Mario Blaser - In the Way of Development: Indigenous Peoples, Life Projects and Globalization

Cover

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This volume is the product of a mutually enriching collaboration between Indigenousleaders, other social activists and scholars from a wide range of disciplines. Itexplores what is happening today to Indigenous peoples as they are inevitably enmeshed in the remorseless expansion of the modern economy and development,subject to the pressures of the marketplace and government. It is particularly timely,given the growing criticism of free-market capitalism, and of development.

The volume assembles a rich diversity of statements, case studies of specificstruggles and situations, and wider thematic explorations. All start from the fact thatIndigenous peoples are actors, not victims. The accounts come primarily from NorthAmerica, and particularly the Cree, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and ChippewaOjibwe peoples who straddle the US/Canadian border. There are also studies ofIndigenous peoples from South America, and even from the former Soviet Union.

The intellectual focus is on the complex relationships that develop betweenIndigenous peoples, civil society and the environment in the context of market- andstate-mandated development. The volume shows how the boundaries betweenIndigenous peoples organizations, civil society, the state, markets, developmentand the environment are ambiguous and constantly changing. It is this fact thatlies at the heart of the political possibility of local agency, but also, ironically, of thepossibility of undermining it.

The volume seeks to capture these complex, power-laden, often contradictoryfeatures of Indigenous agency and relationships. It shows how peoples do not justresist or react to the pressures of market and state, but also sustain life projectsof their own which embody local history and incorporate visions and strategies forenhancing their social and economic ways of living and their relationships to stateand markets.

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Mario Blaser is an ArgentinianCanadian anthropologist who has worked andcollaborated on a variety of endeavours undertaken by the Yshiro people since 1991.His scholarly work focuses on exploring the epistemological and political possibilitiesof non-modern ways of knowing.

Harvey A. Feit is Professor of Anthropology at McMaster University, Ontario. He wasan adviser to the Grand Council of the Crees during their 197278 treaty process.His research is on how Cree epistemology shapes conservation practices and howthese inform political relationships.

Glenn McRae is an applied anthropologist who has worked extensively throughoutthe United States, India, South Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America as anenvironmental consultant. He has a Ph.D. from the Union Institute and University,and teaches at the University of Vermont.

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Indigenous Peoples, Life Projects and Globalization

EDITED BY MARIO BLASER,
HARVEY A. FEIT AND GLENN McRAE

ZED BOOKS
London & New York

in association with

International Development Research Centre
OttawaCairoDakarMontevideoNairobiNew DelhiSingapore

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In the Way of Development was first published in 2004 by
Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London N1 9JF, UK,
and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA

in association with the International Development Research Centre,
Box 8500, Ottawa ON, Canada KIG 3H9
info@idrc.ca/www.idrc.ca

www.zedbooks.co.uk

Editorial copyright Mario Blaser, Harvey A. Feit and Glenn McRae, 2004
Copyright individual contributors

The right of the contributors to be identified as the authors
of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

Designed and typeset in Monotype Bembo by Illuminati, Grosmont
Cover designed by Andrew Corbett
Printed and bound by Gutenberg Press, Malta

Distributed in the USA exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of
St Martins Press, LLC , 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

All rights reserved

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

Zed ISBN 1 84277 192 2 (Hb)
Zed ISBN 1 84277 193 0 (Pb)

IDRC ISBN 1 55250 004 7

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