Indigenous Peoples and Demography ― The Complex Relation Between Identitiy and Statistics

When researchers want to study indigenous populations they are dependent upon the highly variable way in which states or territories enumerate, categorise and differentiate indigenous people. In this volume, anthropologists, historians, demographers and sociologists have come together for the first time to examine the historical and contemporary construct of indigenous people in a number of fascinating geographical contexts around the world, including Canada, the United States, Colombia, Russia, Scandinavia, the Balkans and Australia. Using historical and demographical evidence, the contributors explore the creation and validity of categories for enumerating indigenous populations, the use and misuse of ethnic markers, micro-demographic investigations, and demographic databases, and thereby show how the situation varies substantially between countries.

Per Axelsson is a Senior Researcher of the Centre for Sami Research at Umeå University, Sweden and a Wallenberg Academy Fellow. His current research focus on a longitudinal study of colonization, state and the health of Indigenous Peoples in Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, 1850-2000. Recent publications include Global Environmental Change, Global Health Action and Dynamis. He co-chairs the network of Family/Demography within the European Social Science History Association.