Indigenous rights

The Manchester Anthropology Working Papers series was established in 2004 with the aim of bringing current perspectives in Social Anthropology to the attention of a wider audience. The series is intended to promote discussion and debate, and features a mix of seminar papers, lectures by visiting scholars and the informal presentation of current research.

Of particular note is John Gledhill's - "Beyond Speaking Truth to Power: Anthropological entanglements with multicultural and indigenous politics" (pdf) which looks at the problematic role of anthropologists in representing the claims of indigenous movements.

[T]hese problems have been exacerbated by the fact that specific types of “pluralism” have now become integral to the redefined state projects of the neo-liberal era, and are, in a closely integrated way, also frequently integral to the strategies of political and economic forces that have far from “progressive” social agendas. We need to ask how far greater “pluralism" relates to both conscious tactics of “fragmentation” of popular movements and how far “fragmentation” is a bottom up response to changing socio-economic conditions that need to remain at the centre of our analyses.

The paper is part of an ongoing discussion on minority rights and the use of the term "indigenous", and includes a brief summary of Adam Kuper's critique of the indigenous rights movement.