|
|
|
Book Review
| American Pentimento: The Invention of Indians and the Pursuit of Riches. By PATRICIA SEED. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. 299 pp. $29.95 (cloth).
|
|
Throughout the contemporary world native and aboriginal peoples face disputes regarding their human rights, political participation, and claims to their ancestral economic resources. Their excluded situation is a consequence of the historical globalization that began in the fifteenth century. Since then, colonialism and neocolonialism emerged in the global system. Natives and aboriginals were subjected to the worst side of the globalization process. We still can witness the legacy of such a development in the form of pentimento leftovers. The cultural differences and traditions of European colonialism are still deterrents to contemporary native ownership rights. Patricia Seed attempts a global view of how European colonialism affected the legal and cultural heritage of native and aboriginal peoples. |
1
|
|
Seed's theoretical formulation is based on a comparison of Anglo-Saxon and Iberian views of land and labor. There is even an implicit appeal for an intercultural dialogue. While the British emphasized the utilization of land, the Iberians concentrated on the use of native labor. How those processes and definitions affected the relationship between colonizers and colonized is thoroughly explained. The author makes convincing arguments about how the different legal systems imposed by the European colonial powers are now relevant to the legal technicalities of native struggles for human rights and resources. The question of individual and communal ownership of resources affects native negotiations with multinational corporations and national states in the first and third worlds. Moreover, the United Nations asserted that national instead of international policies defined the status of sovereignty over natural resources during the 1970s. With the end of the Cold War and the expansion of neoliberal globalization, the struggle for native natural resources is an issue that will continue to have relevancy. |
. . . |
There are about 692 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
