Indigenous Territorial Rights Research Articles

Tapajós

“Tapajós” narrates the field campaign of two researchers studying forest fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon. It addresses a contemporary conflict in the region, where an Indigenous people, the Munduruku, are resisting efforts by the Brazilian State to channelize the Tapajós River and exploit its hydropower potential. Development here represents an existential threat to the Munduruku, whose homeland resides in the river valley. It also represents an ecological threat to the global community. Although the rate of deforestation dropped after the turn of the millennium, it has begun to climb again and would no doubt accelerate with development in the Tapajós watershed and the opening of Central Amazonia to colonization and resource extraction. This would push the forest past its tipping point, a magnitude of deforestation capable of compromising rainfall recycling, and thus precipitating the transformation of the Amazonian forest into a patchwork of fireadapted shrubs and grasses. “Tapajós” describes how such an ecological catastrophe would occur. It also argues that the assertion of Indigenous territorial rights is key to the conservation of Amazonian biodiversity. The account unfolds against a background of conflict between Amazonia’s Indigenous peoples and the Brazilian State. In so doing, it brings to life the realities of frontier violence involving both land conflict and the unrestrained behaviors of individuals living outside the institutional constraints of law. Such violence complicates the execution of field research in the region and contributes to its gathering ecological crisis.

Tensions surrounding (mal)nutrition in indigenous and white populations in Salta, Argentina: an anthropological perspective

This article analyzes the ways in which malnutrition is related to land access, labor conditions, ethnic and gender relations, and the social and cultural organization of child care in rural and peri-urban contexts in Orán, Salta, Argentina. Research was conducted from an ethnographic approach in which qualitative and quantitative techniques were used with ava-guaraní, kolla, wichí and white populations who were patients of Salta's Primary Health Care Program (PROAPS) between 2010 and 2016. Although child malnutrition is cast as an "indigenous problem" by certain health personnel and public officials, cases of malnutrition were observed in white children, while there were no positive diagnoses of malnutrition among children living in communities with territorial recognition. Access to rural land, even without title deeds, enables food self-production and allows access to more stable housing and working conditions. The violation of indigenous populations' territorial rights are a determining factor in understanding nutritional deficits among children.

"They Are Taking Everything Away from Us": Land Dispossession and the Criminal Selectivity of Indigenous Communities versus International Agricultural and Extractive Firms in Argentina

This article examines how the Argentine state's inadequate mediation of the relationship between indigenous communities and international agricultural and extractive companies results in criminal selectivity in terms of territorial rights. This article focuses on the Mapuche community's struggle against the Italian Benetton Group in Patagonia to demonstrate that indigenous communities are over-criminalized and international companies are under-criminalized. Instead of utilizing a criminology perspective to explore how the criminal selectivity process is carried out, this article investigates the genesis of this dynamic from a historical perspective by employing Jacques Derrida's concept of hauntology. The sources of this research include journal articles, newspapers, and published reports. As the global discourse about indigenous territorial rights expands in the academic context, it is pertinent to acknowledge and address historic patterns of subjugation in order to effectively initiate transformative progress.

Ciladas da igualdade: notas sobre a política indigenista no governo Bolsonaro

Abstract Fervently criticizing the theme of difference and public policies that emphasize it, Bolsonaro and other top officials in his government propose a new indigenist policy for the country, based on the understanding that all Brazilians are equal. This article seeks to demonstrate that supported on a generic notion of equality, Bolsonaro has established an indigenist policy that seeks its own extinction by putting an end to difference, or its recognition, leading the Brazilian state to return to assimilationist policies from the period before the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988. The article explores government actions related to Indigenous territorial rights and gives special attention to efforts to liberate Indigenous Lands for the realization of various economic activities, such as mining, gold prospecting, cattle raising, energy generation, tourism, and cultivation of genetically modified organisms.

