General:
Becoming Mapuche by
Magnus Course blends convincing historical analysis with sophisticated contemporary theory in this superb ethnography of the Mapuche people of southern Chile. Based on many years of ethnographic fieldwork, Becoming Mapuche takes readers to the indigenous reserves where many Mapuche have been forced to live since the beginning of the twentieth century. In addition to accounts of the intimacies of everyday kinship and friendship, Course also offers the first complete ethnographic analyses of the major social events of contemporary rural Mapuche life--eluwün funerals, the ritual sport of palin, and the great ngillatun fertility ritual. The volume includes a glossary of terms in Mapudungun.
Shaping the Motherhood of Indigenous Mexico by
Mainstream Mexican views of indigenous women center on them as problematic mothers, and development programs have included the goal of helping these women become "good mothers." Economic incentives and conditional cash transfers are the vehicles for achieving this goal. With ethnographic immediacy, Shaping the Motherhood of Indigenous Mexico examines the dynamics among the various players--indigenous mothers, clinicians, and representatives of development programs. The women's voices lead the reader to understand the structures of dependency that paradoxically bind indigenous women within a program that calls for their empowerment. The cash transfer program is Oportunidades, which enrolls more than a fifth of Mexico's population. It expects mothers to become involved in their children's lives at three nodes--health, nutrition, and education. If women do not comply with the standards of modern motherhood, they are dropped from the program and lose the bi-monthly cash payments. Smith-Oka explores the everyday implementation of the program and its unintended consequences. The mothers are often berated by clinicians for having too many children (Smith-Oka provides background on the history of eugenics and population control in Mexico) and for other examples of their "backward" ways. An entire chapter focuses on the humor indigenous women use to cope with disrespectful comments. Ironically, this form of resistance allows the women to accept the situation that controls their behavior.
Indigenous Media in Mexico by
In Indigenous Media in Mexico, Erica Cusi Wortham explores the use of video among indigenous peoples in Mexico as an important component of their social and political activism.
Indigenous Modernities in South America by
Indigenous peoples have been cast as representing modernity's fading premodern Other. This volume starts from the opposite assumption, namely that contemporary indigenous peoples are specifically modern societies, profoundly shaped by their specific ways of dealing with, making use of and transforming the contexts imposed by nation-states, colonial systems and globalization. They do that from a position alternative to that of the modern West. The book aims to understand these processes and the resulting forms of indigenous modernities in Lowland South America through ethnographic case studies. It argues that there is more about indigenous modernities than the simple assertion that indigenous peoples are now modern too. Indigenous groups are modern in multiple, complex and alternative ways. As the contributions show this holds true for current forms of shamanism and indigenous Christian churches, new meanings of traditional clothing, as well as indigenous cosmologies that confront western concepts, technology and welfare programmes. The notion of indigenous modernities refers to a space beyond old modernist dichotomies. The paradox, like the disturbing Otherness it brings to our attention, is the result of a relation in which assumptions we take ontologically for granted are confronted by other realities. Looking at the creative ways indigenous peoples' practices subvert such assumptions may result in substantial irritation and is a starting point for a renewed reflection on classical assumptions about modernities and indigenous ways of both being modern and exceeding modernity in the face of long-standing power inequalities and the imposition of logics of Western ontology. Indigeneous Modernities makes a major contribution to South American studies and is a 'must read' by every ethnographer, historian, ethnohistorian, and analyst of South American peoples. It challenges the very basis of so-called 'modernization theory' and opens new doors to the understanding of indigenous agency and indigenous powers. Norman E. Whitten, Jr, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Reading this book is one step (and an important one, might it even be a giant leap?) to decolonizing the mind, as the reader is confronted with an intermingling multitude of perspectives, values, worldviews and futures. This book is especially valuable for senior scholars and students alike, for anybody seriously concerned with social processes of marginalization, resistance, adaptation, appropriation and the creative and constructive shaping of social realities. Bernd Brabec de Mori, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz Ernst Halbmayer is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Institute for Comparative Cultural Research, University of Marburg, Germany.
