Ethnic Territory Research Articles

ЭТНОГРАФИЯ УЛИЦЫ У ЧУВАШЕЙ БАШКОРТОСТАНА

The domesticated objects of the Chuvash people of Bashkortostan and adjacent territories, represented by settlements, housing and outbuildings, are an important component of traditional views about space. The example of these objects clearly demonstrates how the conditions that create a life support system interconnected with the natural geographic landscape, sociocultural and socio-economic state of the population are reproduced. A man demonstrates a personal (special) attitude towards settlements, houses and outbuildings. First of all, these are the traditions of the construction business that have formed over the centuries, as well as religious and ceremonial views projected onto domesticated objects and reflecting the ideological picture of the world. The article presents factual confirmations of the existence of stable connections between the Chuvash people living within the ethnic territory of settlement and the Chuvash people who moved to other regions. The transformation was expressed in the development and modernization of settlements, in the traditions of building of housing and outbuildings, as well as in the ethnography of the street. The village space was actively involved in the cycle of family rituals — in wedding, maternity and funeral and memorial activities. The street of the settlement served for communication and exchange of news, where inhabitants made decisions on holding ritual events or convocation of help. The crossroads of the street and the alley, as the central square of the settlement, was also often a place of gathering and communication. Innovations associated with new conditions of the natural geographical landscape, interethnic interactions, legislation and administrative regulation, collectively demonstrate the particularities of the studied region. The combination of the traditional and the new in ethnic culture presents a synthesis of historical memory and innovations.

Politics of Identity and Minority Quest for Self-Rule in Federal Ethiopia: The Case Study of Kabena People in South Central Ethiopia

The ethnic federal system was formally institutionalised in Ethiopia in 1991. This federal system has introduced instrumentalist conceptions of ethnic identity and renegotiation of identity, control of ‘ethnic territory’, and ethnic autonomy. Using the concept of ‘formal ethnicism’ as an analytical frame, the study has analysed identity politics and the minority quest for separate self-rule by taking Kabena People as a case study from the Gurage zone in the period from 1991 to 2022. Methodologically, the study used a qualitative approach and a case study research design. For data collation, both primary and secondary sources were used. This analytical model has been used to analyse how politicised ethnicity in the context of Kabena has led to the renegotiation of identity and a violent quest for separate ethnic autonomy. The study shows that after the formalisation of ethnicity as a leading political order, ethnic identities have been articulated to the extent of inter-group polarization between Gurage and Kabena due to new trends of subsuming a minority group under locally dominant groups without putting relevant institutional mechanism to prevent possible local level marginalization and domination. The findings further reveal that the subsumed status of Kabena has created a fragile and polarized inter-ethnic relation with the dominant Gurage which has been easily changed into inter-ethnic conflict. The key dynamics behind such conflict include competing interests, prolonged contestation, and protracted conflict for separate self-rule at the special woreda level and demand for the ownership of Wolkite town administration, which is the capital city of Gurage zone and located at the historic land of Kabena. The article concludes that the Kabena quest for self-rule took on an ethnic dimension within the context of ethnic politics and formalized ethnicity that hardened inter-group boundaries. Synchronizing the historic trajectory and inter-ethnic relationships with Gurage along with the contemporary scenario; the article tries to shed some light on the dynamics of identity politics, the quest for separate self-rule and control of Wolkite town in the context of Kabena vis-à-vis Gurage, focusing particularly on the post-1991 political order in Ethiopia and its local implications.

ГОРСКИЕ СЛОВЕСНЫЕ СУДЫ КУБАНСКОЙ И ТЕРСКОЙ ОБЛАСТЕЙ (1871–1918): ОСНОВНЫЕ НАПРАВЛЕНИЯ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ СРАВНИТЕЛЬНО-ИСТОРИЧЕСКОГО ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ

The article considers the main directions and prospects of comparative historical research of the activities of the mountain verbal courts of the Kuban and Tersk regions in 1871-1917. It is noted that the specifics of their activities were determined to a certain extent by the peculiarities of their territorial jurisdiction. In this regard, the extraterritorial principle of their activities is character-ized, when their territorial jurisdiction coincided with the ethnic territory of a particular people and sometimes went beyond the boundaries of the political and legal entity within which they were created and functioned. It has been established that the main directions of comparative his-torical research of their activities may be related to the study of the features of their territorial or-ganization and the identification of local features of functioning, analysis of the range of disputes and conflicts under consideration (murders, injuries, theft, property and inheritance disputes) and other issues they resolve (related to the establishment of guardianship and guardianship, religion) and etc. Attention is drawn to the interaction of the mountain verbal courts with government insti-tutions, institutions of self-government and people's justice (mediation/mediation courts). It is concluded that a comparative historical study of the activities of these institutions will signifi-cantly expand the understanding of them as an important mechanism for the incorporation of the indigenous peoples of the Kuban and Tersk regions into the political and legal space of Russia.

Ruczaj i *ręczaj w słownictwie i nazewnictwie polskim. Próba nowego spojrzenia z perspektywy słowiańskiej

Onomastic data entitle to believe that Old Polish inherited from Common Slavic two variants of a term for ‘(small) stream’, namely, *ręczaj < *rǫčajь and *ruczaj < *ručajь. Both seem attested only by proper names (15th–20th centuries), the former primarily by four toponyms in southern Mazovia (Ręczaje 3x and Zręczaje), while the latter left traces in the toponymy of Central Poland and of the southern part of Greater Poland. None of them has been confirmed lexically in the „native” Polish dialects of the 20th century. Starting from the 17th century, texts of some authors rooted in the North‑Eastern periphery of Middle Polish (Lithuania, Byelorussia) attest a term ruczåj -aju ‘stream’, which is to be regarded as a loan from Old Byelorussian. One is inclined to connect its subsequent penetration, as a poetical word, into the literary Polish (the late 19th century) with its multiple occurrences in key instances of poetry by Adam Mickiewicz, the most outstanding writer of the Polish Romanticism, whose roots lay precisely in the Byelorussian ethnic territory. In the historical Slavic languages we find reflexes of the related variants *rǫčajь, *ručajь, *ručьjь (and *rǫčьjь?) and probably *(ne)rǫčь (~ *(ne)ručь?), the latter presumably constituting a starting point for the former four. A reliable reconstruction of the primary form together with its true etymological cognates seems, however, very difficult, if not impossible at all.

Ethnic Genesis of Ukrainians in School Atlases of Ukrainian Studies and History in the Context of moscow's Genocidal War Against Ukraine

The article presents the results of the analysis of the content of 8 educational atlases on Ukrainian studies and history of Ukraine for secondary schools, published in 2003–2021. The author singled out and evaluated the knowledge presented in these atlases about the formation (genesis) of the Ukrainian ethnos in the context of Moscow's genocidal war against Ukraine. Atlases are compared with each other in terms of the amount and content of knowledge about the ethnic genesis of Ukrainians. The author compared the aggregate knowledge about the education of Ukrainians available in the atlases with the corresponding thematic content of the curriculum «Ukrainian Studies» for students in grades 5–11 (2020), as well as a number of scientific reference atlases of the history of Ukraine, published in 2010–2018. The article formulates proposals aimed at improving the coverage of the ethnic genesis of Ukrainians in school atlases of Ukrainian studies and history of Ukraine. The article is useful for Ukrainian scholars, historians, geographers who are concerned with improving the educational and methodological support of school courses in Ukrainian studies and history of Ukraine. The author believes that the reviewed thematic content of the program «Ukrainian Studies...», school atlases on Ukrainian studies and on the history of Ukraine needs to be deepened, modernized and concretized. The atlases should contain a clear answer to the question of where, when and as a result of what the ethnic community of Ukrainians was formed. A Ukrainian student should see in the atlas not only the Ukrainian ethnic territory that had already been formed, for example, at the beginning of the 16th or 17th centuries, but also the territory of the formation of the Ukrainian ethnic population, the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian culture, and the Ukrainian ethnos during the relevant historical time. In the same way, knowledge about the ethnic genesis of the Crimeans (Crimean Tatars) should be presented. In the conditions of the genocidal war, Ukrainians' awareness of their origins, the assimilation of scientifically based knowledge about the genesis of the Ukrainian ethnic community by school students have acquired strategic importance for the survival of Ukrainian society, for its ability to solidarize, consolidate, and mobilize in order to protect and counteract the genocidal aspirations of the ruscists.