"Uma tarefa comum a qualquer corte constitucional"?: superinterpretação e a tese do marco temporal da ocupação no caso Raposa Serra do Sol

This paper investigates the connections between the phenomenon of overinterpretation in Law and the time of occupation criterion, called marco temporal thesis, using the Law and Literature methodology. The category of overinterpretation hereby considered comes from the literary theory by Italian semioticist Umberto Eco. In this paper, overinterpretation theory is applied to Law, from its interlocution with Literature. This very category was mentioned in the Report n.001/2017, by the Brazilian Federal Attorney General’s Office, on the marco temporal thesis, which gave rise to the judgement analysis of Petition 3388/RR, by the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court, also known as the case of Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land, when the abovementioned thesis was established. Then follows the analysis on the approximations between overinterpretation and the institutional safeguards provided for in the sentence, which go beyond the original case; as well as the hyperfictional aspect of the marco temporal thesis, which, by adopting a restrictive interpretation of indigenous territorial rights, denies the colonial process and the State’s own efforts to carry out forced removals of indigenous peoples. It also ignores the historicity and traditional occupation of the Brazilian territory by the indigenous peoples, which crosses textual limits and contradicts the Constitution itself.

Localizing the indigenous environmental steward norm: The making of conservation and territorial rights in Peru

Indigenous peoples are often presented as natural allies in countering pressing environmental problems. The norm that depicts Indigenous peoples as environmental stewards has allowed international actors with different priorities to become involved in environmental projects that aim at ensuring both conservation and indigenous territorial rights. Previous research has emphasized that whereas this norm has opened up for indigenous participation in environmental governance, it is based on a limited understanding of indigenous needs and rights. This article analyses how the conflicting goals and trade-offs are contested in the localization of this norm in conservation projects in the Peruvian Amazon. Empirically, our findings are based on ethnographic field research, 80 semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Our analysis reveals how in the localization of the norm, Indigenous peoples’ territorial rights has become marginalized, contributing to reinforce conflicts and inequality, which ultimately undermine both environmental and social sustainability. By analyzing the localization of the environmental steward norm, we contribute to a better understanding of the processes at play in displacing the costs of global sustainability transformations to indigenous actors.

‘Territorial cleansing’ for whom? Indigenous rights, conservation, and state territorialization in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, Nicaragua

This paper examines how spatially exclusionary policies, implemented in the name of environmental conservation and indigenous territorial rights may, paradoxically, work to extend state territorialization and control over resources in indigenous territories. While the colonial legacies of protected areas and conservation enclosures in indigenous territories are well-known, critical scrutiny of contemporary exclusionary conservation mechanisms remains scarce. I suggest that such mechanisms, often based on the selective physical and political removal of “violent” and “destructive” non-indigenous settlers, bear striking similarities to earlier conservation initiatives in that they limit indigenous autonomy and enable state control over indigenous territories and resources, despite the changed rhetoric emphasizing not only conservation goals, but also indigenous rights. I base my argument – that conservation in indigenous territories continues to be motivated by the territorial ambitions of the state – on analyzing Nicaragua’s saneamiento territorial (“territorial cleansing”) policy, which is generally understood as the eviction of non-indigenous peasants from indigenous territories. I show that saneamiento is selective in different ways: it only dispossesses certain populations that compromise the legibility and controllability of indigenous territories and the natural resources in them, and it is implemented only in the spaces and times that are compatible with the territorialization goals of the state, i.e., areas rich in natural resources.

The Difference Place Makes: Regional Legislative Approaches to Territories of Traditional Nature Use in the Russian North

Indigenous northerners’ rights in the Russian Federation are legally protected at a range of levels (federal, regional, municipal), and by a diversity of types of legal acts (laws, decrees, orders, provisions). Within the complex structure of Russian federalism, the country’s regional governments elaborate upon federal laws in diverse ways and at different times. This article explores regional approaches to legislating one law on Indigenous rights, that of “Territory of Traditional Nature-Use” (territoriya traditsionnogo prirodopol’zovaniya) (TTP), identified by Indigenous leaders as the most important legal-territorial designation for protecting Indigenous livelihoods and cultures. While it is well known that legal strategies of the Russian state toward Indigenous territorial rights differ markedly from those of other Circumpolar countries, less appreciated are the ways in which these vary across space within Russia. We assert that the spatial informs the legal, documenting several illustrative approaches that regions have taken in legislating TTPs. In doing so, we demonstrate how a federal law initiative is interpreted and reimagined in place, giving rise to the potential for substantively different spatial outcomes for Indigenous persons and peoples seeking to actualize their rights to territory.

