Customer Reviews (3)

Good starting point, with good references
This book references so many other works it might be hard to keep up, or find half of these books to read in the first place. Basically devoted to chapters each giving some broad stroke overviews on various topics and people groups and theories of migratory patterns, I think this is an excellent place to start.I would probably compliment this with some more recent works by Maximilian C. Forte for the next step of reading.

Very good book
The book is a good description of the people that inhabited the islands when Columbus arrived. He does a great job describing the different peoples (Taino's, Caribes, etc.) and their differences in culture and language. As a Puerto Rican I found it informational on learning more of my non-European ancestry.

A useful introduction
This collected volume is a useful introduction to the topic.I have used it to prepare lectures on the subject for college students in the context of a broad course on maritime peoples.It is not terribly in depth,however, and most readers will want to move on to heavier works like _TheLesser Antilles in the Age of European Expansion_. ... Read more

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An African proverb states that when a knowledgeable old person dies, a whole library disappears. In that light, this book presents knowledge that is new or has not been readily available until now because it has not previously been captured or reported by indigenous people. Indigenous knowledge that embraces ornithology takes in whole social dimensions that are inter-linked with environmental ethos, conservation and management for sustainability. In contrast, western approaches have tended to reduce knowledge to elemental and material references. This book also looks at the significance of indigenous knowledge of birds and their cultural significance, and how these can assist in framing research methods of western scientists working in related areas.

As well as its knowledge base, this book provides practical advice for professionals in conservation and anthropology by demonstrating the relationship between mutual respect, local participation and the building of partnerships for the resolution of joint problems. It identifies techniques that can be transferred to different regions, environments and collections, as well as practices suitable for investigation, adaptation and improvement of knowledge exchange and collection in ornithology. The authors take anthropologists and biologists who have been trained in, and largely continue to practice from, a western reductionist approach, along another path one that presents ornithological knowledge from alternative perspectives, which can enrich the more common approaches to ecological and other studies as well as management for conservation. ... Read more

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Important
i think this is a book, which should be kept by every indigenous people in Bangladesh, who are suffering everyday. ... Read more

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Sharply focused on key issuesaffecting indigenous and ethnic groups worldwide, this book is part of a seriesof ethnographies, authored by leading figures in the field of anthropology andbuilds on introductoy material by going further in- depth and allowing readersto explore, virtually first hand, a particular issue and its impact on aculture.Concentrates on a well-researched, specific issue andits impact on a particular culture. Provides in-depth information on aparticular culture, expanding the readerÕs grasp of the experiences andproblems encountered by different cultures. ... Read more

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A book that was relevant 25 years ago!
This book is on the political struggle of the Malaysian Aboriginal group, or 'Orang Asli', written by a group of scholars who have been conducting research on the group since 25 years ago. But the explanation on thestruggle has been constructed as simply between the politically dominantMalays and the Orang Asli minority, without explaining the critical role ofthe Chinese in the economic life of the Orang Asli. For such a group ofexcellent and experienced scholars to ignore this phenomenon is rathersurprising, to say the least. What is even more surprising is the fact thatit took one of the more illustrious editors, ie. Robert Dentan, 25 yearsafter his first book on an Orang Asli group "Semai, the non-violentpeople", to be able to say this. It is quite obvious that they havealso failed to acknowledge the fact that many Malaysian scholars have saidall this a decade or so ago. There is an obvious failure on the part of theeditors to productively and creatively use local sources written in thevernacular for the present book. This becomes a great handicap to theauthors in constructing a more in-depth analysis. Finally, where is thevoice of the suffering Orang Asli themselves? In the present post-moderntheorizing exercise, dominant in anthropology (the editor is areanthropologists, except one), the absence of the real social actors' voiceis unacceptable! ... Read more

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A bold description of archaeology not only in Australia but everywhere indigenous people are fighting for their rightsControversies over the rights of native peoples to their lands, their material culture, and the remains of their ancestors make headlines worldwide. Drawing deeply from years of intensive research and teaching, Sarah Colley offers an accessible overview of the practice, politics, and ethics of archaeology today, focusing on Australia to highlight and pose universal questions about the relationship between archaeologists, indigenous people, and the public.

To whom are archaeologists responsible—to the indigenous people under study or to the discipline of anthropology? What is the value of archaeology when indigenous people can speak for themselves? What roles do the public, media, and government play in interpreting archaeological findings? Examining these delicate issues within the context of colonialism, the formation of national identities, and the rights of indigenous people, Colley provides a lucid picture of the current state of archaeology and argues boldly that archaeology must concern itself not only with abstract interpretations of tools, fossils, and extinct cultures but also with living people. ... Read more

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Around the globe, people who have lived in a place "from time immemorial" have found themselves confronted by and ultimately incorporated within larger state systems. During more than three decades of anthropological study of groups ranging from the Apache to the indigenous peoples of Kenya, Richard J. Perry has sought to understand this incorporation process and, more importantly, to identify the factors that drive it. This broadly synthetic and highly readable book chronicles his findings. Perry delves into the relations between state systems and indigenous peoples in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Australia. His explorations show how, despite differing historical circumstances, encounters between these state systems and native peoples generally followed a similar pattern: invasion, genocide, displacement, assimilation, and finally some measure of apparent self-determination for the indigenous people--which may, however, have its own pitfalls. After establishing this common pattern, Perry tackles the harder question--why does it happen this way? Defining the state as a nexus of competing interest groups, Perry offers persuasive evidence that competition for resources is the crucial factor in conflicts between indigenous peoples and the powerful constituencies that drive state policies. These findings shed new light on a historical phenomenon that is too often studied in isolated instances. This book will thus be important reading for everyone seeking to understand the new contours of our postcolonial world. ... Read more

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Native American Studies ... Read more

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Mass media have long been credited with the homogenising of the world. This book contends they also allow for the preservation and dissemination of the languages, traditions, and aspirations of indigenous peoples. ... Read more

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In Indigenous Peoples in International Law, James Anaya explores the development and contours of international law as it concerns the world's indigenous peoples, culturally distinctive groups that are descended from the original inhabitants of lands now dominated by others. Anaya demonstrates that, while historical trends in international law largely facilitated the colonization of indigenous peoples and their lands, modern international law's human rights program has been responsive to indigenous peoples' aspirations to survive as distinct communities in control of their own destinies.

Over the last several years, the international system--particularly as embodied in the United Nations and other international institutions--has exhibited a renewed and increasingly heightened focus on the concerns of indigenous peoples. Anaya discusses the resulting new generation of international treaty and customary norms, while linking the new and emergent norms with previously existing international human rights standards of general applicability. Anaya further identifies and analyzes institutions and procedures, at both the domestic and international levels, for implementing international norms concerning indigenous peoples.
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A Seminal Work
The obscure international relations world of international organizations and countries is generally visible and comprehensible to academics and human rights activists, but Anaya has written a seminal work in this area that provides sufficient background for readers to understand the relationship between indigenous peoples and human rights.This is extremely important reading for environmental activists interested in preserving the rainforest, defending sensitive environmental homelands of tribal peoples or understanding the question of access to international fora.

Anaya provides a legal background for the domination of the Western hemisphere by whites and shows how thin it really is.

But the really great thing about this book is that it shows what the state of indigenous people in international bodies is and how it is harnessed by human rights and environmental groups. ... Read more

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Thought provoking
Jeffrey Sissons' book provides a feast of new ideas. In under 200 pages, Sissons displays thoughtful and penetrating analysis to cover a remarkable breadth of material. _First Peoples_ is part of a series by Reaktion, which attempts to publish books that "offer points of view, take sides and are written with passion." In this, Sissons succeeds remarkably well. His experiences living with and representing Maori people in court informs his analysis, and yet his work is also alive to the diversity of global indigenous histories, with a focus on "settler societies" of New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the US.

Sissons provokes us to rethink concepts that have been central to indigenous studies, such as "assimilation." Sissons argues that assimilation was not just an abstract force, almost with its own momentum, but one deeply tied to acts of settlement through acts of force and legislation (and that such "legislation" itself ultimately relied on the threat of force to make it work). In another section, Sissons gives powerful arguments against what he calls "oppressive authenticity" and "eco-indigneity." Oppressive authenticity refers to the range of ways that indigenous groups are required to perform their connections to the land and their people, through explicit legal means such as blood quotas, as well as more implicitly expecting `authentic' performance of language, clothing, and action. He also shows how such demands often exclude a large group of indigenous people that live in urban areas. Eco-indigeneity is the particular set of expectations whereby indigenous people, in some places more than others, are expected to be environmentally oriented. While such expectations have been strategically helpful in some situations, Sissons shows how precarious such expectations can be, and how indigenous groups can be excluded from land claims when these are not met.

My only reservation about the book hinges on the several times that the author drifts into dualistic statements about the differences between indigenous and non-indigenous cultures. At these times, however, Sissons maintains a critical sensibility, and is aware of the potential to overstate such distinctions. His book could be profitably read alongside Courtney Jung's wonderful book, The Moral Force of Indigenous Politics. Sissons avoids the common trope whereby indigenous actions are understood in relationship to maintaining or reclaiming the past (just look at how many books on First Peoples use old, sepia-toned photographs). Instead, he makes a strong argument about how much creative work has been carried out in creating indigenous futures, and how much work remains.
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Award-winning author Diane Bell reveals the importance of women’s roles in Australian Aboriginal desert culture—as maintainers of land, ritual, and culture. ... Read more

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The United States is readily distinguishable from other countries, Chief Justice John Marshall opined in 1803, because it is "a nation of laws, not of men." In Perversions of Justice, Ward Churchill takes Marshall at his word, exploring through a series of 11 carefully crafted essays how the U.S. has consistently employed a corrupt from of legalism as a means of establishing colonial control and empire. Along the way, he demonstrates how this "nation of laws" has so completely subverted the law of nations that the current America-dominated international order ends up, like the U.S. -itself, functioning in a manner dia-metrically opposed to the ideals of freedom and democracy it professes to embrace.

By tracing the evolution of federal Indian law, Churchill is able to show how the premises set forth therein not only spilled over onto non-Indians in the U.S., but were also adapted for application abroad. The trajectory of America’s imperial logic can be followed all the way to the present New World Order in which "what we say goes" at the dawn of the third millennium.

Customer Reviews (3)

A call for justice
There are few who have produced such an important collection of essays regarding the mistreatment of indigenous people. I just finished reading the chapter on "The Radioactive Colonization of Native North America."It's a very sad episode that continues to this day, with the waste of our nuclear projects being put into weapons and dumped by the ton on the tribal people of Afghanistan and Iraq.The depleted uranium, and the mess that uranium mining and nuclear tests create effect not just native people, but all of us.It's estimated the 10,000 Americans have died from living downwind of the Nevada nuclear test sites.With the Bush administration planning to conduct more nuclear tests as they create a new "family" of nuclear weapons, Churchill's message is more important than ever.It's great that the elite establishment has brought so much attention to his work.In their effort to destroy and dismiss him, Churchill's books and ideas have come to the attention of tens of thousands of people.
I don't know if Ward is an Indian or not, but the work of this "fake" Indian is more valuable than the work of fake cowboys like George Bush.
We all have tribal roots, "Perversions of Justice" may inspire some of us to remember them.

CHURCHILL IS A AMERICAN CULTURAL INDENTITY THIEF
All of his books are based on lies. He states he is writing from his personal Native American experience, but he forgot to tell people HE IS A FAKE INDIAN.
I am a Native American and most of the Native American community from the 2 largest Native American newspapers Indian Country Today and News From Indian Country and International AIM know this fake wannabee is fraud and a phony.
He lied on his resume to steal a job set aside for a Native American professor. He has never faced the same discrimination as real Native Americans. He is a Cultural "Identity Thief" for his own greed and ego.
He has no shame profiting off of American Indians. He makes over $100,000 a year off a "playing" Indian. Some Anti-capitalist phony? Why take those "Eichmans" money, unless you're a hypocrite. We all know you're a big phony.
IF HE LIED ABOUT HIS NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE, THEN HOW CAN ANY OF HIS WORKS HAVE ANY CREDIBILITY?
In fact the so-called ancestor he claims "Indian" from was actually an INDIAN KILLER and killed Creek Indians in a story by the RockyMountain News, one of the largest papers in Colorado. The same tribe Churchill said he originally was from.

DON'T BUY BOOKS FROM A LIAR. BUY BOOKS WRITTEN BY REAL NATIVE AMERICANS.

If he had any honor he would step down and GIVE THE JOB TO REAL NATIVE AMERICAN and stop using the guise of American Indian to enrich himself. He is a cultural identity thief for his own agenda, big bucks and EGO.

Churchill Really Delivers
This guy is absolutely one of the best writers about the US Empire--he is a hammer, pounding away at crypto-fascistic policy and propaganda.

Nearly everything that he's done is great--but this is by far his best work, synthesizing as it does a broad range of history, political science, critiques of race & class, leftwing philosophy, and (of course) US & international legal scholarhsip.

Overall, the text reads as a collection of fairly tightly connected essays (you'll notice that he tends to build on points from earlier essays from the collection in the later texts)--and it builds to a crescendo in the stunning final essay (the wrong word for it, as it's about 100 pages, with nearly 600 footnotes).

Inside are discussions of Russell Means & AIM, the development of US law vis-a-vis native (and thus all foreign) "sovereignty," genocide & its attendent denial, what he memorably calls "radioactive colonization," and a host of other items.Perhaps one of the best arguments is about the alleged "right to conquest," which he traces through its varied history in the international legal arena.In this case, it's clear that despite many prohibitions to the contrary, Might tends to construct Right, and those with wealth, power, and arms often enough simply do as they will, all the while citing "International Law & Human Rights" to support and protect their patently genocidal and fascistic endeavors.

Highest Recommendation. ... Read more

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We all carry within us the ancient, tribal identity of indigenous people - people native to their lands. As technology continues to dominate and complicate modern life, many are striving to reclaim that tribal connection by living more simply. Editor Shirley Ann Jones adds a historical contribution to this field with Simply Living, gathering lore from ethnic groups on every continent to find possibilities for downsizing daily life.

This collection speaks about native wisdom based in villages and tribes, wisdom deriving from an awareness of basic human needs. Often funny and eccentric, the quotes offered here concentrate on essential truths, healing rituals, and practical strategies for living in harmony with nature, community, and self. ... Read more

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Celebrates cultures around the world!
As the number of indiginous societies declines and technology replaces older ways of life, this book celebrates the principles shared by cultures around the world. Editor Shirley Jones has culled bits of wisdom from 240ethnic groups on every continent, ranging from the restorative power ofone's heritage - to making community. The book has a foreword by BrookeMedicine Eagle.- Publishers Weekly Magazine

This is a thought-provoking collection, serious yet fun.
This collection of thoughts from around the world emphasizes that wisdom is not limited to technologically advanced society but, in fact, is often found most profoundly in the simplest of cultures. The editor has assembledwords of many people in a manner that shows clearly how related all peoplesare, how our thoughts, emotions, and perceptions are not limited by thephysical and cultural barriers we normally perceive, and how humor, grace,and insight light up lives in all cultures. ... Read more

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The Native American tribes of the southeastern region of the United States had highly developed systems of government, agriculture, and social culture at the time the first Europeans encountered them. Native Americans of the Southeast explores the lifestyles of these tribes and their struggle to survive and regain their heritage during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (20020801) ... Read more

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This book deals with the perennial tensions between ethnic groups and the modern nation-state and does so from the perspective of a leading Mexican anthropologist with deep and long experience in these matters. As such, it is both a superb introduction to the basic issues and a presentation of the author's own original contributions. The appearance of this book in English gives North American readers access to these important and political currents in Latin American anthropology and political economy. It is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the current recrudescence of indigenous peoples at this moment in history-when conventional wisdom had predicted its demise. ... Read more

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Indigenous peoples have long suffered from exoticization. Outsiders elevate their beauty, remoteness and difference and do not see beyond this to the real problems they face. The No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous Peoples looks beyond the exotic images, tracing the stories of different indigenous peoples from their first (and often fatal) contact with explorers and colonizers. Much of this history is told here by indigenous people themselves.

They vividly describe why land and the natural world are so special to them; how it feels to be snatched from your family as a child because the government wants to "make you white"; why they are demanding that museums must return the bones of their ancestors; how can they retain their traditional culture while moving with the times; and what kinds of development are positive. This short guide discusses all this and more, raising countless issues for debate. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

No-Nonsense
Overall a very informative book. Much evidence has been repeated many times in other publications. However, this book is good for people who do not know much about indigenous peoples. It needs to romanticize tribal communities a bit, but overall is well researched and documented. Good for beginning scholars

sweet sophistication
When I purchased "the No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous Peoples",
I hoped to find an even-handed approach to this topic, which at times seems adrift in a sea of political correctness. In particular the Forward by Hugh Brody cautions about the dangers of 'romanticizing indigenous peoples' so I thought that I had found a serious work on this important but badly-distorted topic.I was mistaken.
The book starts out trying to define the term "indigenous people" which it realisticly acknowledges is no easy task. It then considers various stipulative and subjective definitions formed by various organizations who seek to help indigenous peoples. It overlooks however that these organizations are largely staffed and entirely funded by non-indigenous peoples which claim to speak on behalf of indigenous peoples without indicating who appointed them to do so. After considering these ideas it returns to a subjective definition that any people group
who chooses to be identified as an indigenous people constitutes an indigenous people.
From this point foreward rather than romanticize indigenous peoples, author Lotte Hughes chooses to patronize them -- excessively. In the second chapter "Colonialism and Conquest" the author goes through the standard lament of how Europeans 'invaded the lands of indigenous peoples,
and 'tried to destroy their cultures' for no better reason than spite and to demonstrate their racial superiority. This theme continues throughout the book and is spiked with undocumented jargon, insinuations, and inuendos. In the next chapter, "Land and Nature", Hughes speaks of TEK, an unfamiliar term, as the new label for 'traditional environmental knowledge'without
acknowledging the context in which it was coined and who uses it. She repeatedly implies that Europeans used disease as a form of biological warfare against indigenous peoples throughout the colonial period missing the point that the scientific concept of communicable disease is little more than 150 years old while variable resistance to diseases among different peoples is little more than 60 years known. She speaks of 'biopiracy' with Western multi-national drug corporations using exotic plants to make new pharmaceuticals without consent of the indigenous peoples or willingness to share the rewards with them, despite the point that such indigenous peoples in majority of cases were unaware of many curative properties of these plants and had never heard of the diseases that they can be used to treat. Knowledge can be compared to oil that it belongs to the place where it is found rather than to those who develop it.
Perhaps Hughes reaches her peak of patronage with a dash of absurdism when she speaks of indigenous peoples 'right to isolation'. Who decides whether any people group wants to be isolated, and with modern communications how can isolation be maintained?
Some other important issues such as 'oppression of women" do not fit neatly into her thesis so she tries to tiptoe past them as she writes "In some cultures indigenous women are in a subordinate position and enjoy few rights, though the bigger threat usually comes from the national society",(60-61) without citing any indigenous woman or feminist scholar who supports this position.
A speaker on the issue of indigenous rights, G. Chellaraj, proposes a different interpretation which can form a kind of intellectual trap. Chellaraj suggests that the whole issue of protection of indigenous rights and preserving indigenious cultures can conceal a very sophisticated racism. By protecting and preserving indigenous cultures, one keeps indigenous peoples in their 'correct place'in the forests and outside of the modern world in a position of unstated but permanent disadvantage.
When Hughes discusses her examples she steps into this trap. She speaks of how the Canadian government conspired with the Tanzanian government against the Barabaig people by developping the Tanzania Canada Wheat Project which deprived the Barabaigs of some of their traditional pastures. What she doesn't mention is that the Wheat Project was designed to provide food for hungry Tanzanian people, 99% of who are Africans. The inuendo emerges that because many African Tanzanians sought to try to
improve their lives and doing so abandonned many aspects of timeless traditional cultures they had forfeited their legitimacy. Indigenous peoples have rights, but only the rights to be 'indigenous people' and nothing else. They should remain in their forest havens and hopefully (although unrealisticly) stay beyond the reach of comparative knowledge and possibility of consequent changes forever. I do not subscribe to that perspective.
Consequently the book does little to increase knowledge or improve understanding of indigenous peoples. It follows the
well-worn roads (or perhaps trails) trying to hide behind a facade of generosity what could be quite different motives. As such it adds little to the topic of indigenous peoples, their cultures, or their rights. ... Read more