Page 152 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

indigenous peoples movements 971

(movements in which people wanted to go back to an politics. Most important in this respect was the Caste
idealized past) because of the potential broadness of the War of the Yucatán (1848–1902), which pitted the Maya
definition of indigenous movements.We therefore should against the local white elites, who were divided among
restrict the definition to apply after the advent of the conservative, liberal, and autonomist views of how to
nation-state, when presumably one linguistic or ethnic constitute the Mexican state.
group dominated and a new sensibility of the national Only one exception exists: the Maori in New Zealand,
citizen evolved regardless of race, ethnic background, or where a national indigenous peoples movement emerged
religion. Indigenous peoples in this context are those before the change from British colony to nation. This
people who see themselves as Aboriginal peoples who exception shows that when elites were willing to permit
do not accept the cultural, linguistic, or religious con- indigenous organization in national politics, indigenous
formity that the nation-state presumes of its citizens. In groups generally remained part of the formal process. In
many cases these peoples’ territory spans more than one 1840 a British representative and many Maori chiefs signed
modern state. In this sense Aboriginal peoples as diverse the Waitangi Treaty,which gave full citizenship rights to the
as the Uyghur of western China, the Maya of Mesoamer- latter but also required them to sell land to the British.
ica (the region of southern North America that during Much of the Maori land was alienated from the natives,and
pre-Columbian times was occupied by peoples with in the 1860s rebellions broke out in the colony. However,
shared cultural features), the San of southern Africa, and the Maori were able to participate in formal politics and
the Inuit of North America are typical. Of course, some formed the Young Maori Party during the early twentieth
peoples who are confined to just one nation-state, such century.They won the 1935 elections in alliance with the
as the Aborigines of Australia and the Maori of New Labour Party,marking the beginning of a successful process
Zealand, have important indigenous movements. in asserting territorial claims and cultural rights.Elsewhere,
during the 1920s members of the Mapuche people were
Periodization elected to Congress in Chile, although after that the politi-
If one accepts that true indigenous peoples movements cal power of the Mapuche waned until the 1970s.
did not exist until the formation of the nation-state, then During much of the nineteenth and early twentieth
the periodization of these movements becomes clearer. centuries, indigenous peoples under domination of Euro-
Indigenous peoples movements existed since the forma- peans or descendants of Europeans (in the Americas,
tion of nation-states, from the eighteenth century onward, Australia, and Africa) generally lost whatever rights they
although most movements expressed their demands may have possessed. Under the conceptions of social
mainly through violence because of their members’ sub- Darwinism, which posits that Europeans are the superior
ordination and inability to have a voice in the national race and that other groups, especially conquered native
political arena. This situation continued patterns from peoples, are inferior, indigenous peoples were seen as
the earlier period, during which many independent states incapable of equal participation in the political arena. By
were still colonies.Thus, the leader of the Túpac Amaru the 1920s some elite groups in Latin America challenged
rebellion (1780–1784) in the central Andes Mountains those conceptions by advocating indigenismo (indigen-
of South America, for example, posited the return of the ism). That paternalistic movement exalted the ancient,
Inca empire.An associated movement, by the Kataris far- and presumably wise, peoples such as the Aztecs, Mayas,
ther south, advocated the extermination of all Spaniards and Incas but looked down upon the contemporary natives
and their descendants. Later indigenous movements in as degenerate specimens of their race.
Peru and Bolivia during the nineteenth and early twenti- From the 1930s onward ethnicity and race took a back
eth centuries expressed themselves as rebellions because seat to class, and, as a result, indigenous peoples move-
indigenous people were barred as actors from formal ments—with some exceptions, such as in New Zealand