Eric Weiner Shares Ecological Culture Experiences

Photo by Hope Patti

Eric Weiner, an environmental science professor, gave a presentation entitled “Ecological Culture in the Peruvian Amazon” in Friends Hall this past Tuesday, highlighting his personal experiences in the Peruvian Amazon jungle.

Sharing anecdotes and photographs, Weiner spent time describing the food of Peru. He included his experience with roasted beetle grubs – a Peruvian “delicacy” which Weiner described as having a “buttery, melt-in-your-mouth flavor.”

Many students attended the presentation and listened attentively while eating a free lunch provided by the event’s sponsors, the Culture Club and the Roukema Center for International Education.

Weiner frequently stopped his presentation to take questions from audience members.

Filing out of the presentation, juniors Jessica Kiely and Amanda Van Ness shared their opinions on Weiner’s talk.

“I actually thought it was really interesting, it’s different to learn about the cultural and economic differences of different countries around the world and how they differ from us,” Kiely said.

Van Ness agreed with Kiely.

 “Overall I think it was really interesting to see all the cultural differences, like Jess said. I thought it was even more interesting because my cousin went on a trip to Peru for his senior year in high school. It was a school trip, and just hearing the way it differed from the region he was in versus this region was really interesting to me,” Van Ness said. “He was definitely further away from the deep Amazon, where this lecture was really focused on, so I thought it was cool to see the differences in the civilization and different regions of Peru.”

Fellow student Vanessa Ceballos also enjoyed the presentation.

“I thought it was interesting because I’m from South America – I’m Colombian – so, I really related to different things he mentioned today with Peru. I saw a lot of similarities with my country, and I just found it very interesting,” Ceballos said.

syunker@ramapo.edu