This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Gagné, N. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The political dimensions of coexistence

University of Ottawa, Canada, natacha.gagne{at}uottawa.ca

This article was written partly in response to the denunciation by social scientists, in recent years, of the essentialism of indigenous elites. It looks at the multiple and dialogically interconnected factors that have contributed to the present-day essentialist tendencies among indigenous peoples and particularly among indigenous leaders, taking the Maaori of New Zealand as a case study. The article shows that the `problems' as well as the solutions relating to coexistence between Maaori and non-Maaori in New Zealand are mainly political, a fact that is often underestimated or minimized by social scientists and which seems relevant in rethinking many other cases of coexistence within nation-states around the world. The discussion is in part based on an article by Elizabeth Rata titled `Rethinking Biculturalism' (2005), in which she examines the shifting meanings of biculturalism in New Zealand that have implied an ethnicization and essentialization of Maaori identity and politics.

Key Words: biculturalism • colonial heritage • essentialism • identity politics • indigenous • Maaori • New Zealand • political arrangement • state • symbolic competition

Anthropological Theory, Vol. 9, No. 1, 33-58 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1463499609103546


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?