A survey of indigenous cultures around the world, from Inuit, Eskimo and
Saami in the northern hemisphere, to Mayan, Maori and Aboriginal Australians in
the southern.Jeff Sissons argues, controversially, that far from disappearing in the
face of global capitalism, indigenous cultures today are as diverse as they
ever were. Rather than being absorbed into a uniform modernity, indigenous
peoples are anticipating alternative futures and appropriating global resources
for their own, culturally specific needs. For Sissons, however, the traditional
and the modern are not mutually exclusive: indigenous cultures and
nation-states are aspects of the same contemporary condition, and their
apparently opposing position is an expression of the contradictory nature of
modernity in the 21st century.; Indigenous peoples often define themselves in terms of their struggle
against oppressive exterior forces. Their cultures are those of prior
occupation and are rooted in particular landscapes and histories. By contrast,
the; metropolitan cultures they struggle against often cling precariously to the
surfaces of their new land. But indigenous identities have not only arisen out
of such oppositions; they have also been forged through alliances between
indigenous peoples at international forums such as the World Council of
Indigenous Peoples and in other, less formal settings. The loose alliances
throughout the indigenous world constitute an alternative political order to
the global organization of states.; For Inuit, Eskimo and Saami in the northern hemisphere, for Mayan, Maori
and Aboriginal Australians in the southern, and for more than a hundred
distinct peoples in between, culture has become more than a heritage: it is a
project. The numerous cultural renaissances that occurred thoughout the
indigenous world in the second half of the 20th century were more than brief or
passing events. Instead, their momentum has continued into the new millennium,
while the c
