Indigenous Encounters With Neoliberalism ― Place, Women, and Environment in Canada and Mexico

Altamirano-Jimenez (political science & Native studies, U. of Alberta) examines the ways indigeneity, gender, neoliberalism and property rights, and the environment intersect in both Canada and Mexico. The book is divided into two main sections. In the first Altamirano-Jimenez makes her overarching arguments on the political economy of indigeneity, the significance of 'articulation,' and conceptions of nature at stake. Then she presents four case studies of indigenous organizing among Inuits in the Arctic, the Nisga of the Massa Valley in British Columbia, the Zapatistas, and the Zapotec of Oaxaca. Rather than compare indigenous resistance to neoliberalism in the regions, she argues that indigeneity is a combination of local agency and global articulation, that "indigenous understandings of place are grounded in specific locations that are heterogenous," and that these differences must figure into our understanding of how they effectively resist neoliberalism. She concludes with thoughts on indigenous repossession of place and four paradoxes that arise from her studies: global/state articulations of indigeneity unevenly empower indigenous people, not all landscape is equal, indigenous nationalism can entrench gender discrimination and create new divisions, and struggles for rights increase state power. Distributed in the US by U. of Washington Press and by U. of Toronto Press in Canada. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Isabel Altamirano-Jimenez (Zapotec) is anassociate professor in the Department of Political Science and in theFaculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.