Social anthropology with indigenous peoples in Brazil, Canada and Australia: a comparative approach

Abstract

Starting from the notion of "styles of anthropology" used by Roberto Cardoso de Oliveira in his research in the 1990s, which examined "peripheral anthropologies" in countries where anthropology was implanted later, outside the central countries - USA, Great Britain and France - where it emerged and had consolidated as an academic discipline, this article looks at the styles of anthropology with indigenous peoples which have developed in Brazil, Canada and Australia, ex-colonies of European countries. With very different histories and cultures, the styles of anthropology within the context of these national States which expanded over indigenous territories are examined, and the ways in which these histories and contexts reflect on what is being done today in field research with indigenous peoples. Some of the tensions which emerge between working within an academic discipline that aims to be international and universal while the national contexts are local are examined.