Transborder Lives by
Lynn Stephen s innovative ethnography follows indigenous Mexicans from two towns in the state of Oaxaca the Mixtec community of San Agustin Atenango and the Zapotec community of Teotitlan del Valle who periodically leave their homes in Mexico for extended periods of work in California and Oregon. Demonstrating that the line separating Mexico and the United States is only one among the many borders that these migrants repeatedly cross (including national, regional, cultural, ethnic, and class borders and divisions), Stephen advocates an ethnographic framework focused on transborder, rather than transnational, lives. Yet she does not disregard the state: She assesses the impact migration has had on local systems of government in both Mexico and the United States as well as the abilities of states to police and affect transborder communities. Stephen weaves the personal histories and narratives of indigenous transborder migrants together with explorations of the larger structures that affect their lives. Taking into account U.S. immigration policies and the demands of both commercial agriculture and the service sectors, she chronicles how migrants experience and remember low-wage work in agriculture, landscaping, and childcare and how gender relations in Oaxaca and the United States are reconfigured by migration. She looks at the ways that racial and ethnic hierarchies inherited from the colonial era hierarchies that debase Mexico s indigenous groups are reproduced within heterogeneous Mexican populations in the United States. Stephen provides case studies of four grass-roots organizations in which Mixtec migrants are involved, and she considers specific uses of digital technology by transborder communities. Ultimately Stephen demonstrates that transborder migrants are reshaping notions of territory and politics by developing creative models of governance, education, and economic development as well as ways of maintaining their cultures and languages across geographic distances."
Shamans of the Foye Tree by
ANA MARIELLA BACIGALUPO is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo.
Terrorizing Women by
Feminist and human rights activists, attorneys, and scholars from Latin America and the U.S. respond to the escalation in violence against women in Latin America during the past two decades.
Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean by
This book addresses the social implications of climate change and climatic variability on indigenous peoples and communities living in the highlands, lowlands, and coastal areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. Across the region, indigenous people already perceive and experience negative effects of climate change and variability. Many indigenous communities find it difficult to adapt in a culturally sustainable manner. In fact, indigenous peoples often blame themselves for the changes they observe in nature, despite their limited emission of green house gasses. Not only is the viability of their livelihoods threatened, resulting in food insecurity and poor health, but also their cultural integrity is being challenged, eroding the confidence in solutions provided by traditional institutions and authorities. The book is based on field research among indigenous communities in three major eco-geographical regions: the Amazon; the Andes and Sub-Andes; and the Caribbean and Mesoamerica. It finds major inter-regional differences in the impacts observed between areas prone to rapid- and slow-onset natural hazards. In Mesoamerican and the Caribbean, increasingly severe storms and hurricanes damage infrastructure and property, and even cause loss of land, reducing access to livelihood resources. In the Columbian Amazon, changes in precipitation and seasonality have direct immediate effects on livelihoods and health, as crops often fail and the reproduction of fish stock is threatened by changes in the river ebb and flow. In the Andean region, water scarcity for crops and livestock, erosion of ecosystems and changes in biodiversity threatens food security, both within indigenous villages and among populations who depend on indigenous agriculture, causing widespread migration to already crowded urban areas. The study aims to increase understanding on the complexity of how indigenous communities are impacted by climate change and the options for improving their resilience and adaptability to these phenomena. The goal is to improve indigenous peoples' rights and opportunities in climate change adaptation, and guide efforts to design effective and sustainable adaptation initiatives.
Indigenous People in Africa by
This volume is an attempt to provide this intersectional and reflexive space. The thinking behind the book began in Lamu in mid-2010. It was a time when growing community resistance emerged towards the Kenyan government's plan to build a second seaport under a trans-frontier infrastructural project known as the Lamu Port- South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET). The editors agreed that a book that draws community activists, academics, researchers and policy makers into a discussion of the predicament of indigenous rights and development against the backdrop of the Endorois case was timely and needed. Assembled here are the original contributions of some of the leading contemporary thinkers in the area of indigenous and human rights in Africa. The book is an interdisciplinary effort with the single purpose of thinking through indigenous rights after the Endorois case but it is not a singular laudatory remark on indigenous life in Africa. The discussion begins by framing indigenous rights and claims to indigeneity as found in the Endorois decision and its related socio-political history. Subsequent chapters provide deeper contextual analysis by evaluating the tense relationship between indigenous peoples and the post-colonial nation-state. Overall, the book makes a peering and provocative contribution to the relational interests between state policies and the developmental intersections of indigeneity, indigenous rights, gender advocacy, environmental conservation, chronic trauma and transitional justice.
Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous by
What happens to marginalized groups from Africa when they ally with the indigenous peoples' movement? Who claims to be indigenous and why? Dorothy L. Hodgson explores how indigenous identity, both in concept and in practice, plays out in the context of economic liberalization, transnational capitalism, state restructuring, and political democratization. Hodgson brings her long experience with Maasai to her understanding of the shifting contours of their contemporary struggles for recognition, representation, rights, and resources. Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous is a deep and sensitive reflection on the possibilities and limits of transnational advocacy and the dilemmas of political action, civil society, and change in Maasai communities.
A Common Hunger by
Geographically, demographically, and politically, South Africa and Canada are two countries that are very far apart. What they have in common are indigenous populations, which, because of their historical and ongoing experience of colonization and dispossession, share a hunger for land and human dignity.Based on extensive research carried out in both countries, A Common Hunger is a comparative work on the history of indigenous land rights in Canada and post-apartheid South Africa. Joan Fairweather has constructed a balanced examination of the impact of land dispossession on the lives of indigenous peoples in both countries and their response to centuries of European domination. By reclaiming rights to the land and an equitable share in the wealth-producing resources they contain, the first peoples of Canada and South Africa are taking important steps to confront the legacies of poverty that characterize many of their communities. A Common Hunger provides historical context to the current land claim process in these two former British colonies and examines the efforts of governments and the courts to ensure that justice is done.
The Rising Politics of Indigeneity in Southeast Asia by
Amidst rising trends of "nativism" and "xenophobia" throughout Southeast Asia, a related yet distinct movement framed around altogether different notions of "Indigeneity" is occurring among various long-oppressed ethnic minorities. These groups and their distinct claims of Indigeneity and linkages with the regional and global Indigenous movements are all arising in response to the heightened incorporation of their communities and territories into expanding nation states. The Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) Foundation based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, is playing a key role in promoting solidarity, networking and capacity-building among Indigenous Peoples in Asia as well as linking local communities with international funders and advocates. As highly marginalized communities residing predominantly in the region's natural-resource-rich areas, Indigenous Peoples are bearing the brunt of the downside of ASEAN's "ambitious investment plan" and "resource-extractive model of development". Regardless of ASEAN's overall stance of non-recognition of Indigenous Peoples as a distinct community, Indigenous Peoples in the region are increasingly identifying in solidarity with a larger, distinctive collectivity of Indigenous Peoples within the framework of ASEAN.
The Naqab Bedouin and Colonialism by
The Naqab Bedouin and Colonialism brings together new scholarship to challenge perceived paradigms, often dominated by orientalist, modernist or developmentalist assumptions on the Naqab Bedouin. The past decade has witnessed a change in both the wider knowledge production on, and political profile of, the Naqab Bedouin. This book addresses this change by firstly, endeavouring to overcome the historic isolation of Naqab Bedouin studies from the rest of Palestine studies by situating, studying and analyzing their predicaments firmly within the contemporary context of Israeli settler-colonial policies. Secondly, it strives to de-colonise research and advocacy on the Naqab Bedouin, by, for example, reclaiming 'indigenous' knowledge and terminology. Offering not only a nuanced description and analysis of Naqab Bedouin agency and activism, but also trying to draw broader conclusion as to the functioning of settler-colonial power structures as well as to the politics of research in such a context, this book is essential reading for students and researchers with an interest in Postcolonial Studies, Development Studies, Israel/Palestine Studies and the contemporary Middle East more broadly.
