ANTH444: International Indigenism

ANTH444 – SYLLABUS DOWNLOAD

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This course takes, as its point of departure, the history, politics and relational dynamics of the international movement of Indigenous peoples. It reviews, examines and assesses with a critical eye the formation and articulation of Indigenous identities and communities in the contemporary world. For several decades now, Indigenous peoples the world over have been mounting local, regional and global campaigns for social justice in reference to international discourse on law and human rights in a bid to redefine their relations with – and, therefore, their position within – nation-states. The ambitions of such campaigns have varied, ranging from securing land rights to ascertaining cultural freedoms, human rights to self-governance, sustainable development to intellectual property rights. The source of Indigenous protest is generally understood to derive from the shared historical experience of colonial oppression, exploitation and assimilation at the hands of majority society. It is this ‘experience’ which today commonly underwrites and legitimates the idea of ‘Indigenous’ societies.

As we will discover in this course, however, the term ‘Indigenous’ (and its derivatives – Indigenousness, Indigeneity etc.) is a social construction and the product of a particular history of an emergent international social movement that since the 1980s has been increasingly defined by transnational, inter-ethnic and supra-group networks. The movement’s generation of political capital leading to Indigenous representation and participation at some of the highest levels of the world’s governing organizations (including the United Nations, International Labour Organization and World Bank), has provided Indigenous leaders the world over with pragmatic leverage in their on-going domestic situations. Gains made by the movement at the United Nations, especially with regard to the establishment of a permanent forum on Indigenous issues and a ‘Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ (2007), have brought into the public domain debate about the historical marginalization of Indigenous peoples and its symbiotic relationship to the unequal distribution of power within nation-states; a matter which has broached broader dialogue on topics including Indigenous citizenship, development, self-determination and so on.

This course will survey a wide range of issues related to Indigenous peoples and the international movement. We will discuss and interrogate the politics of Indigenous identity, the question of Indigenous rights, globalization and formal critiques of Indigenous political mobilization, the role of Indigenous (trans)national organizations in the international arena, examine a case study from Japan, assess the Indigenous movement from the perspective of Indigenous people living and working in cities as well as look at the commoditization and appropriation of Indigenous culture by ‘new agers’ and its effect on the movement. At the end of this course, the student will have a firm knowledge of the fundamental issues that inform and shape the international Indigenous peoples’ movement, have gained an understanding of the legal, social and political situations of a number of Indigenous peoples around the world and be able to confidently extrapolate on related theoretical matters.

ANTH204: Introduction to Native Peoples of North America

ANTH311: European Anthropological Theories

ANTH601: World Anthropologies

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