2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Indigenous Political Activism through Heritage Work and Transformation of Settler Nation
| Project/Area Number |
17401037
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 海外学術 |
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| Research Field |
Cultural anthropology/Folklore
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
OTA Yoshinobu Kyushu University, Graduate School of Social and Studies, Professor (60203808)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KOZAKI Tomomi Senshu University, Faculty of Economics, Professor (70234747)
IKEDA Mitsuho Osaka University, Comunication Design Cenee, Professor (40211718)
EDO Junko Kyorin University, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Professor (00203638)
IKEZUKI Wataru Kansai Gaidai, Tank Daigakubu, Associate Professor (90300285)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2007
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| Keywords | Indigenous people / Guatemala / Ecuador / New Caledonia / Identity / Heritage Work / multiculturalism / Presidential Electinn |
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| Research Abstract |
Since the eighties, the indigenous peoples have been reasserted their presence in many settle nations throughout the world, proving wrong the narrative of world history deeply couched in terms of progress. Acknowledging this historical characteristic, the research has attempted to assess the tension between nation states and indigenous peoples in Latin America and the Pacific region: in particular Guatemala, Ecuador and New Caledonia. Settle nations have co-opted the indigenous culture as national culture, while the indigenous peoples struggle to assert their rightful ownership of the same culture. Culture, in short, becomes increasingly politicized; identity has also become a contested term. The result of this research has uncovered that the political conditions that indigenous people often find themselves in are contradictory: while the political opening affords them a space for political maneuver unfeasible before, the same condition doses off the future political action when they assert their own political agendas. In other words, their political actions become controlled by the language of neoliberalism and multiculturalism whose meanings are already monopolized by the state apparatus. The research has suggested some questions for the future: how does the new configuration that the nation state assumes as a result of globalization affect the indigenous political mobilization?; how successful is the concept of indigeneity mobilized for obtaining a political space in a settler nation?
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