Peculiarities of the formation and development of Ukrainian political and legal thought in Galicia after March 14, 1923

The development of Ukrainian political and legal thought in the western Ukrainian lands after March 14, 1923 is considered. Attention is paid to the peculiarities of formation, the contribution of thinkers and politicians to its content is analyzed. It is emphasized that the activities of such scientists as K. Levytskyi, S. Dnistryanskyi, V. Starosolskyi, S. Tomashivskyi, V. Kuchabskyi, S. Rudnytskyi and others are decisive for the legal opinion of the Ukrainian people, whose scientific works were fundamental for its development from in view of the fact that they formed legal awareness and political culture in Western Ukrainian society, awakened Ukrainians to an active political life, and, therefore, influenced the national development of Galicia in its daily dimension.
 It is noted that after the fall of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic and the introduction of Polish administration in Galicia, significant changes took place in Ukrainian political and legal thought, which on the one hand led to the formation of new right-wing organizations, and on the other - to the spread of communist ideology. It is argued that the most massive and organized was the national- democratic direction, whose representatives in their scientific works formulated the concepts of the Ukrainian national state based on the idea of unconditional recognition of the right of state self-determination of Ukrainians on their ethnic territory on the basis of national democratic traditions and the theory of the right of peoples to self-determination .
 It is emphasized that the theoretical works of Ukrainian thinkers were the methodological base on which Ukrainian political and legal thought developed in Galicia during the period under study. According to Academician S. Dnistryanskyi, the dominant factor in the process of national creation should be the formation of the national consciousness of the Ukrainian people in the way of creating effective public institutions, and only then - the logical and natural acquisition of state independence. It was a legal and most realistic plan of the struggle for the restoration of Ukrainian statehood, because the legislation of the Second Commonwealth did not prohibit the activities of public structures.
 In view of this, the article highlights the role of scientific, cultural and educational, pedagogical, sports, cooperative societies and unions, the clergy and socio-political organizations as leaders of the national state and law-making in Galicia, which de facto replaced the functions of national state bodies and helped Ukrainians to feel like nationally conscious citizens and to choose the right to their own statehood.

Диахронен аспект на българската антропонимна система през XIX в. Езикови особености. Тенденции

The article presents results of a study of the historical aspects of Bulgarian anthroponymy obtained as part of a postdoctoral project. The study is based on 19th-century archival materials that have been introduced into scientific circulation only recently. It reveals the unique features of the formation of the anthroponymy characteristic of a Bulgarian community outside Bulgaria’s ethnic territory. The study presents linguistic and statistical data on 19th-century Bulgarian personal names, highlighting the changes in the personal name system of the settlers in Tabak (South Bessarabia) that took place under polylinguistic influence.

Od (Mało)Rusinów do Ukraińców. Ewolucja ukraińskiej tożsamości narodowej od drugiej połowy XIX w. do początku XX w.

The text discusses the impact of modernization processes in the formation of the modern Ukrainian nation. The selected period corresponds to the emergence of the first Ukrainian political organizations and is ending at the beginning of the Ukrainian state-building. As a social structure, the Ukrainians went through the process of inventing a name, defining the border of their ethnic territory, codifying the language and developing organizational life and forming political elites. It was not enough to gain independence at the end of World War I, because its achievement also depends on other factors. The analysis shows that the process of modernization in the case of Ukrainians belongs to the Central and Eastern Europe model.

Frontier Orientalism in D.A. Milyutin's Descriptions of the North Caucasus in the 1840s

The article delves into the analysis of Orientalist conceptions put forth by the Russian military scholar, D. A. Milyutin, in his narrative about the peoples of the North Caucasus. This study is anchored in “postcolonial critiques”, a lens extensively applied by international researchers to evaluate the actions of European powers in global peripheries. The aim of this research is to introduce the hitherto overlooked unpublished manuscripts of D. A. Milyutin into academic discourse. Specifically, this focuses on his descriptions of Kabarda and Chechnya, which form the foundation for analyzing the scholarly issue discussed.
 The paper reveals that, when describing local populations, Russian military scholars actively leaned on Orientalist conceptions. They not only furnished those conceptions with empirical data but also interpreted them in context of the realities faced on the Russo-Caucasian frontier. Assertions that juxtapose Europe with the East, the interplay between the scholarly study of the region and its governance structure, and notions about the inherent stagnation of Eastern societies, as well as the belief in the necessity of external control for the development of Eastern communities, are all echoed in D. A. Milyutin’s works. Concurrently, his rendition of pan-European thoughts introduces a unique “frontier Orientalism”. This perspective captures descriptions of the militarized lifestyle of local residents, their raiding habits along the Line, and provides reasoning for the extended duration of Russian military engagements in the ethnic territories of the Caucasus.
 This article is tailored for a diverse range of scholars, as well as anyone with a keen interest in the intellectual history of the Caucasus and the evolution of socio-political thought in the mid-19th century Russian Empire.

