At the Risk of Being Heard: Identity, Indigenous Rights, and Postcolonial States

by Bartholomew Crispin Dean (Editor), Bartholomew Crispin Dean (Editor)

Leading experts in the analysis of ethnicity and indigenous rights explore the questions of why and how the circumstances of indigenous peoples are improving in some places of the world, while their human rights continue to be abused in others. Drawing on case studies from Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas, chapters explore how political organization, natural resource management, economic development, and conflicting definitions over cultural, linguistic, religious, and territorial identity have informed indigenous strategies for empowerment.
Combining rich ethnographic descriptions with clear theoretical analyses, At the Risk of Being Heard considers the paradoxical challenges and opportunities confronting indigenous peoples at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In the face of state-sanctioned violence, indigenous peoples encounter considerable risks when asserting their rights, especially to self-determination. Yet, if they remain silent or absent from new arenas of power, hiding in marginalized homelands or cultural practices, they risk being invisible to those allies that would aid them in their struggles for survival.
At the Risk of Being Heard offers needed insights for individuals working on issues of governance, sustainable development, resource management, globalization, and indigenous affairs. It will undoubtedly appeal to undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology, sociology, history, political science, peace studies, and to those students in courses that explore relationships among postcolonial states, indigenous peoples, and human rights.
Bartholomew Dean is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Kansas. Jerome M. Levi is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Carleton College.

356 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2003

Reviews

[Dara B · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction and the first chapter had a soporific effect on me, so for a while I couldn't move any further and thought that this book was really boring. However, as I went on I found myself enjoying many chapters. My favorite was chapter 5 on nationalism and cultural survival by Benedict Anderson (but then, of course, I like anything by him). Some other pieces I liked: Indigenous Rights and the Politics of Identity in Southern Africa by Richard Lee, Interethnic Relations in Siberia by Marjorie Balzer, Gender Hierarchy and the Politics of Ethnic Mobilization among the Urarina, and Australian Aboriginal Struggle for Self-Determination by Ian McIntosh. All in all, a good volume on indigeneity, indigenous people and the struggles they face today. I might even go back to the introduction and reread it - maybe I misjudged it at first.