EVENTS
James Clifford: Returns to the Native land: Re-thinking the Indigenous in Post-modernity
15/12/2008 – 17/12/2008
James Clifford
Returns to the Native land: Re-thinking the Indigenous in Post-modernity
December 15-17
Returns to the Native land: Re-thinking the Indigenous in Post-modernity
“Aboriginal,” ”first nation,” “native,” or “tribal” peoples are increasingly visible and active in many parts of the world. Such societies, according to the lineal assumptions of Western historical thinking, were destined either to die or to be assimilated. In fact, under conditions of post-coloniality and post-modernity, something else has occurred: a proliferation of identities and claims, as well as of cultural and artistic forms. The seminar presents tools for understanding this complex, sometimes contradictory, development, arguing that the emergence of indigenous cultures and politics in multiple, overlapping spheres requires new forms of historical realism. Familiar projections of progress, modernization, Westernization, or globalization are clearly inadequate to the current conjuncture. Which narratives are 'grand' enought to matter today? Whose histories (and ontologies) demand a hearing and have a future?
Sessions
1. Thinking the Indigenous Today: Localizing, Globalizing, Historicizing. More
2. Case study: Ishi’s Story. More
3: Case Study: Museums and Native Heritage Politics in Alaska. More
Biography
James Clifford is a critical historian of anthropology and Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of Santa Cruz (California). He is one of the most influential figures in contemporary North American thought. He is the author of, among other things, On the Edges of Anthropology (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2003), Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century (Harvard University Press, 1997) and The Predicament of Culture (Harvard University Press, 1988).
Recommended bibliography
Clifford, James. 2001 “Indigenous Articulations.” The Contemporary Pacific 13 (2): 468-490.
__________. 2004a. “Looking several ways: Anthropology and Native Heritage in Alaska.” Current Anthropology 45 (1): 5-30.
___________. 2007. “Varieties of Indigenous Experience: Diasporas, Homelands, Sovereignties.” In De la Cadena and Starn, .
De la Cadena, Marisol, and Orin Starn, eds. 2007 Indigenous Experience Today. Berg Publications.
Harvey, David. 1990 The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kroeber, Clifton, and Karl Kroeber, eds. 2003. Ishi in Three Centuries. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Kroeber, Theodora. 1961. Ishi in Two Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Niezen, Ronald. 2003. The Origins of Indigenism: Human Rights and the Politics of Identity. Berkeley, Ca.: University of California Press.
Starn, Orin. 2004 Ishi’s Brain. New York: Norton.
Tsing, Anna. 2005. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton: Princeton University press.
Information and enrolment
Language of the Seminar: English with simultaneouus translation into Spanish
CENDEAC is accessible for wheelchair users and people with diminished mobility. Whenever possible, we will strive to provide on request a transcript of papers for users with impaired hearing.
Auditorium Capacity: 140 people
Free entry to those who do not wish to receive an attendance certificate (paying users will be granted preferential entry if the auditorium reaches its full capacity).
In order to enrol and obtain a certificate of attendance, you need to:
- Attend all sessions of the course
- Fill in the enrolment form
- Pay the appropriate fee
Fee: 30 € professionals, 15€ students, unemployed and OAPs (proof of status will be required). Free for holders of a Friends of CENDEAC card.
In order to enrol online it is necessary to fill in the enrolment form and make a payment for the appropriate fee WITHIN TWO WEEKS OF ENROLMENT to CAJAMURCIA bank, Account Number 2043 0090 32 0200550928, specifying as a concept the name of the seminar and SENDING ONE COPY OF THE PAYMENT RECEIPT to CENDEAC (you can do this by email or fax in order to save time and avoid de-enrolment, however, if you are de-enrolled you will be enrolled again on receipt of your payment slip). Alternatively, you can enrol and pay your fee at the CENDEAC office (Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4p.m. to 8 p.m.).
CENDEAC
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