A tese do marco temporal nas decisões do Supremo Tribunal Federal e a controvérsia possessória acerca dos direitos territoriais indígenas

RESUMO:Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar a aplicação da tese do marco temporal, criada pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), acerca das demarcações de terras indígenas no Brasil. A discussão analisa o caso Raposa Serra do Sol, bem como três decisões proferidas pela 2ª Turma do STF, em que aplicou a referida tese como precedente para definir a demarcação das terras indígenas. Ao final, temse uma discussão acerca da aplicação dessa nova categoria jurídica e a controvérsia possessória frente aos direitos territoriais indígenas. Empregou-se o método comparativo, monográfico e bibliográfico com base em três casos específicos

The Struggle after the Victory: Non-compliance in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Jurisprudence on Indigenous Territorial Rights

Abstract This article analyses non-compliance with decisions issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the matter of indigenous territorial rights. The central objectives of the work are (i) to quantify and to analyse the level of compliance with reparation orders issued by the Court in indigenous territorial decisions and (ii) to understand the elements that fomented and hindered compliance with the cases. Quantitative analyses of the compliance were used, analysing 11 cases decided by the Court. Additionally, a qualitative study was pursued by means of a case analysis, focusing on cases against Paraguay and Suriname. The article concludes that compliance with territorial cases is a complex matter, involving a multiplicity of interconnected elements and actors. Compliance is stimulated by clarity of the orders, existence of domestic institutions in charge of compliance, domestic legal protection of indigenous rights and when the Court exercises an active role as mediator.

Reconciliation of cattle ranching with biodiversity and social inclusion objectives in large private properties in Paraguay and collective indigenous lands in Bolivia

Livestock ranching is one of the most important economic activities of the planet but is also associated with negative environmental impacts. Ranching can also exacerbate social inequality by displacing vulnerable rural populations from access to land and decisions over land use. The large-scale ranching typical of the Paraguayan Chaco, and the small scale ranching typical of northwestern Bolivia, represent two contrasting cases of livestock expansion in Latin America. These two distinct contexts are used to evaluate best practices for sustainable ranching at different scales. In particular, how ranching practices can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Technical assistance was provided to both the large private ranchers as well as to the indigenous communities focusing on pasture cultivation and management, recovery of native pastures, rotational grazing, improved fire management through the use of burn calendars and no burn zones. The success of these interventions in reducing forest loss was measured by evaluating the increase in carrying capacity, considered synonymous with stocking rates in Paraguay and hrough measurement of above green matter. Success in improving animal health and reproductive output was monitored through interviews and periodic blood and fecal sample analysis. Interviews were also carried out to evaluate mitigation of conflicts between carnivores and livestock. The impact of interventions to promote participation and equity was evaluated using complementarity of planning instruments with indigenous territorial plans and indigenous population size.Intensification of agricultural production, this is increasing productivity rates through more efficient gazing management per unit of land already in use as an alternative to horizontal land use expansion, helped reduce forest loss both in areas managed by large private ranchers as well as those managed by small scale indigenous ranchers, and contributed to the achievement of SDG 15. In the case of Paraguay improved ranching practices that minimize environmental impacts while increasing profitability of production, have enabled positive results for conservation but, the limited progress in the recognition of indigenous territorial rights and more recent development of territorial planning capacity at the municipal level are obstacles to achieving greater co-benefits for social equity (SDG 10). Indigenous territorial rights and territorial management capacity in the Leco and T'simane Mosetene indigenous lands reduce inequality (SDG 10) by empowering indigenous small-scale ranchers, and securing their equal access to land and natural resources. Clear land allowed them to implement conservation and sustainable ranching plans leading to improved productivity relevant for SDG 2 and also enabled them to leverage respect and support for their territorial management vision from protected area and municipal authorities.The impact of improved ranching practices with large private ranchers resulted in greater impacts on the reduction of forest loss (SDG 15) but impacts on social inclusion (SDG 10) were only achieved in Bolivia due to the existence of indigenous territorial capacity.

