Hemispheric Indigeneities: Native Identity and Agency in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and Canada

About the 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 indian only 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.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. First Contacts, First Nations
1. The Early Colonial Origins of Indigeneity in and around the Basin of Mexico
Susan Kellogg
2. Existing Ancestralities and the Failure of Colonial Regimes
Susan Elizabeth RamÍrez
3. “We Do the Same Thing among Ourselves”: Becoming Indigenous in Atlantic Canada
David T. McNab
Part 2. Indigenous Survival and Selfhood in the Long Nineteenth Century
4. Everything Must Change so that Everything Can Stay the Same: Miscegenation, Racialization, and Culture in Modern Mesoamerica
Luis Fernando Granados
5. From Prosperity to Poverty: Andeans in the Nineteenth Century
Erick D. Langer
6. Nation Making / Nation Breaking: “Effective Control” of Aboriginal Lands and Peoples by Settlers in Transition
Karl S. Hele
Part 3. Asserting Indigeneity in the Contemporary Era
7. Asserting Indigeneity in Contemporary Mexico and Central America: Autonomy, Rights, and Confronting Nation-States
Lynn Stephen
8. Against Coloniality: AndrÉs Jach’aqullu’s Indigenous Movement in the Era of the Bolivian National Revolution of 1952
Waskar T. Ari-Chachaki
9. Reel Visions: Snapshots from a Half Century of First Nations Cinema
MilÉna Santoro
Postface. Indigenous Experience and Legacies
10. Travels of a MÉtis through Spirit Memory, around Turtle Island, and Beyond
David T. McNab
Contributors
Index

About the Author :
MilÉna Santoro is an associate professor of French and Francophone studies at Georgetown University. She is the author of Mothers of Invention: Feminist Authors and Experimental Fiction in France and Quebec. Erick D. Langer is a professor of history at Georgetown University. He is the author of Expecting Pears from an Elm Tree: Franciscan Missions on the Chiriguano Frontier in the Heart of South America, 1830–1949 and coeditor of The New Latin American Mission History (Nebraska, 1995).
 

Review :
"One of the strengths of this collection is that the articles reference one another, providing critical links between the geographic regions and highlighting areas of similarity and difference between Indigenous agency and activism in diverse locales. The range of contributions with regard to content, writing style, and sources used makes the edited collection Hemispheric Indigeneities an excellent text for a course in contemporary Indigenous studies and one that would be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of folklore, history, theatre, literary studies, and anthropology."-Sarah Campbell, Journal of Folklore Research "Innovative in its effort to bring scholars from these different regions together, Hemispheric Indigeneities offers a solid contribution on which future comparative scholarship can build."-David Carey Jr., Hispanic American Historical Review “This collection makes a tremendous contribution to burgeoning discussions of Indigeneity. In rich and fascinating detail, each chapter elaborates processes and meanings of ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ Indigenous across time and geographic space in the Americas. It is sure to enrich hemispheric and global dialogue about the nuances, diversity, complexities, and contradictions of Indigeneity both historically and in the contemporary world.”-Laura R. Graham, professor of anthropology at the University of Iowa and coeditor of Performing Indigeneity: Global Histories and Contemporary Experiences