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Native Americans and Colonialism in the Longue Durée: Dancing with Incorporation

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Shifting Forms of Continental Colonialism

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Abstract

The chapter describes a genealogy of Marxist approaches to continental colonialism in North America. Colonialism is understood in political-economic terms as long-term, ongoing process of the incorporation of indigenous societies into the capitalist market. Such incorporation happened not only through the enforcement of colonial economic structures from the outside but also through the internal conscious adoption of a capitalist model of economic development by indigenous elites. This ‘neo-tribal-capitalist’ strategy is sustained by a traditionalist discourse that builds upon the politicization of culture and identity. As recent resistance against major extractivist projects has shown, however, colonial exploitation is no longer accepted uncontested by a contemporary generation of indigenous activists increasingly aware of the colonialism-capitalism nexus.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The terms Indigenous and Native American are used interchangeably in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Philipps University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Ingo W. Schröder

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  1. Ingo W. Schröder
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Dittmar Schorkowitz

  2. Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA

    John R. Chávez

  3. Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Philipps University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Ingo W. Schröder

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Schröder, I.W. (2019). Native Americans and Colonialism in the Longue Durée: Dancing with Incorporation. In: Schorkowitz, D., Chávez, J.R., Schröder, I.W. (eds) Shifting Forms of Continental Colonialism. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9817-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9817-9_4

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