What Does Genocide Produce? The Semantic Field of Genocide, Cultural Genocide, and Ethnocide in Indigenous Rights Discourse

Abstract

Abstract.The semantic field of genocide, cultural genocide, and ethnocide overlaps between Indigenous rights discourse and genocide studies. Since the 1970s, such language has been used to express grievances that have stimulated the construction of Indigenous rights in international law. These particular words signify general concerns with the integrity of Indigenous peoples, thereby undergirding a larger framework of normative beliefs, ethical arguments, and legal claims, especially the right to selfdetermination. Going back to the post-World War II era, this article traces the normative and institutional processes through which this overlapping discourse has emerged. Culminating with the adoption of the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, this process of international lawmaking has critically challenged the conventional interpretation of genocide, especially as the latter has been categorically distinguished from cultural genocide or ethnocide. Keywords

The Black Freedom Movement and the Politics of the Anti-Genocide Norm in the United States, 1951 - 1967

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Pueblos indígenas como víctimas de los genocidios pasados y actuales: un tema esencial para el currículo de administración pública en América Latina

“…Ellos, junto a algunos académicos de los derechos indígenas, defienden una definición del genocidio más liberal, amplia y cercana a la definición original propuesta por Rafael Lemkin, no la versión estrecha que finalmente fue adoptada en el derecho internacional. Por ejemplo, en su recuento sobre los desafíos retóricos que coinciden en los campos del genocidio y los derechos indígenas, Benvenuto (2015) afirma que existe la necesidad de cuestionar la definición legal estrecha del genocidio para que pueda, más ampliamente, abarcar también el cultural y étnico.…”

"So Rude and So Crude"

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