Indigenous Pacific Approaches to Climate Change Aotearoa/New Zealand by
Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Setting the Scene -- Chapter 3. Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Climate Change -- Chapter 4. Aotearoa/New Zealand and Land-use Change -- Chapter 5. New Zealand and the Emissions Trading Scheme -- Chapter 6. Aotearoa/New Zealand Adaptation Strategies and Practices -- Chapter 7. Where to From Here?Learning from our Pacific Neighbours.
“A key text for climate change, New Zealand Studies, Māori Studies, and Indigenous Studies, for both academics and a wider readership interested in these debates. Lyn Carter skillfully moves through a wide range of issues, providing a discussion that is focused, fresh, original, and accessible.” —Ian Conrich, Professorial Fellow, University of Vienna, Austria Situating Māori Ecological Knowledge (MEK) within traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) frameworks, this book recognizes that indigenous ecological knowledge contributes to our understanding of how we live in our world (our world views), and in turn, how we adapt to climate change. As an industrialized nation, Aotearoa/New Zealand (A/NZ) has responsibilities and obligations to other Pacific dwellers, including its indigenous populations. In this context, Lyn Carter discusses how A/NZ can benefit from the wider Pacific strategies already in place; how to meet its global obligations to reducing greenhouse gases; and how A/NZ can utilize MEK to achieve substantial inroads into long-term adaptation strategies and sustainable practices. Carter demonstrates that in all respects Māori tribal groups are well-placed to be key players: adaptation strategies, policies, and practices are integrated throughout Māori/Iwi traditional knowledge. Lyn Carter is Senior Lecturer in Te Tumu (the School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies) at the University of Otago, New Zealand. .
Transcontinental Dialogues by
Transcontinental Dialogues brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous anthropologists from Mexico, Canada, and Australia who work at the intersections of Indigenous rights, advocacy, and action research. These engaged anthropologists explore how obligations manifest in differently situated alliances, how they respond to such obligations, and the consequences for anthropological practice and action. This volume presents a set of pieces that do not take the usual political or geographic paradigms as their starting point; instead, the particular dialogues from the margins presented in this book arise from a rejection of the geographic hierarchization of knowledge in which the Global South continues to be the space for fieldwork while the Global North is the place for its systematization and theorization.
Indigenous Experience Today by
A century ago, the idea of indigenous people as an active force in the contemporary world was unthinkable. It was assumed that native societies everywhere would be swept away by the forward march of the West and its own peculiar brand of progress and civilization. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indigenous social movements wield new power, and groups as diverse as Australian Aborigines, Ecuadorian Quichuas, and New Zealand Maoris, have found their own distinctive and assertive ways of living in the present world. Indigenous Experience Today draws together essays by prominent scholars in anthropology and other fields examining the varied face of indigenous politics in Bolivia, Botswana, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, and the United States, amongst others. The book challenges accepted notions of indigeneity as it examines the transnational dynamics of contemporary native culture and politics around the world.
Indigenous People and Economic Development by
Indigenous peoples are an intrinsic part of countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Finland, USA, India, Russia and almost all parts of South America and Africa. A considerable amount of research has been done during the twentieth century mainly by anthropologists, sociologists and linguists in order to describe, and document their traditional life style for the protection and safeguarding of their established knowledge, skills, languages and beliefs. These communities are engaging and adapting rapidly to the changing circumstances partly caused by post modernisation and the process of globalization. These have led them to aspire to better living standards, as well as preserving their uniqueness, approaches to environment, close proximity to social structures and communities. For at least the last two decades, patterns of increased economic activity by indigenous peoples in many countries have been viewed to be significantly on the rise. Indigenous People and Economic Development reveals some of the characteristics of this economic activity, 'coloured' by the unique regard and philosophy of life that indigenous people around the world have. The successes, difficulties and obstacles to economic development, their solutions and innovative practices in business - all of these elements, based on research findings, are discussed in this book and offer an inside view of the dynamics of the indigenous societies which are evolving in a globalised and highly interconnected contemporary world.
