Indigenous Struggles and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie1

Abstract

The position taken in this paper is that the world capitalist system has certain Kafkaesque qualities that are dangerous for all social movements, including indigenous movements. It begins with an analysis of the ‘indigenous’ as a structure of modern national cosmologies as opposed to the real peoples classified into this category. It suggests that the relation between the global system and the construction of this cosmology can account for a great deal of what is happening in the current period of Fourth World struggles. In one sense it appears as if a real liberation from the system is under way for certain of these peoples, and the ideology of the struggle is one of exit, autonomy and self‐sufficiency. But liberation from one form of oppression can lead to another integrative process and new forms of class differentiation. Struggles for autonomy may lead to tribal capitalism or dependent class structures for reasons that are not at all obvious, not least to those engaged in the struggle themselves, and they may very well bring better conditions of existence to all involved. In a certain sense, Fourth World movements are an important aspect of the current transformation of the world system and not merely a reaction to it. The changing distribution of motivations that occur in the histories of such movements is the tricky problem, the lure of success and wealth and the fear of failure and marginalisation are motives that are built into the cultural structures of the system as it unfolds historically.

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