Science, Colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples: The Cultural Politics of Law and Knowledge

by Laurelyn Whitt

• ISBN13: 9780521119535
• ISBN10: 0521119537
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-08-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

At the intersection of indigenous studies, science studies, and legal studies lies a tense web of political issues of vital concern for the survival of indigenous nations. Numerous historians of science have documented the vital role of late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century science as a part of statecraft, a means of extending empire. This book follows imperialism into the present, demonstrating how pursuit of knowledge of the natural world impacts, and is impacted by, indigenous peoples rather than nation-states. In extractive biocolonialism, the valued genetic resources, and associated agricultural and medicinal knowledge, of indigenous peoples are sought, legally converted into private intellectual property, transformed into commodities, and then placed for sale in genetic marketplaces. Science, Colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples critically examines these developments, demonstrating how contemporary relations between indigenous and Western knowledge systems continue to be shaped by the dynamics of power, the politics of property, and the apologetics of law.

Table of Contents

Biocolonialism as Imperial Science:

Imperialism then and now

Indigenous knowledge, power and responsibilities

Value-neutrality and value-bifurcation: the cultural politics of science

The Human Genome Diversity Project: A Case Study:

The rhetoric of research justification

Indigenist critiques of biocolonialism

Legitimation: The Rule and Role of Law:

The commodification of knowledge

Intellectual property rights as means and mechanism of imperialism

Transforming sovereignties

Conclusions: The politics of knowledge: resistance and recovery

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