We are delighted to share that Carlos Fausto, Professor of Anthropology at Brazil's Museum Nacional and a PIIRS Global Scholar and Brazil LAB affiliate, is a finalist for the prestigious Jabuti Academic Prize with his book “Ardis da Arte: Imagem, Agência e Ritual na Amazônia”(in English) “Art Effects: Image, Agency, and Ritual in Amazonia”. Last Spring, Fausto was a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and taught a graduate seminar on the anthropology of art.

The Brazil LAB and the Department of Anthropology celebrated Professor Fausto’s book in a spring 2022 event. The lively discussion with the author included Juliana Dweck, curator of the Princeton University Art Museum, and Agustín Fuentes, Professor of Anthropology.

Drawing on the intersections between anthropology, semiotics, and the arts, Professor Fausto’s book “Art Effects”/"Ardis da Arte" seeks to better understand the complex relations between people and things in Amerindian societies. Shifting away from the emphasis generally placed on the values of belief, representation, and imitation, Fausto argues that Amerindian arts and rituals operate in the registers of uncertainty, transformation, and deceit — thus contrasting with the prevailing Western theories of art and representation.

The Jabuti Academic Prize, organized by the Brazilian Book Chamber and supported by the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), is an annual award recognizing excellence in academic works published in Brazil. It honors significant contributions to scientific, social, political, and cultural development in the country.

Warm congratulations!