THE EMERGENCE OF INDIGENEITY: Public Intellectuals and an Indigenous Space in Southwest China

Hathaway, Michael J.

doi:10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01060.x

Cited by 77 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…First, there is little grassroots support and much official opposition to the category, which makes obvious that its emergence is often difficult and always political [1][2][3][4]. Second, although Tibetans in China are the one group that could most easily attain recognition as indigenous by international organizations, they are either largely unaware of the possibility or uninterested in this status [2,5]. Combined, such dynamics enhance our understandings of indigeneity because the vast bulk of studies are carried out in places, like Latin America, where the category has been largely naturalized.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 Viewing indigenous people as a natural category does not account for all of the effort it takes to be recognized by national governments and international forums as indigenous, nor the complex identity-formation processes that happen (or do not) at the local level. 2 In many cases, nation-states refuse to recognize an indigenous status as it seems to imply that their sovereignty is superseded-or at least questioned.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the majority people in 60 per cent of land in China are ethnic minorities" [8]. 2 My approach should not be conflated with a social constructivist argument that sees the indigenous category as misrepresentative and dangerous, such as that argued by anthropologist Adam Kuper [9]. Rather, like the vast majority of anthropologists, I see the category of indigenous people as containing greater likelihood for generating social justice than for fostering social oppression, although I acknowledge instances where this is not the case (i.e., [8]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

China’s Indigenous Peoples? How Global Environmentalism Unintentionally Smuggled the Notion of Indigeneity into China

Hathaway

2016

Humanities

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This article explores how global environmental organizations unintentionally fostered the notion of indigenous people and rights in a country that officially opposed these concepts. In the 1990s, Beijing declared itself a supporter of indigenous rights elsewhere, but asserted that, unlike the Americas and Australia, China had no indigenous people. Instead, China described itself as a land of "ethnic minority" groups, not indigenous groups. In some sense, the state's declaration appeared effective, as none of these ethnic minority groups launched significant grassroots efforts to align themselves with the international indigenous rights movement. At the same time, as international environmental groups increased in number and strength in 1990s China, their policies were undergoing significant transformations to more explicitly support indigenous people. This article examines how this challenging situation arose, and discusses the unintended consequences after a major environmental organization, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), carried out a project using the language of indigeneity in China.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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China’s Indigenous Peoples? How Global Environmentalism Unintentionally Smuggled the Notion of Indigeneity into China

Hathaway

2016

Humanities

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“…The focus from conservationists was on wilderness, and they often downplayed or ignored the importance of Aboriginal involvement in the creation and management of this plan along with the social injustice issues the plan raised. When it comes to land access, rights, and management, conflict between conservationists and Aboriginal people is common in Australia as a whole (Adams 2004;Atchison 1994;Barbour and Schlesinger 2012;Bayet 1994;Moorcroft and Adams 2014;Muller 2003;Rose 2004) and the world at large (Braun 2002;Clapperton 2013;Cronon 1995;Dove 2006;Hathaway 2010;Sundberg 2004;West et al 2006).…”

Section: The Awkward Interviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Black Country, White Wilderness: Conservation, Colonialism, and Conflict in Tasmania

Ross¹

2017

Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography

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In 2015, Tasmania's land management plan for the expansive Wilderness World Heritage Area, covering around a fifth of the entire island of south and central Tasmania, was dramatically revised. The new plan expanded dual management of the area with Aboriginal Tasmanians and the Tasmanian state through the creation of an Aboriginal Cultural Business Unit that would generate financial management opportunities for Aboriginals. However, Aboriginal perspectives on the meaning of land often conflicted with white conservationists' wilderness values of remoteness and isolation. In this article, I argue that the reactions from white conservationists to the new plan are illustrative of a wilderness ideology that attempts to limit interactions with nature and consequently marginalizes Aboriginals. Reflexivity is an important aspect of this paper as these critiques of conservation are also critiques of my own beliefs and identity, and my reactions to what I encountered in this research add a layer that would have been absent otherwise. Through reflexive analysis of interviews and participant observation with individuals from environmental organizations, the Tasmanian government, the timber industry, tourism, and an Aboriginal corporation, along with printed materials and websites connected to the Wilderness World Heritage Area, I show that conservationists in Tasmania perpetuate colonial desires and white privilege at the expense of Tasmanian Aboriginals through the racialized ideology of wilderness.

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“…Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have had a considerable role in creating such alliances and developing politically engaged discourses of indigeneity as otherwise disempowered groups make claims to justice against, typically, the states in which they find themselves (Escárcega 2010;Greene 2009;Hathaway 2010;Li 2000;Martínez Novo 2006;Sapignoli 2012;Sieder 2002) and, as such, indigenous movements are often seen as essentially progressive.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflict, claim and contradiction in the new ‘indigenous’ state of Bolivia

Canessa

2014

Critique of Anthropology

188

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Recent conflict between indigenous people and a self-styled indigenous state in Bolivia has brought to the fore some of the paradoxes and contradictions within the concept of indigeneity itself. The contemporary politics of state sponsored indigeneity in Bolivia has as much capacity to create new inequalities as it does to address old ones and there is a conceptual deficit in understanding contemporary indigenous rights claims, in particular, as they relate to the state. I reject Peter Geschiere's (2009) suggestion that one should distinguish between 'autochthony' and 'indigeneity' but am inspired by these arguments to suggest that one needs to make a critical distinction between the kinds of claims different indigenous people make against the state. Of interest here are the consequences of indigeneity being transformed from being a language of resistance to a language of governance. I propose a conceptual distinction between inclusive national indigeneity for the majority which seeks to co-opt the state through accessing the language of governance and a minority concept of indigeneity which needs protection from the state and continues to use indigeneity as a language of resistance. Only by looking at the kinds of claims people make through the rhetoric of indigeneity can we make sense of the current indigenous conflict in Bolivia and elsewhere.

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THE EMERGENCE OF INDIGENEITY: Public Intellectuals and an Indigenous Space in Southwest China

Cited by 77 publications

References 67 publications

China’s Indigenous Peoples? How Global Environmentalism Unintentionally Smuggled the Notion of Indigeneity into China

China’s Indigenous Peoples? How Global Environmentalism Unintentionally Smuggled the Notion of Indigeneity into China

Black Country, White Wilderness: Conservation, Colonialism, and Conflict in Tasmania

Conflict, claim and contradiction in the new ‘indigenous’ state of Bolivia

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