The American Southern Baptist Mission and Maps of Yorùbáland: The Evolution of a Cartographic Style

ABSTRACT The Southern Baptist cartographic style portraying Yorùbáland in the mid-nineteenth century shifted the graphic appearance of this geographical space. This paper asserts that this graphic appearance reflects the evangelical thought of spreading the gospel and marked a very significant transition in the visual portrayal of West-Central Africa. Employing an historical-stylistic analysis, this paper examines the Christian missionary contribution to the appearance of the Yorùbá landscape in nineteenth-century maps. The Southern Baptist missionary maps of the 1850s, resulting from evangelical discourses and missionary work, highlighted geographical features that gave a new landscape identity to Yorùbáland. The map design of this ethno-territorial space emphasises an evangelical concern for well-populated regions. Hence, this study highlights the role of missionary maps in the distinctive visual expression of an ethnic territory in West African geography.

Описание Кабарды Д.А. Милютина в контексте становления кавказского варианта россий-ского ориентализма

The paper pertains to the analysis of a manuscript authored by D.A. Milutin in the first half of the 19th century, regarding the region of Kabarda. This manuscript, hitherto unpublished in academic circles, has been the subject of our examination. Our endeavor was to uncover the utilization of ori-entalist clichés by the manuscript's author, in order to depict both the geographical delineations of this ethno-political entity and the ethnography, livelihood, societal structure, and customary legal norms of its inhabitants. A remarkable parallel can be observed between certain aspects of the manuscript and the ideas propounded by E. Said in his discourse on European Orientalism. The researcher drew a comparison between the political framework and traditions of the Kabardian people and those prevalent in Eu-rope. Moreover, the researcher romanticized the region's historical past, employing the concept of "reverse human progress," along with other typical methodologies embraced by Orientalist thinkers of that era. Concomitantly, D.A. Milutin provided detailed descriptions of the political, social, and everyday existence in Kabarda, thereby endowing the manuscript with an intrinsic value as an origi-nal historical and cultural resource for contemporary scholars. It is concluded that, similar to numer-ous analogous texts produced by Orientalist scholars, the significance of D.A. Milutin's manuscript lies not in its political arguments concerning the military and economic dominion of the Russian Empire over the Caucasian peoples, or the imperative to extend colonial governance to these ethnic territories; rather, its true worth resides in the remarkably astute observations it offers on the life, history, and culture of the people it portrays.

Conservation and indigenous peoples’ struggles for livelihoods: Suba Park (Ethiopia)

SummaryContested from the early period of Menelik territorial expansion into the hinterlands of Addis Ababa, areas in the vicinity of Suba Park continue to be a bone of political contention in the context of the struggle of Oromo people against the expansion of the central state. A flashpoint is the Oromo protests (2014–2018) against federal state territorial expansion into the Oromo ethnic territory through a new Addis Ababa Master Plan that led to the deposition of Haile Mariam Desalegn and the installation of Abiy Amhed. I investigate how the state environmental policy maintained for extraction and conservation in the Suba forest between the late 1890s and 2018 affected the Tulama modes of land use related to their worldviews and their use of material, social, spiritual and symbolic values of land in the struggle for land and resource rights. I used ethnographic methods that included in-depth and semi-structured interviews, participant observations and document analysis to investigate long-standing and complex land-based conflicts in and around Suba Park. I show how simplifying state narratives of environmental policy entrenched in centralized state administration and exclusionist resource management schemes have reinforced a wider concern about indigenous land and resource rights and decentralized environmental governance.

