Aboriginality, Identity and Belonging in South Africa and Beyond

Brown, Duncan (2001). Aboriginality, Identity and Belonging in South Africa and Beyond. English in Africa, 28(1) pp. 67–90.

URL: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/ferguson-centre/staff-p...

Abstract

Amongst the most pressing, and apparently intractable, problems facing postcolonial societies are the rights of peoples known variously as aboriginal peoples, first peoples or first nations: rights to land, self-determination, natural resources, mineral deposits, the preservation of sacred sites or customs, and so on. While some claims for aboriginal rights have been successful, they are often considered - in contexts of modern democracy, global capitalism and advanced technology - to be at best atavistic, or at worst completely incommensurable with their context. In this article I wish to consider whether the nature of such claims, indeed the nature of the societies which make them, is so 'different' - so removed from the concerns of modernity and postmodernity - or whether there are not also important aspects of 'identity'. Such a consideration may shed light not only on 'their' claims and concerns, but also on 'our' society and its often hubristic assumptions.

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About

  • Item ORO ID
  • 7717
  • Item Type
  • Journal Item
  • ISSN
  • 0376-8902
  • Keywords
  • Literary studies; cultural studies; anthropology; law; ethnography; aboriginality.
  • Academic Unit or School
  • Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)
  • Depositing User
  • Duncan Brown
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)

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