Synopses & Reviews
Since the 1960s, the Native peoples of northeastern Canada, both Inuit and Innu, have experienced epidemics of substance abuse, domestic violence, and youth suicide. Seeking to understand these transformations in the capacities of Native communities to resist cultural, economic, and political domination, Gerald M. Sider offers an ethnographic analysis of aboriginal Canadiansand#39; changing experiences of historical violence. He relates acts of communal self-destruction to colonial and postcolonial policies and practices, as well as to the end of the fur and sealskin trades. Autonomy and dignity within Native communities have eroded as individuals have been deprived of their livelihoods and treated by the state and corporations as if they were disposable. Yet Native peoplesand#39; possession of valuable resources provides them with some income and power to negotiate with state and business interests. Siderand#39;s assessment of the health of Native communities in the Canadian province of Labrador is filled with potentially useful findings for Native peoples there and elsewhere. While harrowing, his account also suggests hope, which he finds in the expressiveness and power of Native peoples to struggle for a better tomorrow within and against domination.
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Review
andquot;In this provocative and insightful book, Gerald M. Sider addresses the complex issue of epidemic self-destruction among Canadaand#39;s Innu and Inuit communities. Combining careful, innovative research and socially engaged ethnography, Skin for Skin is a valuable contribution to the field of indigenous anthropology. Writing in an accessible narrative style, Sider utilizes a holistic approach to understanding the historical violence experienced by indigenous peoples and its consequences, while also creating spaces for hope to be nourished.andquot;
Review
andquot;Skin for Skin is a remarkable work. Gerald M. Sider challenges both anthropological and more general understandings of what and#39;cultureand#39; is. In this deeply respectful engagement with the Innu and Inuit of Labrador, Sider turns their perpetual oppression into a devastating critique of the Canadian state. At the same time, he makes an exemplary contribution by identifying potential opportunities for better lives for the increasing number of people designated the residuum of our ravaging world.andquot;
Review
andldquo;Skin for Skin is a volume that everyone who interacts with the native communities and#160;in this province should read, including the Innu and Inuit themselves if possible. The voice is passionate, intense, and very personal, bordering on aggressively confrontational at times.andquot;
Review
andldquo;What makes the book truly compelling is twofold. The two final chapters acknowledge the authorand#39;s own evolution as an anthropologist and researcher who came to better understand how to witness and reflect indigenous peoplesand#39; capacities to resist cultural, economic, and political domination. Secondly, there is a complex, nuanced recognition of those Inuit and Innu who have struggled to create some kind of new and reestablished old order out of the chaos that comes with imposed colonial and neocolonial order. Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries.andrdquo;and#160;
Review
andldquo;I welcome Siderandrsquo;s scrutiny of megadevelopment projects, key sites where the neocolonial interests of state and capital continue to divest indigenous peoples of equitable economic revenues within their own territories. His attention to the forms of indigenous andlsquo;semisovereigntyandrsquo; (170) emerging in the wake of asymmetrical land claims agreements is also urgent and necessary.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The first half of Siderandrsquo;s text is a rough but important read. The reader is given a thorough journey through a colonial history badly in need of deconstruction. Sider delivers.andquot;
About the Author
Gerald M. Sider is Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. His books include Between History and Tomorrow: Making and Breaking Everyday Life in Rural Newfoundland and Living Indian Histories: Lumbee and Tuscarora People in North Carolina, both in second editions.
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Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Historical Violence
2. Owning Death and Life: Making andquot;Indiansandquot; and andquot;Eskimosandquot; from Native Peoples
3. Living within and against Tradition, 1800and#8211;1920
4. The Peoples without a Country
5. Mapping Dignity
6. Life in a Concentration Village
7. Today May Become Tomorrow
8. Warriors of Wisdom
Notes
References
Index