Identity overlap and context-dependent instrumentation of territorial belonging: an interrogation of multiple levels of indigeneship mobilisation in Nigeria

ABSTRACT The subject of territorial belonging remains one of the regular flashpoints of conflicts in contemporary politics. With identity overlap and context-dependent instrumentation of belongingness, the question of how one identity classification attains preponderance over others in the overlap and the character of the associated conflicts compel studying every instance as a unique case. This paper interrogates the instrumentation of multiple levels of indigeneship mobilisation in inclusion politics in tertiary education institutions in Nigeria. Qualitatively drawing from vice-chancellor’s selection politics in University of Nigeria, this paper found that four incentives drove the preponderance of ethno-territorial indigeneship mobilisation over other levels of indigeneship mobilisation in the institution. First, politically, the collective interests of the dominant Igbo ethnic group were held paramount in the ethnic territory. Second, the rationales for the collective interest of the ethnic group were widely acknowledged by all communal settlements on the ethnic territory. Third, democratically, the phenomenon ensured the rule of the majority in vice-chancellors’ selection politics. Fourth, the merit prerogative of the academy, breached in inter-ethnic struggle, remained sacrosanct in intra-ethnic competition for the choice position. These exemplify the situation of many federal tertiary education institutions in Nigeria and become their prominent trademarks.

Spatial Morphological Characteristics of Ethnic Villages in the Dadu River Basin, a Sino-Tibetan Area of Sichuan, China

Analysis of spatial patterns and driving factors of different ethnic villages under regional integration is important for the conservation and development of ethnic villages. This article takes seven multi-ethnic villages in the Dadu River Basin of Ganzi Prefecture as an example; we employ a quantitative model of spatial syntax based on the theory of figure–ground relationship to link the tangible and intangible spaces. The results reveal the logical context and formation mechanism among the overall layout, residential architecture, and public space of the villages. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) The site of different ethnic villages reflects commonality. (2) The spatial configurations of the villages are significantly influenced by the surrounding natural environment, with significant differences. Cluster-concentrated villages exhibit the smallest expansion trend, rich spatial levels, and strong ethnic territoriality; strip-intensive villages have the largest scale and the strongest permeability; and radiation-dispersion villages have variable expansion directions and architectural relationships among residents. (3) Both of the participants’ selection behaviors and residential spaces constitute the internal structure for the ethnic culture, which is driven by the humanistic spirit and force of social order, making the spatial morphology a diversified and multi-layered characteristic. (4) The rural space has gradually changed from a single residential unit to a complex unit with multiple functions. The findings extend the scope of research to ethnic villages in watersheds and provide a theoretical and practical basis for the development of other similar rural villages.

Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations of Research on Social and Cultural Processes in the Environment of the Titular Nation of the Ukrainian SSR during the 1960s and 1970s

The article considers the сonceptual and theoretical foundations of research on social and cultural processes in the environment of the titular nation of the Ukrainian SSR during the 1960s and 1970s. It is characterized by the semantic content of concepts of “titular nation” and “indigenous people” in the Ukrainian SSR, identified primarily with Ukrainians, who were united by a single language, faith, spirituality, national traditions, customs, culture, ethnic origin and ancient residence on the territory of Ukraine, the official name of which was determined by their nationality. The conceptual components of the research are interpretation of the following concepts of: “Ukrainian ethnos”, “Ukrainian ethnic territory” or “Ukrainian ethnic land”, “national majority”, “national minority”, “nation-state”, “nonconformism”, “counterculture”, “sixties”, “dissidence”, “Ukrainian diaspora”, etc.
 Research of the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the outlined topic makes it possible to resolve controversial issues which have not been adequately covered in historical science, also makes it possible to specify the process of national self-expression of Ukrainians through cultural space, and allows to get new assessments, judgments and conclusions.

ВЛИЯНИЕ ТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНЫХ ОСОБЕННОСТЕЙ НА ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ ПРАВООХРАНИТЕЛЬНЫХ ОРГАНОВ СИБИРСКОГО КРАЯ (1925-1930 гг.)

Based on published materials and previously unpublished archival sources, the paper analyzes the impact of territorial features of Siberia on the activities of law enforcement agencies during the existence of the Siberian Krai (1926-1930). The author examines the overall criminogenic situation, the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies and their shortcomings stemming from the territorial features of Siberia: vast amounts of space, low population density, ethnic territories, complex terrain, climatic and seasonal changes. The author argues that, combined with the lack of communication and transportation means, these features created special conditions for the development and formation of law enforcement agencies that are not characteristic of the system on the national scale.

