Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Movements in Latin America and the World

Marvin Harris. Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture. New York: Random House, 1974. 276 pp. References. $7.95 (cloth).     

Christianity and Indigenous Peoples: A Personal Overview

This article summarizes its author's response over more than 30 years to the various arguments advanced against the possibility of the appropriation of Christianity by indigenous peoples. It sets out the intellectual and evidential reasons for rejecting these arguments. However, it admits that while indigenous appropriation of Christianity is always possible, under some circumstances it has been improbable. Many indigenous peoples have made use of Christianity but in the past there has been comparatively little appropriation by Native Americans or Australian Aborigines. This article explores the reasons for this. When the factors that have accounted for resistance and rejection rather than adaption no longer exist, it may be expected that Aborigines will indeed appropriate Christianity. The article concludes with a brief examination of academic work on African appropriations and suggests that new developments in Aboriginal Christianity will reveal how far comparisons can be made.     

What are the Limits of Social Inclusion? Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Governance in Canada and the United States

ABSTRACT

Contemporary debates about poverty and its mitigation often invoke the idea of social inclusion: the effort to increase the capacities and opportunities of disadvantaged populations to participate more fully in the economy, polity, and institutions of developed societies. While practical outcomes have been inconsistent, this idea has been prominent in the social policies of both Canada and the United States. Both generally see themselves as liberal democracies committed to building socially inclusive societies, and both have adopted policies in support of that goal. However, we argue in this article that social inclusion, as presently conceived, fails to comprehend or address the distinctive situation of Indigenous peoples in both of these countries. Our critique focuses on four aspects of social inclusion as applied to Indigenous peoples: the external conception of needs, the individualization of both problems and solutions, the favoring of distributional politics over positional politics, and the conditionality of inclusion. We argue that both Canada and the United States need to reconceive social inclusion in ways that address these issues and that a more capacious conception of federalism may hold the key.     

International Norms and Latin American States' Policies on Indigenous Peoples

Abstract. International pressure upon Latin American governments to protect the rights of indigenous peoples has increased since the late 1960s. The reports submitted under the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela are reviewed. They tend to emphasise policies for national integration and the preservation of indigenous cultures, and to neglect the effects of urbanisation. Political elites are coming slowly to appreciate the nature of the claims advanced by indigenous peoples.     

Ways of Combining the Economy of the Indigenous Peoples of the North with New Economic Activities in Pioneering Areas

Integrated development of the pioneering areas of northern Siberia requires that the economy of the indigenous population be combined with the new mining industries. In the early stages of development this was achieved by hiring out reindeer as draft and pack animals to geological and other survey parties in remote areas. With the development of modern transportation, the reindeer economy should be reoriented from its past exclusive transport functions to the production of meat and hides for a growing urban population in the new mining settlements.     

Mission Encounters in the Colonial World: British Columbia and South-West Australia

This paper considers various aspects of the interactions of missions and indigenous peoples in regions of Canada and Australia. An analysis of first encounters indicates that the introduction of Christianity was dependent on both evangelist and client population agreeing to a modus operandi for the mission. The structure and operation of the mission were determined by the pre-existing indigenous society and the financial and personnel resources of the mission organizations. Attitudes towards, and acceptance of, Christianity were not static, they depended on changing material and political circumstances both within and outside indigenous communities. This comparative analysis indicates that religious change was not only negotiated between missionary and "convert," but among indigenous peoples themselves. The decision to profess Christianity was not a one-off decision made by individuals or communities. Rather it was a long process of change which was contingent on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of the mission world and countervailingpressures from within indigenous and colonial societies.     

I Rode through the Desert: Equestrian Adaptations of Indigenous Peoples in Southern Hemisphere Arid Zones

One of the most profound consequences of the “Columbian exchange” set in motion by Europe’s fifteenth- to nineteenth-century expansion overseas was the introduction of the horse to parts of the world where it had previously been absent. Alongside the internationally well-known Plains of North America, these regions included several southern hemisphere drylands: Patagonia; the Karoo and Kalahari of southern Africa; and the deserts of Australia. This paper explores the equestrian adaptations developed by the Indigenous inhabitants of these three areas and tries to explain the variability apparent in the speed and consequences of their adoption of the horse.     

Interethnic Dynamics among the Indigenous Peoples of Southern Siberia (Demographic Aspect)*

This study presents an overview of the ethnic and demographic characteristics of Turkic indigenous peoples living in the Sayan-Altai region, including dynamics in marital structure, ethnically assortative marriage, and level of admixture among the Kumandins in the Altai Territory; the Shor in the Kemerovo Province; the Altai-Kizhi, Kumandins, Telengits, Tubalars, and Chelkans in the Altai Republic; and the Khakas (Kachin, Koibal, Kyzyl, and Sagai) in the Republic of Khakassia. Temporal and territorial differences in levels of interethnic mixing within the selected communities are revealed. The study shows that during the period 1940–2009, the rate of monoethnic marriages decreased and the number of interethnic marriages in virtually all communities under investigation increased with the exception of the southern Altaians and the Khakas-Sagai. Specific features of interethnic mixing are identified. Marriage to representatives of the migrant (Russian-speaking) population prevails among the northern Altaians (Kumandins, Tubalars, and Chelkans), Khakas-Kyzyl, and Shor of the mountain taiga region, Kemerovo Province. Marriages to members of other indigenous peoples in southern Siberia are common among the Khakas-Koibal, Khakas-Kachin, and the Abakan Shor. These trends illustrate the nature of ethnic and demographic development in the Sayan-Altai region.