Throughout the Americas, indigenous peoples are actively involved in negotiating their ethnic identities. The processes of defining and redefining these identities take place against national backdrops of individual Latin American countries, and these settings co-determine the specific emphases placed in these processes. These cultural movements are often perceived in the national contexts and on the international forum as ranging from ‘political movements’ and ‘indigenous activism’ to ‘militant or even terrorist groupings’. This spectrum in opinions underscores the active debate in which many contemporary Amerindian societies are currently being situated or situating themselves. Representation and self-representation will be recurring themes in this course, which will emphasize the increasing role that Amerindian societies claim in their respective Latin American nations.
This course provides an overview of contemporary social, cultural, political and developmental issues of the native peoples of the Americas. Students will focus on the situation of the area they are studying for their thesis, carry out research (library, Internet etc). and write a paper with an in-depth analysis.
Timetable
Method of Instruction
Seminar
Course objectives
Create an overview of Amerindian movements currently present in Latin America
Gain insight in the overarching backgrounds and raison d’être for these movements
Establish socio-cultural positionality of Amerindian societies in Latin American nation-states
Required reading
Anthropological monographs and other recent literature (including press and internet) on contemporary Native American communities.
Examination
1) For the regular class: different assignments (literature study, comments on blackboard), with active participation in discussion, a poster presentation, and a book review.
2) The seminar may be expanded with another 5 ects by writing a paper (of approx. 3000 words), containing the analysis of the present-day social reality and worldview of a specific indigenous people in the Americas (preferably in the area of thesis research).
Point of departure has to be the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) and related international legal instruments (see for example: www.iwgia.org; www.indigenouswomensforum.org; www.ohchr.org; www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii ) and some theoretical literature (e.g. Luis Matías, Repression and Rebellions in Southern Mexico. The Search for a political economy of dignity. PhD Dissertation Free University, Amsterdam 2007: Thela Latin American Series, Dutch University Press, accessible through internet).
Information
Dr. L. van Broekhoven (laurab@volkenkunde.nl