Formal and Informal Alliances between Iberians and Natives in the Heart of Late Eighteenth-Century South America

Abstract For decades, historiography on the Iberian empires has suggested that peace treaties between Europeans and autonomous Native groups incorporated both Indigenous “nations,” understood as cohesive units, and Native lands into the monarchy. Drawing on extensive archival evidence and recent borderlands scholarship, this article suggests that written agreements had a limited impact on interethnic frontier relations. First, because informal relations shaped by Indigenous patterns of diplomacy were far more important to the success of alliances. Second, because alliances were often made with autonomous tolderías, not with homogeneous “nations.” And third, because Natives by no means identified their ethnic territories with Crown possessions, but continued to independently exploit Iberian rivalries in order to achieve more favorable conditions for themselves. This article focuses on the frontier between the Spanish province of Paraguay and the Portuguese captaincy of Mato Grosso.

UKRAINE AS AN OBJECT OF GLOBAL GEOPOLITICS: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND LESSONS OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE CONFERENCE OF AMBASSADORS IN MARCH 14, 1923

The report reconstructs how one hundred years ago the world's largest powers, primarily France, Great Britain, Japan, the Kingdom of Italy, and the United States, began to build a new Versailles-Washington system of international relations, which consolidated territorial changes as a result of the First World War and the collapse of the German, Ottoman, and Austrian-Hungarian and Russian empires. The geopolitical prerequisites and consequences of the Resolution of the Council of Ambassadors of March 14, 1923 regarding Eastern Galicia are analyzed. It has been proven that the principle of self-determination of peoples, proclaimed by world leaders, did not become the basis of post-war national-state demarcation, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, with the support of the Entente, the Ukrainian ethnic territory (conciliar Ukrainian People's Republic) was redistributed by Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Bolshevik Russia, which concluded the Peace of Brest with defeated Germany and was in international isolation for some time. The countries of the West did not believe in the state efforts of the disunited political elite of the Ukrainian People's Republic of Ukraine and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, as well as in the monarchical plans of the Hetmanate, which manoeuvre between German and White Guard post-war strategies. The Entente countries assigned the role of a sanitary border against the possible expansion of Bolshevik Russia (later the USSR) to the revived Poland in 1918, with which France concluded a political agreement and a military convention in 1921. The postwar Eastern European borders, in particular between Poland and the USSR along the Zbruch River, were «legitimized» by the Peace of Riga in 1921, as well as by the resolution of the Entente Council of Ambassadors in 1923, which marked the foreign policy defeat of both the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, as well as the end of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1914–1923 It was established that Warsaw ignored the international demand to grant national-territorial autonomy to Ukrainians, instead dividing the region into three voivodships even before the specified resolution. Keywords: Ukraine, East Galicia, Poland, countries of the Entente, geopolitics, military occupation, political parties.

The Journey of a Donation. Beneficiation of the Fund of Regional Ethnographic Museum - Plovdiv with a Collection of Weaves

n 2021 REM - Plovdiv received the collection of prof. Julia Dilova, donated by her daughter Tsvetina Erokhina after her mother passed away. The collection contains over 500 different items. Today, it is very rare for museums to receive collections of this proportion, representative of different regions of the Bulgarian ethnic territory. In order to promote the donation, the museum created a project and received funding from Plovdiv 2019 Foundation. It includes five videos, an exhibition "The Apron – a Symbol and an Apotropaic", a catalog "With Love for the Woven", post cards and promotional materials. It was our desire to pay tribute to people like her, who have collected the pieces of our beautiful Bulgarian heritage. For only by shedding light on them can we thank them enough and make their work contagious to everyone who sees our future better through the conservation of our traditional culture and identity.

What are indigenous and traditional populations? A relational approach to ethnic territories and conservation in Brazil

This article explores the contradictory relationship between identity politics and environmental conservation in Brazil. First, the rationale for setting aside territories for ethnic groups in Brazil that have been historically discriminated against is examined and legal definitions for such traditional populations are presented. Second, ethnographic and philosophical critiques of essentialized ethnic identity are used to highlight how traditionality and conservation are conflated in Brazilian environmental policies. These policies, in turn, are related to another bundle of contradictions in Western bio-centric preservation which (erroneously) essentializes nature and excludes the human presence from within reserves. Research findings from two remote regions located in critical biomes for conservation in Brazil are presented succinctly to illustrate different kinds of contradictions between ethnic territories and conservation. In conclusion, a relational research agenda is offered which avoids the pitfalls of essentialized identity and nature.