Red Scare: The State's Indigenous Terrorist by Joanne Barker

Reviewed by: Red Scare: The State's Indigenous Terrorist by Joanne Barker Kara Roanhorse (bio) Red Scare: The State's Indigenous Terrorist by Joanne Barker University of California Press, 2021 US empire defines terrorism as the "unlawful" use of violence, fear, and intimidation, particularly against civilians, in the pursuit of ideological or political aims. The term primarily refers to intentional violence and is used most often in the context of war; however, terror and terrorism in relation to Indigenous people are reproduced differently under the US/Canadian settler empire. What does it mean to call Indigenous people terrorists on their own land? This is a question Lenape feminist Joanne Barker addresses in Red Scare: The State's Indigenous Terrorist, noting, "Indigenous People are identified and made identifiable by the state as terrorists in order to advance imperialist objectives" (p. vii). Two defining concepts she uses, the Murderable Indian and the Kinless Indian, are meant to be identifiers for how Indianness is "terrorism" and therefore justifies the genocide and Indigenous removal from their lands. The Indigenous feminist framework which Barker takes up disentangles settler policies, signifiers, and language used for antiterrorist laws and sentiments. Terror and the fear-driving discourses of settler empire reinforce a designation for settler justifications and weaponizing for harsher sentencing of the state's exploitation, policing, and violence under the systems of colonialism and capitalism. In the US and Canadian contexts, terrorism and terrorists are defined exclusively within settler political order. Thus, the "red scare" embodies the full spectrum of settler racism and xenophobic fear that justifies war-making against Indigenous people. The racism and fear further perpetuates into a belief that security and social stability [End Page 124] requires the extermination or genocide of Indigenous people. This is how they handle the so-called Indian problem. The business of utilizing fear in the name of order against Indigenous people is the basis of settler freedom: figures of terrorism created by state and capitalist industries authoritatively deem Indigenous movements as the ultimate threat to society. Barker is clear about the realities of contemporary Indigenous struggles like "NoDAPL" (No Dakota Access Pipeline), Wet'suwet'en land defenders, and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) movement. It is clear how violations of land and territory, the sexual and environmental violence are each intertwined with police violence, prompting many radicals to envision solidarity building as central to the state's historical and political contextualizing of "terrorism" under the US empire's neoliberal state. As Barker illustrates, companies of resource-centered extraction of gas and oil raise questions of identity by intentionally disavowing and challenging Indigenous territorial rights, sovereignty, and self-determination. The militarizing of police and increasing harm to the environment alongside the ongoing MMIW epidemic is why Indigenous feminists' critiques of the state and violence must be concise. Barker's succinct analysis of the political weaponization of identity fraud makes visible the ever-present conflicted and contradictory work of racist ideologies of cultural authenticity and rationalizations of state violence and suppression placed on Indigenous people. Figures of terrorism are made and remade by the United States and Canada to create order whereby Indigenous sovereignty and their movements threaten national security and social stability. Such threats are linked to all manner of protecting settler economic infrastructure and growth at any cost. Barker first introduces the figure of the "Murderable Indian" as "the first and last authentic Indian," crystalizing how Native people are subjected to a certain kind of criminalization, not just incarceration but of constant surveillance and other types of police violence from the state; they are "an affect of racist fears" and concerns for the settler public and thus require a national security response. The Murderable Indian serves to "license the state's counterterrorist, military, police, and vigilante responses to contain, punish, and deter" (p. vii). Barker asserts this Indian as one that is familiar because they are deemed too much of a threat, whereby the state responds to their terrorism with full force. The Murderable Indian faces the state's counterterrorist measures (including corporate security contractors, invasive surveillance, detention, interrogation, and incarceration), drawing from examples of police violence experienced by water protectors, land defenders, and the work...

The judgment of the case Xucuru People v. Brazil: InterAmerican Court of Human Rights between consolidation and setbacks

The present article aims to analyse the recent decision against Brazil issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Xucuru indigenous people and its members v. Brazil, which was decided in February 2018. The decision is the most recent among the consolidated jurisprudence of the Court on indigenous peoples` rights, as well as the first one against Brazil. The case study is based mainly upon a bibliographic review of primary sources related to the case, as well to the Court´s jurisprudence on indigenous rights. To achieve the central objective, the article is composed of three sections: an analysis of the Court´s jurisprudence on indigenous territorial rights, a further analysis of the decision on the Xucuru case and, finally, an analysis of aspects that were absent in the decision. The article concludes that, in most aspects, the judgment consolidates the Court case law on the territorial protection of indigenous lands. However, the decision is considered flawed in regard to four aspects: the protection of human rights defenders, the mentioning of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, applied remedies and the recognition of the injured party. As the case is very recent, this is the first academic analysis on its content. The Court´s innovative jurisprudence on indigenous rights must be acknowledged, but flaws and limitations in the most recent decision must be pointed out and analysed in order to enable further development and, therefore, provide a most adequate human rights protection.

