“When somebody’s rights are diminished, as anthropologist, I have to speak out”

Lawrence Journal World

It seems more the stuff of an action movie than an anthropology professor’s field work. But Kansas University professor Bart Dean found himself in the middle of a violent showdown between corrupt Peruvian officials and the indigenous Cocama-Cocamilla people.

Seven months later, Dean has become embroiled in a nationwide controversy in Peru and is working with a group of KU students to document the abuses on the Internet. “My general sense is that when somebody’s rights are diminished, mine are as well,” Dean said. “As a concerned citizen and as a professor of anthropology, I had to speak out.”

Earlier this week he and his students unveiled a preliminary version of an Internet site, www.cocama.org, that eventually will contain video footage, photos and other information about the attack and political problems in Peru. >> continue

UPDATE 1.8.05PS: Their website is no longer accessible