search : contact us : about us : site guide : home

  University of British Columbia Press
 Search Our Catalogue
  search by subject

 UBC Press
About UBC Press
Acknowledgements
Conferences & Events
Contact Us
Media Centre
Publishing With UBC Press
Publishers Represented
Staff Directory

 Books
Awards
Catalogues
Forthcoming Titles
How To Order
Recent Reviews
Review Copies
Series

 Join Our Mailing List
Sign Up
Privacy Statement

 ubcpress.ca
About ubcpress.ca
Frequent Questions
Privacy Statement
Site Guide
Website Feedback

 Featured Title
.
Hunters and Bureaucrats
Power, Knowledge, and Aboriginal-State Relations in the Southwest Yukon
Paul Nadasdy  

$97.00 Hardcover
Release Date: 10/15/2003
ISBN: 9780774809832    


$36.95 Paperback
Release Date: 7/1/2004
ISBN: 9780774809849    


328 Pages





OTHER WAYS TO ORDER

About the Book

• Winner, 2004 Julian Steward Book Prize, American Anthropological Association

Based on three years of ethnographic research in the Yukon , this book examines contemporary efforts to restructure the relationship between aboriginal peoples and the state in Canada. Although it is widely held that land claims and co-management --two of the most visible and celebrated elements of this restructuring -- will help reverse centuries of inequity, this book challenges this conventional wisdom, arguing that land claims and co-management may be less empowering for First Nation peoples than is often supposed. The book examines the complex relationship between the people of Kluane First Nation, the land and animals, and the state. It shows that Kluane human-animal relations are at least partially incompatible with Euro-Canadian notions of "property" and "knowledge." Yet, these concepts form the conceptual basis for land claims and co-management, respectively. As a result, these processes necessarily end up taking for granted -- and so helping to reproduce -- existing power relations. First Nation peoples' participation in land claim negotiations and co-management have forced them -- at least in some contexts -- to adopt Euro-Canadian perspectives toward the land and animals. They have been forced to develop bureaucratic infrastructures for interfacing with the state, and they have had to become bureaucrats themselves, learning to speak and act in uncharacteristic ways. Thus, land claims and co-management have helped undermine the very way of life they are supposed to be protecting.

This book speaks to critical issues in contemporary anthropology, First Nation law, and resource management. It moves beyond conventional models of colonialism, in which the state is treated as a monolithic entity, and instead explores how "state power" is reproduced through everyday bureaucratic practices -- including struggles over the production and use of knowledge. The book will be of interest to anthropologists and others studying the nature of aboriginal-state relations in Canada and elsewhere, as well as those interested in developing an "ethnography of the state."


About the Author(s)

Paul Nadasdy is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.


Table of Contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Aboriginal-State Relations in Kluane Country: An Overview
2. "It’s Not Really ‘Knowledge' at All, It’s More a Way of Life"
3. The Politics of TEK: Power and the Integration of Knowledge
4. Counting Sheep: The Ruby Range Sheep Steering Committee and the Construction of Knowledge
5. Knowledge-Integration in Practice: The Case of the Ruby Range Sheep Steering Committee
6. "Just Like Whitemen": Property and Land Claims in Kluane Country

Conclusion
Notes
References
Index


Reviews

"The book is well written and carefully argued. Nadasdy draws effectively on the seminal ethnography and ethnological work of the Penn Boasians: Frank Speck, A.I. Hallowell, and their many informal students, and his own ethnographic observations are revealing and apt."

­David Dinwoodie, University of New Mexico, Western Historical Quarterly, Summer 2005

"At first blush, it seems a very long reach from the aboriginal hunting camps of the Kluane in Canada’s Yukon wilderness to the poststructuralist environs of modern French philosophy. Yet careful reading of Paul Nadasdy’s prodigal new work of contemporary ethnography reveals that geographically, culturally, and philosophically the distance involved is much less than might be expected. "

– William Hipwell, Department of Geography, Kyungpook National University, South Korea, Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy, Spring 2005


Sample Chapter

Introduction


Related Topics

Political Science > Canada
Political Science
Aboriginal Studies
Native Studies > Canada


Other Ways To Order

In Canada, order your copy of Hunters and Bureaucrats from UTP Distribution at:

UTP Distribution
5201 Dufferin Street
Toronto, Ontario
M3H 5T8

Phone orders: 1(800)565-9523 or (416)667-7791
Fax orders: 1(800)221-9985 or (416)667-7832
Email: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca

Ordering information for customers outside Canada


© 2001 UBC Press
2029 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 1Z2
t. 604.822.5959 | f. 604.822.6083 | e. frontdesk@ubcpress.ca