Strata of the state: Resource nationalism and vertical territory in Bolivia

This paper examines the relationship between resource nationalism, state territorialization, and geological knowledge production in Bolivia. Focusing on two historical moments of post-revolutionary state-building – post-Independence (1825) and post-National Revolution (1952) - I show how the subterranean was produced as vertical state territory not only in law but also through science. By charting this history, I argue that anti-Indigenous racism was historically built into resource nationalism through ongoing collaborations between earth scientists and various iterations of the Bolivian state. In the post-Independence era, French naturalist Alcide d’Orbigny was hired by the nascent Bolivian state to produce the country's first geological map. His writings, which ranged from the geological to the ethnological, conceptually grafted Indigenous peoples to the surface of the earth while representing the subterranean as empty save for natural resources. In the post-National Revolution era, d’Orbigny's work reemerged as influential when it was taken up by both political theorists and geologists. Through a close examination of works from these two eras, I show how the subsoil became the rationalized realm of the state. I further suggest that the contemporary tension between state-led resource extraction and Bolivia's “plurinational” constitution, which pluralizes the nation and ostensibly supports Indigenous autonomy, can be understood as a spatial tension between the subterranean, which is held in perpetuity by the state, and the surface, which can be owned privately or communally and imbued with place-specific meanings. Although resource nationalism might appear to be a progressive effort to redistribute resource wealth, capable of countering the neoliberal privatization of decades prior, such extractive projects threaten Indigenous territorial rights, compromising the purportedly decolonial goals of the Plurinational State.

Raphael Lemkin in Remote Australia: The Logic of Cultural Genocide and Homelands

ABSTRACTIn the 1970s, Aboriginal people in remote Australia took decisive steps to decentralize from government settlements and missions to live and make a living on their ancestral lands at places that have become known as homelands. Over time, this migration garnered some state support and saw the emergence of new facilitating institutions. But in the last decade homeland living has been discursively demeaned by politicians, and policies have been put in place to undermine the possibility of residing and making a livelihood in these smallest, most remote places mainly located on Indigenous‐titled lands. As Indigenous territorial rights expand, the state looks to extinguish possibilities for current and future generations to utilize the land and its resources for livelihood. In this article, I draw on evidence from political discourse, policy documents and programme design and implementation to outline this state project to eliminate a contemporary lifeway. I provide ethnographic evidence from work with Kuninjku people in Arnhem Land that documents this destruction. I engage with the work of Raphael Lemkin to document and theorize the techniques being deployed in terms of the logic of cultural genocide. I end by asking what homelands people might do to push back and what role anthropologists might play in such a process.

Not-so-neoliberal governance: Chile’s response to Mapuche territorial demands

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the Chilean state’s response to the territorial demands of Mapuche indigenous communities. Throughout Latin America, governments recognized Afro-descendant and indigenous communities’ communal property rights as part of a broader territorial turn that offered to reshape territoriality and indigenous–state relations; more often, however, the resulting reforms became a means of extending neoliberal governance. Given the strength of Chile’s neoliberal project and reputation of good governance, why are there inconsistencies in the state’s response to Mapuche territorial demands? I argue that neoliberal governance is a means of pursuing the demobilization and disarticulation of Mapuche demands, rather than an end. The state employs a combination of formal and informal governance strategies to further these motivations, highlighting that many assumptions about Chilean politics do not necessarily apply to indigenous policy. The interaction between these governing motivations create space, albeit extremely limited and costly, for some Mapuche communities to access land by working around and through both formal policy procedures and informal economic interests, while simultaneously undercutting broader territorial demands. In addition to complicating understandings of Chilean governance, the hidden patterns of policy implemented that are highlighted in this article reveal the diversity of ways in which governance strategies threaten the recognition of indigenous territorial rights.

