham/Grand Crossing neighborhood, Smith said her mother, a school teacher, encouraged her to read widely and explore topics. She also watched with fascination programs about different cultures and ethnic groups portrayed in public television documentaries.

“In eighth grade, I decided I wanted to be an anthropologist,” Smith said. She pursued the study of anthropology at Queen of Peace High School in Burbank, Ill., where she was accepted into the University of Chicago’s Pre-Collegiate Scholars program, taking a college-level course in cultural anthropology.

“I loved it,” she said. “This is what I want to do.”

Smith was accepted to the University of Arizona where she focused on Native Americans of the Southwest, becoming a lead docent at the Arizona State Museum. She won a departmental scholarship for independent research and was accepted into the U.S. Department of Education’s McNair Scholar program that assists doctoral students from disadvantaged backgrounds. She also did an internship at Chicago’s Field Museum.

Smith plans to teach at the university level after earning her doctoral degree and hopes to set up anthropology field study programs for kids in grades 6 through 12.

“Not too many youth consider anthropology as a career, but there’s so much research to do,” she said. “I want to expose them to it and create new generations of anthropologists.”

Popularity: 3% [?]