Bridging the Divide by
The collected essays in this volume address contemporary issues regarding the relationship between Indigenous groups and archaeologists, including the challenges of dialogue, colonialism, the difficulties of working within legislative and institutional frameworks, and NAGPRA and similar legislation. The disciplines of archaeology and cultural heritage management are international in scope and many countries continue to experience the impact of colonialism. In response to these common experiences, both archaeology and indigenous political movements involve international networks through which information quickly moves around the globe. This volume reflects these dynamic dialectics between the past and the present and between the international and the local, demonstrating that archaeology is a historical science always linked to contemporary cultural concerns.
Indigenous Psychologies in an Era of Decolonization by
This groundbreaking volume explores the capacity of Indigenous psychologies to counter the effects of longstanding colonization on traditional cultures and habitats. It chronicles the editor's extensive research in the Lacandon Rainforest in southern Mexico, illustrating respectful methodologies and authentic friendship--a decolonized approach by a committed scholar--and the concerted efforts of community members to preserve their history and heritage. Descriptions of collaborations among children, parents, students, and elders demonstrate the continued passing on of indigenous knowledge, culture, art, and spirituality. This richly layered narrative models cultural resilience and resistance in their transformative power to replace environmental and cultural degradation with co-existence and partnership. Included in the coverage: * Indigenous psychologies: a contestation for epistemic justice. * The ecological context and the methods of inquiry and praxes. * Environmental impact assessment of deforestation in three communities of the Lacandon Rainforest. * Public policy development for community and ecological wellbeing. * Oral history, legends, myths, poetry, and images. With stirring examples to inspire future practices and policies, Indigenous Psychologies in an Era of Decolonization will take its place as a bedrock text for indigenous psychology and community psychology researchers. It speaks needed truths as the world comes to grips with pressing issues of environmental preservation, restorative justice for marginalized peoples, and the waging of peace over conflict.
Learning Indigenous Languages: Child Language Acquisition in Mesoamerica by
This book includes six studies on the acquisition of single Mesoamerican indigenous languages, (Huichol, Zapotec, and the Mayan languages Ch'ol, Tzeltal, K'iche', and Yukatek); and a crosslinguistic study of five Mayan languages (K'anjob'al, K'iche', Tzeltal, Tzotzil, and Yukatek). Three topics are theoretically and methodologically discussed and empirically demonstrated: with respect to ergativity, the ergative-absolutive cross-referencing pattern on the morphological level, noun-verb distinction and the acquisition of body-part locatives in the early lexicon, and the role of semantic properties and cultural context in language acquisition and socialization. This book makes important claims regarding the methodology of cross-linguistic studies as well as the results of these studies and the comparative method used in the book (structural and discursive factors in language acquisition, cross-linguistic relationships and variation).
The Indigenous Languages of South America by
The Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide is a thorough guide to the indigenous languages of this part of the world. With more than a third of the linguistic diversity of the world (in terms of language families and isolates), South American languages contribute new findings in most areas of linguistics. Though formerly one of the linguistically least known areas of the world, extensive descriptive and historical linguistic research in recent years has expanded knowledge greatly. These advances are represented in this volume in indepth treatments by the foremost scholars in the field, with chapters on the history of investigation, language classification, language endangerment, language contact, typology, phonology and phonetics, and on major language families and regions of South America.
A World of Indigenous Languages by
Spanning Indigenous settings in Africa, the Americas, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Central Asia and the Nordic countries, this book examines the multifaceted language reclamation work underway by Indigenous peoples throughout the world. Exploring political, historical, ideological, and pedagogical issues, the book foregrounds the decolonizing aims of contemporary Indigenous language movements inside and outside of schools. Many authors explore language reclamation in their own communities. Together, the authors call for expanded discourses on language planning and policy that embrace Indigenous ways of knowing and forefront grassroots language reclamation efforts as a force for Indigenous sovereignty, social justice, and self-determination. This volume will be of interest to scholars, educators and students in applied linguistics, Ethnic/Indigenous Studies, education, second language acquisition, and comparative-international education, and to a broader audience of language educators, revitalizers and policymakers.
Indigenous Language Media, Language Politics and Democracy in Africa by
This book deals with the often-neglected link between indigenous languages, media and democracy in Africa. It recognizes that the media plays an amplifying role that is vital to modern-day expression, public participation and democracy but that without the agency to harness media potential, many Africans will be excluded from public discourse.