Bureaucratic Territory: First Nations, Private Property, and “Turn-Key” Colonialism in Canada

Since 2006, successive Canadian governments have worked to create private property regimes on lands reserved for First Nations. This article examines how the state framed the theory and history of Aboriginal property rights to achieve this goal. It then shows how, under the pretense of restoration, bureaucrats developed legislation that would create novel political spaces where, once converted to private property, reserved lands would function as a new kind of federal municipality in Canada. These changes took place in two ways: First, bureaucrats situated Aboriginal property within the state apparatus and reconfigured Indigenous territorial rights into a series of “regulatory gaps” regarding voting thresholds, certainty of title, and the historical misrepresentation of First Nations economies. Second, the government crafted legislation under what is known as the First Nations Property Ownership Initiative that, by closing regulatory gaps, would produce private property regimes analogous to municipal arrangements elsewhere in Canada. These bureaucratic practices realigned internal state mechanisms to produce novel external boundaries among the state, Indigenous lands, and the economy. By tracking how bureaucratic practices adapted to Indigenous refusals of state agendas, the article shows how the bureaucratic production of territory gave form to a new iteration of settler-colonialism in Canada.

Obligaciones de los Estados en materia de derechos territoriales indígenas

<p>This article examines state obligations under indigenous territorial rights. The cultural survival and development of indigenous peoples depends on their spiritual and factual connection with their lands. It argues that indigenous ancestral land rights derive from international and national law. Indigenous customs prefer a collective land tenure system to individual property rights. State obligations regarding indigenous ancestral land rights are based on international human rights treaties and national systems. In short, the paper argues that states have an obligation to respect, protect, and fulfil indigenous land rights. This article also examines their enforcement in the international and domestic arenas.</p><p><strong>Published online</strong>: 11 December 2017</p>

Grassroots Innovation Using Drones for Indigenous Mapping and Monitoring

Indigenous territories are facing increasing pressures from numerous legal and illegal activities that are pushing commodity frontiers within their limits, frequently causing severe environmental degradation and threatening indigenous territorial rights and livelihoods. In Central and South America, after nearly three decades of participatory mapping projects, interest is mounting among indigenous peoples in the use of new technologies for community mapping and monitoring as a means of defense against such threats. Since 2014, several innovative projects have been developed and implemented in the region to demonstrate and train indigenous communities in the use of small drones for territorial mapping and monitoring. In this paper, we report on five projects carried out in Peru, Guyana, and Panama. For each one we describe the context, main objectives, positive outcomes, challenges faced, and opportunities ahead. Preliminary results are promising and have gained the interest of many indigenous societies who envision this technology as a powerful tool to protect their territories and strengthen their claims regarding specific environmental liabilities and justice issues. Based on the results presented here and a review of previous similar studies, we offer a critical discussion of some of the main opportunities and challenges that we foresee regarding the use of small drones for indigenous territorial mapping and monitoring. In addition, we elaborate on why a careful, well thought-out, and progressive adoption of drones by indigenous peoples may trigger grassroots innovations in ways conducive to greater environmental justice and sustainability.

Direitos territoriais indígenas – a contribuição da teoria crítica

After centuries of assimilationist policy, it has been recognized to the indigenous peoples - nationally and internationally - the right to be different due to demands that emerge on the public scene in the late twentieth century. The effectiveness of indigenous land rights today is no longer confined to a place for survival, but also includes cultural and symbolic aspects, according to the new paradigm adopted by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988. This article, which is the initial part of a major research, is based on the hypothesis that despite the change from the paradigm of assimilationism to the paradigm of difference, indigenous land rights are still thought by legal experts from an evolutionary basis Institute, which requires a deeper discussion from the critical theory´s point of view. In this way, we will set the indigenous right next to other cultural demands that also claim a change of individualistic and Eurocentric´s right. Further, we will present the Indigenato Institute to identify its colonial perspective. At the end, we will discuss the construction of human rights critical theory and the feminist critique to the theory of justice to set bases for a new perspective on indigenous territorial rights, in a way to respect otherness and the dynamism of different cultures.