Panama
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Gjording, Chris N., 1943-1993
setName: label: See more items in
content: Chris Gjording papers
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2.33 Linear feet
label: Extent
content: Due to insect infestation, a large amount of the field notes were eaten through and stained with insect droppings. While most of these materials were photocopied and the originals discarded, there are still materials with minimal amounts of insect droppings present in this series. Those who are allergic to frass should be aware that folders containing papers stained with insect droppings have been marked "[insect damage]" at the end of the folder titles.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1977-1991
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2008-19, Series 2
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The first folder in this series relates to Gjording's evaluation of Fe y Alegria and the agency's development-related work with Panamanian Indians. The folder contains correspondence and the report he submitted to Fe y Alegria. 

The rest of the series pertains to Gjording's research on the Guaymíes and the Cerro Colorado copper mining project in Chiriquí, Panama from 1978 to 1981. The discovery of one of the world's largest copper reserves at Cerro Colorado developed into a large-scale project that involved the Panama government and multinational mining corporations on the tribal land of the Guaymíes. Gjording was an anthropologist on an interdisciplinary team sponsored by the Jesuit-sponsored Centro de Estudios y Acción Social --Panamá (CEASPA) to study the mining project and its impacts on Panama on the local, regional, national, and transnational levels. The ultimate goal of the team was to provide information and analyses to those who would be affected by the mining project, which was eventually abandoned due to falling copper prices. The series contains Gjording's field notes, research notes, and research materials that he collected. Articles he published on the subject can also be found in this series, including those that he wrote under the  
pseudonym, "Enrique Lobo." His dissertation, "The Cerro Colorado Copper Project: Panama, Multinational Corporations and the Guaymi Indians," can be found towards the end of this series along with a paper by his friend Michael Herzog on the strategies he used to help Gjording complete his dissertation. A revised version of the dissertation was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 1991 as Conditions Not of Their Choosing: The Guaymí Indians and Mining Multinationals in Panama. A draft of the publication and correspondence with the Smithsonian are at the end of the series.

Please see Series 4. Panama and Series 6. Photographs for more materials relating to Guaymíes and the Cerro Colorado mining project. More drafts of Conditions Not of Their Choosing can be found in Series 7. Computer Disks.