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Course Description
In recent decades, Indigenous Peoples around the world have been vigorously reaffirming their cultural traditions and expressions, and asserting their collective and human rights over land, body, and community. Indigenous attitudes and traditions have also become a source of interest and inspiration for those committed to environmental sustainability, cultural diversity, and spiritual renewal. These processes have had a marked influence on the international political scene, with the emergence of transnational networks of Indigenous Peoples vocalizing claims of sovereignty against the nation-states and capitalist interests that have marginalized or exploited them. At the heart of these dynamics is a reimagination of what it means to be "Indigenous," based on a rejection of colonialist stereotypes of backwardness and inferiority, the assertion of basic rights of control or self-determination over cultural expression and traditional territories, and claims of solidarity with other Indigenous groups. Some activists and intellectuals see these qualities as defining a "fourth world," a global order distinct in its cultural dimensions and political alignments.
But debates persist over the defining features of indigeneity, ranging from who can claim to be "Indigenous" to what it actually means to claim rights over Indigenous cultural expressions or territories. These debates express themselves in local, national, and transnational political arenas, arts, social movements, media, and scholarship. This course considers how these different realms are employed in Indigenous efforts at self-definition, and the (sometimes uneasy) accommodations made with the proclaimed authorities on these themes, among them anthropologists, literary critics, historians, lawyers, conservationists, etc. Another central objective is to examine the origins and meanings of indigeneity in several particular national contexts, as well as the pan-Indigenous movements that are organizing across transnational boundaries. Our approach is comparative, drawing mainly on examples from the Americas, South Asia, Oceania, and Africa, highlighting both the "rooted" (place-based) and "routed" (mobile) character of Indigenous identities and politics.
Among the questions we will explore are: who can claim to be "Indigenous?" What is tradition? What distinguishes "Indigeneity" from ethnicity, and "Indigenism" from ethnonationalism? Who can claim ownership over Indigenous cultural expressions? What are the origins, organization, and memberships of specific Indigenous movements, what is their orientation to nation-states, and how do they conceptualize culture, nature, and rights? What are the histories and achievements of Indigenous Peoples at the U.N. and in other international political fora? How do they organize at this level across shifting cultural and political boundaries, and what metaphors can we use to describe these alliances (networks, coalitions, hammocks, etc.)? What does it mean to be an "insider," and what are possible relationships that "outsiders," especially scholars and activists, can forge with these movements?
Answering these questions is by nature transdisciplinary - ranging across fields like anthropology, literary studies, legal studies, critical race theory, history, environmental studies, and sociology - and even more importantly, intercultural, introducing you to distinctive ways of being, life projects, and world views.
The following required texts are available for purchase at the University Store: