Hemispheric Indigeneities

About this book

"Hemispheric Indigeneities is a critical anthology that brings together indigenous and nonindigenous scholars specializing in the Andes, Mesoamerica, and Canada. The overarching theme is the changing understanding of indigeneity from first contact to the contemporary period in three of the world's major regions of indigenous peoples. Although the terms indio, indigene, and indianonly exist (in Spanish, French, and English, respectively) because of European conquest and colonization, indigenous peoples have appropriated or changed this terminology in ways that reflect their shifting self-identifications and aspirations. As the essays in this volume demonstrate, this process constantly transformed the relation of Native peoples in the Americas to other peoples and the state.This volume's presentation of various factors--geographical, temporal, and cross-cultural--provide illuminating contributions to the burgeoning field of hemispheric indigenous studies. Hemispheric Indigeneities explores indigenous agency and shows that what it means to be indigenous was and is mutable. It also demonstrates that self-identification evolves in response to the relationship between indigenous peoples and the state. The contributors analyze the conceptions of what indigeneity meant, means today, or could come to mean tomorrow."-- "Hemispheric Indigeneities: Native Identity and Agency in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and Canada is a critical anthology that brings together indigenous and non-indigenous scholars specializing in the Andes, Mesoamerica, and Canada. The overarching theme of this volume is the changing understanding of indigeneity from first contact to the contemporary context in three of the world's major regions of indigenous peoples, as well as the deployment of the idea of indigeneity over time both to deny and to reconstruct a sense of identity and sovereignty"--