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This paper takes a positive, albeit critical, view of the principal theory that John and Jean Comaroff painstakingly develop in their edited volume on ethnicity (2009), positing that ethnicity is one constantly in the making, and in that it needs reading through contexts (often through vested interests in market economy) and accordingly must be inspected for rationality as well as relevance. [Position Paper only; 800 words(-)]
European Journal of Development Research
The thoughts contained in this paper were first tried out in the context of a workshop on "Gender and Ethnicity in a Modernizing World" which was organized by the Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen, in collaboration with International Development Studies, Roskilde, in February 1992. The paper represents a stage of further reflection and has been able to benefit from the very valuable discussions which took place at the Copenhagen workshop.
The Continued Significance of Ethnocultural Identity
2013
Centrifugal and centripetal forces are simultaneously straining contemporary states. On the one hand, social, political, and economic forces of globalization are giving rise to novel forms of interdependence and overlapping spheres of influence and jurisdictional authority. On the other, local and regional collectivities are making demands for state resources, cultural rights, and the devolution of governing power. Recently, some authors have questioned the normative legitimacy of one of the major political developments challenging contemporary states, namely, the granting of group-specific rights to ethnocultural minorities. In this paper I examine critically some of the arguments that have been presented against ethnocultural group rights. I
Class , State , and Ethnic Identity Construction
2003
THE FRIENDLY LIQUIDATION OF THE PAST: THE POLITICS OF DIVERSITY IN LATIN AMERICA. Donna Lee Van Cott. Foreword by Crawford Young. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000. Pp. xv+340.) EXILES, ALLIES, REBELS: BRAZIL’S INDIANIST MOVEMENT, INDIGENIST POLITICS, AND THE IMPERIAL NATION-STATE. By David Treece. (Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood Press, 2000. Pp. viii+271.) THE INDIANS AND BRAZIL. By Mercio P. Gomes. Translated by John W. Moon. (Gainsville, Fla.: University Press of Florida, 2000. Pp. xvi +301.) INDIGENISMO E TERRITORIALIZAÇÃO: PODERES, ROTINAS E SABERS COLONIAIS NO BRASIL CONTEMPORÂNEO. Edited by João Pacheco de Oliveira. (Rio de Janeiro: Contra Capa Livraria, 1998. Pp. 311.) TELLING MAYA TALES: TZOTZIL IDENTITIES IN MODERN MEXICO. By Gary H. Gossen. (New York and London: Routledge, 1999. Pp. xxxiii+309.) INDIGENOUS AUTONOMY IN MEXICO. Edited by Aracely Burgete Cal y Mayor. (Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, 2000. Pp. 291.)
The Politics and Poetics of Ethnic Consciousness
In some of the accounts by Jesuit missionaries on Brazilian soil, the indigenous peoples were described as being “inconstant”. In other words, the efforts of the Jesuits in catechizing the autochthonous population would have very short-lived effects, and the latter would soon go back to its original customs. Representations produced in the colonial encounter played a big part in the process of what can be described as ethnogenesis and helped construct the category of the ‘generic Indian’. Representations that convey an idea of a culture that, though permeable to outside influences, grows back to its natural ways abound in the early accounts in the colonial period, and can also be found in more contemporary readings. Nearly five hundred years later, the anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro refers back to the myrtle metaphor used by the Jesuit Antonio Vieira in 1657 to reflect upon what he describes as an “ideological bulimia” which he associates with the indigenous people in Brazil. The same author has suggested that the origin and essence of Amerindian culture is acculturation since cultural contact implies borrowing, either amicably or violently (Viveiros de Castro, 2004). Many anthropologists have written on the shift from class to culture (De la Cadena 2005, Wade 2004) which occurred after the 70s, having the Conference of Stockholm as its landmark, and how it paved the way to renewed processes of ethnogenesis across Latin America (Hill 1996, Norman E.Whitten 1996). I shall argue that this recent trend, alongside major political moves such as the inclusion in the Brazilian Constitution of a chapter named “On the Indians”, has served to rekindle a process of ethnogenesis in Brazil and that such a process is most effective when it can rely on representations that have a long duration. In other words, the constitution of indigeneity as an element of the national culture depends on the effectiveness of the narratives that support it and on the persistence of those narratives through time. Taking those observed facts into consideration this study intends to investigate how a certain configuration of factors, or the dialectical result of a combination of forces, contributed towards a differentiated treatment of the indigenous population in Brazil. By looking at how past representations still echo in people’s imagination, including that of decision makers, this study hopes to critically assess the category ‘Indian’ within the broader context of Indigenism in Brazil, and of ethnicity in general, whilst avoiding ethnic essentialism. This study shall deploy as theoretical references the pioneering work on ethnicity by Max Weber, who sees the formation of an ethnic group as politically oriented, and that of Fredrik Barth, who suggests it is an ongoing phenomenon and that ethnic affiliation happens in the encounter between groups who perceive themselves as different. Finally, it shall address the current phase of ethnogenesis in an attempt to explore possible implications of this contemporary and global trend.