Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Globalization

Best-selling author and cultural critic Jerry Mander has challenged dominant cultural mind-sets in books such as Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television and In the Absence of the Sacred. In Paradigm Wars, he and coeditor Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a leader of the global indigenous peoples movement and chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, have gathered an impressive international roster of contributors to document the momentous collision of worldviews that pits the forces of economic globalization against the Earth's surviving indigenous peoples.

Many of the planet's dwindling resources are located on lands inhabited by native communities. Those resources are now the direct target of giant global corporations who desperately need them to fuel their own unsustainable growth. The World Trade Organization and other global structures of trade and finance have written the rules of trade to make life easier for these corporate resource-hunters — accelerating the loss of native lands, autonomy, and rights and creating millions of refugees.

Paradigm Wars is the first major work to comprehensively illuminate this shameful scenario. In firsthand reports by twenty-five indigenous and nonindigenous writers, the book details the devastating impacts of extractive industries and bioprospecting, the degrading of cultural artifacts and languages, even the damage done by some well-meaning conservation groups. The book also highlights how indigenous communities are strongly resisting this onslaught, often with amazing success. Anyone concerned with environmental or social justice will find inspiration in their resistance.

Jerry Mander founded the International Forum on Globalization in 1994. He is a senior fellow at the Public Media Center and has authored or coedited four books.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is an Igorot indigenous activist in the Philippines, director of Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples' International Centre for Policy Research and Education), and co-president of the International Forum on Globalization.

Acknowledgements

Part?One. CULTURE?CLASH

1. Introduction:?Globalization?and?the?Assault?on?Indigenous?Resources

2. Our?Right?to?Remain?Separate?and?Distinct

3. Aspects?of?Traditional?Knowledge?and?Worldview

4.?Community:?"Sharing?One?Skin"

5.?Amautawasi?Quechuan?University?

Part?Two.?GLOBALIZATION:?RULES?OF?THE?GAME

6.?World?Bank?and?IMF?Impacts?on?Indigenous?Economies 7.?How?the?World?Trade?Organization?Diminishes?Native?Sovereignty

8.?HighTech?Invasion: Biocolonialism

9. TRIPs?Agreement:?From?the?Commons?to Corporate?Patents?on?Life

Part?Three.?DIVERSE?IMPACTS?ON?INDIGENOUS?PEOPLES

10.?Infrastructure?Development?in?South?American?Amazon

11.?Climate?Change?in?the?Arctic

12.?ABombs?to?Star?Wars--The?Fifty?Years?War?on?Marshall?Islanders 13.?Global?Water?Wars

14. Sacred?Objects,?Art?and?Nature?in?a?Global?Economy

15.?Conservation?Refugees

16.?Mixed?Promises?of?Ecotourism

17.?The?Fall?and?Rise?of?a?Native?Language

18.?Genetic?Pollution?of?Mayan?Corn

Part?Four.?FOCUS?ON?EXTRACTIVE?INDUSTRIES

19. Ogoni?People?of?Nigeria?Versus?Big?Oil

20. The?Philippine?Mining?Act?of?1995

21. Briefing?Reports

Part?Five.?TURNING?POINTS

22. Report?from?"The?Heart?of?the?Earth"

23.?Bolivia's?Indigenous?Revolution

24.?Indian?Country:?"The?Saudi?Arabia?of?Wind"

25.?Indigenous?Brief?to?WTO:?How?the?Denial?of?Aboriginal Title?Serves?as?an?Illegal?Export?Subsidy

26. The?Prospect?Ahead

27.?Epilogue:?Summary?and?Final?Comments

Appendix