Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

David Maybury-Lewis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0205337465 | ISBN-13: 978-0205337460 | Publication Date: October 28, 2001 | Edition: 2

Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State provides a concise introduction to the process of modernization and its effect on tribalism and ethnic parochialism. Part of the Cultural Survival Studies in Ethnicity and Change series, this text focuses on key issues affecting indigenous and ethnic groups worldwide. Ethnic conflicts proliferate throughout the world as indigenous peoples are becoming increasingly vocal in demanding their rights, including the right to be different. Readers are invited to reexamine their ideas about the state, the role of ethnicity in it, and the peculiar situation of indigenous peoples, who are ethnic minorities alien to the states in which they live.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

It concentrates on a concise, well-researched issue pertaining to a particular ethnic group, and is written by a recognized scholar in the field. It is small, roughly 100 pages, and inexpensive, thus making it an ideal quick read. Its lively and readable writing style helps the reader to identify with members of a different culture, expanding his or her grasp of the experiences and problems encountered by this group. This book is part of the brand new Cultural Survival Studies in Ethnicity an d Change Series edited by David Maybury-Lewis and Theodore Macdonald. Sharply focused on key issues affecting indigenous and ethnic groups worldwide, this series of ethnographies, authored by leading figures in the field of anthropology, builds on introductory material by going further in-depth and allowing readers to explore, virtually first-hand, a particular issue and its impact on a culture. Anthropologists, Sociologists, and Well-Read Laymen. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon; 2 edition (October 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0205337465
• ISBN-13: 978-0205337460
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars infromative read, January 26, 2008

By 

S. Clay (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

The book is clear and concise. It always scholars and just plain readers to access the subject through compelling arguments and infromation.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Biased, August 20, 2010

By 

Danube - See all my reviews

This review is from: Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This book is the most biased book I've ever read. Why do I think this book is biased?

1) The opening-
In a book discussing the indigenous populations from all over the world surely he can come up with a wise introduction. This is his opening remark, "Wherever the European has trod, death seems to pursue the aboriginal". This quote he picked to introduce the reader to Indigenous Cultures around the world is flat out racist because it overgeneralizes such a diverse group. What about the missionaries who came to dedicate their lives to helping the indigenous. What about the Pilgrims who came in peace. What about the whites who intermarried with the Native Americans?

2) He neglects to focus on the core issues-
The main cause of death to indigenous populations in the Americas was disease but in the opening chapter he vaguely mentions it in half of a sentence and concludes that ONLY sentence with a remark on their "dislocation" by Europeans.

3) He neglects to think that maybe some Indians deserved to be moved-
Why would Europeans drive the Indians west? Surely this author will give an unbiased account right? Wrong, for instance, in my own family tree I have traced entire families that were slaughtered- men, women, children and even babies- by the Native Americans. Those are the types of Indians who the US government (and not all whites like the opening quote would have you believe) sought to drive west. Certain Native American tribes that didn't raid white settlements were allowed to live in peace and even intermarried with the whites but the author doesn't even mention this. I also have those Native Americans in my family tree.

When you have bands of Indians raiding your towns and committing genocide by scalping every human life form that has white skin what do you expect the US government to do? They had no idea exactly which men were in the bands that raided villages and if they did nothing it would happen again. So they simply said- "all indians out". This is what should be discussed in the book, that the US Government should have just put the killers into prison or stopped Indian raiding rather than relocating an entire tribe. But then again that would have been an immense task because of the widely dispersed white settlers. But again he has no mention about this side of the story and only says "American Indians were demolished". Again his oversimplification doesn't tell the whole story and his account glosses over the relocation events triggered by some of the Native American killing the whites. In history, Complex situations such as this should never be glossed over.

4) Biased Statistics
on page 8 he lists "World Indigenous Population by Region" and gives populations of indigenous groups.

-Mexico and Central America - While whites comprise only 10% of the population of Mexico, the mestizos are heavily genetically influenced by Native Americanos. So how many indigenous does the author list in Central America and Mexico? 12,713,000. Clearly he views people who are overwhelmingly genetically Native American as not Indigenous. So he must use linguistics as a measure of indigenous. And why does this matter you might ask, because he neglects to give data on Europe. He gives data for every continent except Europe! Why does he do this? Because if he were to use this exact same method that he uses to calculate the indigenous of the world on Europe the percentages would be 0% for many countries. For example, England was raided by vikings in the middle part of the first millennium and over time the native Celtic cultures were crushed and had to adopt English- a Germanic language- rather than their indigenous Celtic language. So England today has very close to 0% indigenous population according to David Maybury-Lewis' method of calculations but he will not tell you that in his book because it doesn't fit his view.

-China- This is absolutely ridiculous. The book lists the Indigenous population of China as only 91,000,000. I guess Han Chinese, a group that comprises 20% of the worlds population, are not indigenous to China according to the author. He should go and tell Hu Jintao that he is not indigenous to China. If the Han are not indigenous to China then where do they come from?

I can go on and on just on this one chart.
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At this point I am having difficulty reading more into the book. Had he simply left out his biased opinions, left out the racist quotes, left out the wildly fluffed data and instead gave the actual events from both sides to simply let the reader come to his own conclusion- this book might have been decent.

You have no idea how sick I feel that this garbage is taught to kids.

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars clear, informative, important work., February 24, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State (Paperback)

Maybury-Lewis's newest work is incredibly clear and informative and offers non-anthroplogist and scholars alike a perceptive and important work