Indigenous peoples, development and anthropology

Description

This course provides a critical view of the contemporary and historical situation of indigenous people in New Zealand and elsewhere. The course pays attention especially to the wider socio-political and economic contexts that indigenous people have experienced and continue to live in. This includes questions relevant to colonial and post-colonial contexts, the relationship between indigenous people and the modern nation-state, and their position within a globalized world. The question of cultural survival is addressed through analyses of genocide and ethnocide, constructions of identity (including bi-cultural identity), and the nature and extent of appropriation and modification of culture by both indigenous peoples and those with whom they have political and economic relationships. The nature and effects of hegemonic rule, accommodation of new cultural elements, subaltern resistance and the development of new identities and movements, are also included. The course illustrates that indigenous people are not simply victims of oppression and marginalization, but self-conscious actors who in all periods of history and with different means have - more or less successfully - resisted structures of power and domination and fought for their rights.