Victims of Progress
By (author) John H. Bodley Washington State University
Publication date:
20 August 2014Length of book:
410 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
234x162mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781442226920
Victims of Progress, now in its sixth edition, offers a compelling account of how technology and development affect indigenous peoples throughout the world. Bodley’s expansive look at the struggle between small-scale indigenous societies, and the colonists and corporate developers who have infringed their territories reaches from 1800 into today. He examines major issues of intervention such as social engineering, economic development, self-determination, health and disease, global warming, and ecocide. Small-scale societies, Bodley convincingly demonstrates, have survived by organizing politically to defend their basic human rights.
Providing a provocative context in which to think about civilization and its costs—shedding light on how we are all victims of progress—the sixth edition features expanded discussion of “uprising politics,” Tebtebba (a particularly active indigenous organization), and voluntary isolation. A wholly new chapter devotes full coverage to the costs of global warming to indigenous peoples in the Pacific and the Arctic. Finally, new appendixes guide readers to recent protest petitions as well as online resources and videos.
Providing a provocative context in which to think about civilization and its costs—shedding light on how we are all victims of progress—the sixth edition features expanded discussion of “uprising politics,” Tebtebba (a particularly active indigenous organization), and voluntary isolation. A wholly new chapter devotes full coverage to the costs of global warming to indigenous peoples in the Pacific and the Arctic. Finally, new appendixes guide readers to recent protest petitions as well as online resources and videos.
In this latest edition Bodley surveys the conditions of indigenous peoples in a wide range of places and times. As in earlier editions, in the first two-thirds of the book, the author reviews the conflicts at contact between Native peoples and colonizing Europeans and Americans. The theme is twofold: constantly changing boundaries were unable to keep the two peoples apart and at peace, but the resilience of indigenous societies in the face of decimating disease, land loss, and deforestation saw them through to a time when their rights and interests could garner somewhat greater international concern. Thus, the most recent chapters follow the course of UN and International Labour Organization conventions, national treaties, and the effects of global climate change and commercial contact to give a fuller picture of the current state of indigenous interests and situations. Brief yet striking examples from a wide variety of groups result in a very useful overview with enough specifics to keep the analysis from becoming too generalized. Useful for anthropology and public policy collections and courses, particularly when supplemented with more-detailed accounts and visual aids. Summing Up: Recommended. General university and high school libraries.