• Richard Reed grew up in Wisconsin. His first experience abroad as an undergraduate, with School for International Training in Nepal, introduced him to anthropology, to which he has devoted his career. He has taught at Harvard, Smith College, Boston University. He is the father of two grown children, Anna and Austin and lives in San Antonio with his wife, Lisa Chatillon.

    • Ph.D., Harvard University
    • B.A., Macalester College

    Recent Articles

    • “The Guaraní: From Forest People to Urban Refugees” in B’ Ganspon (ed.) Paraguay: Politics, Society, and the Environment. University of New Mexico Press. 2018.
    • “Environmental Destruction Social Conflict and Indigenous Identity in Urban Paraguay.” Research in Economic Anthropology. Vol 35: 263-293. 2015.
    • “Mbyá Resistance and the Politics of Space in Asunción.” Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development. 44. 2015.

    Books

    • Forest Residents, Forest Managers: Indigenous Models for International Development. 2nd Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 2009
    • Birthing Fathers: The Transformation of Men in American Rites of Birth. New Brunswick: Rutgers University. 2005.
    • Guardianes de la Selva: Comunidades guarani y recoleccion comerical. (trans. M. Rolon) Asunción: Universidad Catolica "Nuestra Señora de Asunción." 2003.
    • Prophets of Agroforestry: Guaraní Communities and Commercial Gathering. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1995.

    Reed's research focuses on the effect of deforestation on indigenous peoples in lowland South America. Beginning forty years ago, he has tracked deforestation in eastern Paraguay and western Brazil, and the changes it has brought about in the forests of the Guarani people. The work focuses on the collection and sale of yerba mate (Ilex paraguaiensis) from the forests, and the power it gave indigenous groups in managing relations with the expanding frontier. He has also engaged in research and writing about fathers and childbirth in the United States, and is currently working on reforestation in the central highlands of Nepal.

    • Political Ecology
    • Economic Anthropology

    Richard Reed has worked extensively with the San Antonio River Authority on the redesign and the monitoring of the San Antonio River. He sat on the Design Oversight Committee of the San Antonio River Improvements Project (SARIP) from 2007 to 2012. He Chaired SARA's Clean Rivers Program Oversight Committee and its Environmental Advisory Committee from 2012 to 2020