Indigenous Diasporas and Dislocations

Indigenous religions are now present not only in their places of origin but globally. They are significant parts of the pluralism and diversity of the contemporary world, especially when their performance enriches and/or challenges host populations. Indigenous Diasporas and Dislocations engages with examples of communities with different experiences, expectations and evaluations of diaspora life. It contributes significantly to debates about indigenous cultures and religions, and to understandings of identity and alterity in late or post-modernity. This book promises to enrich understanding of indigenity, and of the globalized world in which indigenous people play diverse roles.

Contents: Introduction. Part 1 (Re)forming identities and connections: Native thoughts: a Pacific studies take on cultural studies and diaspora, Teresia K. Teaiwa; Migrating bodies, circulating signs: Brazilian Candomblé, the Garifuna of the Caribbean and the category of indigenous religions, Paul C. Johnson; Mobile identity: the Mapuche of Santiago, Chile, Andrea Avaría Saavedra. Part 2 Maintenance and performance of identities: The Jacalteco Maya: natives of bleeding land, Charles D. Thompson Jr; 'Diaspora' and the Wabanaki relationship with land, Kenneth Mello; The Orishas: the influence of the Yoruba cultural diaspora, Olu Taiwo; Performing identity and entertaining guests in the Maori diaspora, Graham Harvey. Part 3 Contesting Disappearance: Six nations of the Haudenosaunee: continuity and disfranchisement, Phillip P. Arnold; Finding wisdom in places: Lumbee family history, Malinda Maynor; Our sea of phosphate: the diaspora of Ocean Island, Katerina Martina Teaiwa. Index.

Dr Graham Harvey is Lecturer in Religious Studies in the Arts Faculty, Open University, UK. Charles D. Thompson Jr is Curriculum and Education Director at the Center for Documentary Studies and is Adjunct Professor of Religion and Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, USA.