Indigenous Communalism is a study of community building in Native communities, and considers what models might be drawn from the strategies of Indigenous groups for post-colonial communalism and native self-determination in contemporary global society. Drawing on her ethnographic work among the Akimel O'odham and the Wiradjuri, Carolyn Smith-Morris shows how communal work and culture help these communities form distinctive indigenous bonds.
Carolyn Smith-Morris is an associate professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She is the author of Diabetes among the Pima, editor of Diagnostic Controversy: Cultural Perspectives on Competing Knowledge in Healthcare, and co-editor of Chronic Conditions, Fluid States: Chronicity and the Anthropology of Illness.
Preface
Positioning
Acknowledgements
Introduction
To Begin, What is Communalism?
Politics of Indigeneity - What is Indigenous?
or
Terms, Frames, and Representations
Why is Communalism Missing
The Dangers of Communalism
Communalism and Health
Community with the Name 'Gila River'
Committing to Communal Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Outline of the Book
Chapter 1 - Belonging
Introductions
Relationships and Being Present
Building Consensus
An Introduction to Communalism
The Dangers of Communalism
The Touchstones of Belonging
Conclusion - More than Membership
Chapter 2 - Generation
Individuals in a Communal Context
Western Individualism
Pima Individualism(s)
Generating Community Out of Individuals
Chapter 3 - Representation
Authority and Representation
Representing Communal Knowledge
Representation & Race - Communal Genetics
Representing Indigenous Diversity
Chapter 4 - Hybridity
Hybridity and Human Community
Extremes of Communalism
Individual/Communal Conflict at Gila River
Theories of Hybridity and Divisibility
The Communal Individual
Protecting the Communal Individual
Chapter 5 - Asserting Communalism
Case 1 - Communalism in Research
Case 2 - Communalism and the Body
Case 3 - Communalism in Healing
Fostering Communalism
Chapter 6 - Indigenous Communalism - Global Implications
Is There a Global Indigenous Communalism?
Place
Global Indigenous Communalism
Foundations in Place
Communalism and Rights
Conclusion - Representing Communalism
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index