Gender and Rights

233 Pages·2020·1.898 MB·English

by  G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis

GENDER AND RIGHTS
Part of the series Key Concepts in Indigenous Studies, this book focuses on the
concepts that recur in any discussion of nature, culture and society among the
indigenous.
This book, the second in a five-v olume series, deals with the two key concepts
of gender and rights of indigenous peoples from all continents of the world. With
contributions from renowned scholars, activists and experts across the globe, it
looks at issues of indigenous human rights, gender justice, repression, resistance,
resurgence and government policies in Canada, Latin America, North America,
Australia, India, Brazil, Southeast Asia and Africa.
Bringing together academic insights and experiences from the ground, this
unique book with its wide coverage will serve as a comprehensive guide for
students, teachers and scholars of indigenous studies. It will be essential reading
for those in gender studies, human rights and law, social and cultural anthropology,
tribal studies, sociology and social exclusion studies, religion and theology, cultural
studies, literary and postcolonial studies, Third World and Global South studies, as
well as activists working with Indigenous communities.
G. N. Devy is Honorary Professor, Centre for Multidisciplinary Development
Research, Dharwad, India, and Chairman, People’s Linguistic Survey of India. An
award- winning writer and cultural activist, he is known for his 50- volume language
survey. He is Founder and the first Director of the Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh in
Gujarat, India, and was formerly Professor of English at M. S. University of Baroda.
He is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, Linguapax Prize, Prince Claus
Award and Padma Shri. With several books in English, Marathi and Gujarati, he
has co-e dited (with Geoffrey V. Davis and K. K. Chakravarty) Narrating Nomadism:
Tales of Recovery and Resistance (2012); Knowing Differently: The Challenge of the
Indigenous (2013); Performing Identities: Celebrating Indigeneity in the Arts (2014); and
The Language Loss of the Indigenous (2016), published by Routledge.
Geoffrey V. Davis was Professor of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures at
the University of Aachen, Germany. He was international chair of the Association
for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS) and chair of the
European branch (EACLALS). He coedited Cross/Cultures: Readings in the Post/
Colonial Literatures and Cultures in English and the African studies series Matatu. His
publications include Staging New Britain: Aspects of Black and South Asian British
Theatre Practice (2006) and African Literatures, Postcolonial Literatures in English: Sources
and Resources (2013).

Key Concepts in Indigenous Studies
Series Editors: G. N. Devy
Honorary Professor, Centre for Multidisciplinary Development Research,
Dharwad, India, and Chairman, People’s Linguistic Survey of India
Geoffrey V. Davis
Former Professor of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures,
University of Aachen, Germany
This series of volumes offers the most systematic and foundational literature
available to date for use by undergraduate and postgraduate students of indigenous
studies. It brings together essays by experts from across the globe on concepts
forming the bedrock of this rapidly growing field in five focused volumes:
Environment and Belief Systems (Vol. 1); Gender and Rights (Vol. 2); Indigeneity and
Nation (Vol. 3); Orality and Language (Vol. 4); and Performance and Knowledge (Vol. 5).
These contain short, informative and easily accessible essays on the perspectives of
indigenous communities from all continents of the world. The essays are written
specifically for an international audience. They thus allow drawing of transnational
and cross-cultural parallels, and form useful material as textbooks as well as texts for
general readership. Introducing a new orientation to traditional anthropology with
comprehensive and in-depth studies, the volumes foreground knowledge traditions
and praxis of indigenous communities.
Environment and Belief Systems
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
Gender and Rights
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
Indigeneity and Nation
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
Orality and Language
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
Performance and Knowledge
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Key-Concepts-in-Indigenous-Studies/book-series/KCIS
GENDER AND RIGHTS
Edited by G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of G. N. Devy and Geoffrey V. Davis to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0 -3 67-2 4521- 4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0 -3 67-2 6322- 5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0 -3 67-2 6216- 7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
List of contributors ix
Preface x
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
G. N. Devy
1 Writing and re- writing indigenous human rights in the
African laboratory 9
Michela Borzaga
2 Indigenous rights in Latin America: repression, resistance,
resurgence 41
Rebecca K. Root
3 Gender justice and indigenous women in Latin America 60
Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo
Translated by Rodrigo Alvarez Hernández
4 Gender in North America 77
Priscilla Settee
5 Indigenous human rights in Canada 91
Michael Keefer
viii Contents
6 Constitutional geographies and cartographies of impunity:
human rights and adivasis/tribes in contemporary India 137
Kalpana Kannabiran
7 Empowerment: Gaddi women of Himachal Pradesh, India 158
Molly Kaushal
8 Gender in Australian indigenous literature and Maori and
Pacific Island literatures 177
Anne Brewster and Chris Prentice
Index 210
CONTRIBUTORS
Michela Borzaga is Lecturer, English Department, University of Vienna, Austria.
Anne Brewster is Associate Professor, School of the Arts and Media, University of
New South Wales, Australia.
Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo is Senior Professor at the Center for Advanced
Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), Mexico City.
Kalpana Kannabiran is Professor of Sociology and Director, Council for Social
Development, Hyderabad, India, a research institute supported by the Indian
Council for Social Science Research. She has taught sociology and law at NAL-
SAR University of Law and is co- founder of Asmita Resource Centre for Women.
Molly Kaushal is Professor at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New
Delhi, India.
Michael Keefer is Professor Emeritus, School of English and Theatre Studies, Uni-
versity of Guelph, Canada.
Chris Prentice is Associate Professor, Department of English and Linguistics, Uni-
versity of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Rebecca K. Root is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Stud-
ies, and Director of the College Honors Program and the minor in Human Rights
and Genocide Studies, Ramapo College of New Jersey, USA.
Priscilla Settee is Associate Professor, Department of Native Studies, University of
Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.