Introduction to Social Anthropology

5. Who Are the Indigenous People?

Think About these Questions and Discuss
 1. Should indigenous minorities have the same rights
as the majority population?
 2. Should they be accorded additional rights?
 3. If they are occupying valuable land (minerals for
example) are they being reasonable if they refuse to
move?
 The Sentinelese are a
completely isolated group of
people who are known to kill Isolated and Alone!
people who attempt to come
The Surma people of Ethiopia
ashore on their island.
(below) comprise several
related groups/ tribes of
cattle nomads who have
remained isolated from the
This uncontacted
outside world until recently.
Amazon people in
Brazil have never met As with many other such
outsiders. They do not people around the world
understand what their desire to be left alone is
planes are increasingly compromised..

Large groups of Pintupi only

encountered White
Australians in the 1980s. They
have returned to their
ancestral way of life.
 The Malaysian
government recognises Who are the
some 18 different groups Indigenous People?
as Orang Asli, and they
The Orang Asli of the Malay
are accorded certain
Peninsula are the
rights as such.
descendants of the people
who inhabited the area
before the Malays arrived
For many young Orang
4,000 years ago. The Malayic
Asli, remaining apart
people are now the
from the modern world
predominant group in
poses huge challenges, as
Southeast Asia.
they need money to
survive. What makes the Majority
Malay people different from
the White Americans who
People who looked like this colonized the United States
Batek mother and child once 500 years ago?
inhabited the whole of the
Indonesian archipelago as
hunter gatherers.
 The Temiar village lies amidst
their swidden fields in the Malaysia’s
middle of the forest of Perak. Indigenous People
The Malaysian Government
has allocated forest
reserves for use by the
Barricades were erected to Orang Asli. They claim the
prevent logger to bring majority forest areas as
their equipment into the government owned that
forest. may be logged to benefit
the state.

Logging has contaminated Should the indigenous

the drinking water of minority be allowed to
isolated communities. prevent the majority
population benefitting from
the wealth brought by
logging?
Ultimately the loggers have
full government support and
the forest disappears.
 The Penan of
Borneo
The Penan were a relatively
isolated group of tribes
who lived as hunting
gatherers until the forest
The Forests home of the Penan people are being lost.
became an important
economic asset: logging,
HEP, and oil palm
plantations etc.

International organisations
have intervened, but there
are arguments that it is
Perhaps ironically in fighting to preserve their traditional way inevitable that many
of life, the Penan, along with indigenous cultures all over the traditional people are
world, are being inadvertently dragged into the modern holding up progress!
globalised world of political and economic conflict.
 The Baiga people of
Madhya Pradesh have
survived as swidden The Baiga of India
farmers in forested The Baiga of India are seen
areas for many as competing with wildlife
centuries. in areas designated as
conservation areas. Instead
of seeing people who have
Treated as outcastes by the lived in harmony with the
mainstream population they land for generations as part
often end up living in of the solution to
makeshift camps under conservation, they are
plastic sheeting.
evicted because they are
perceived as a treat to
wildlife.
To survive they are often
forced to take on menial,
dangerous work – this
woman is working in a
bauxite mine.
The Adivasi are Competing Land
increasingly being Claims: the Adivasi
forced off land to and Munda
make way for big
There are conflicting views
industrial
between various wildlife
companies who
want the fertile organizations and human
land for profit. rights groups who argue
that the tribal groups of
India such as the Adivasi
(right) and Munda (below)
are the best caretakers of
the forest.
 Carlisle Indian Industrial
School, Pennsylvania, U.S. Is Integration the
c. 1900 Answer?
Education in schools that
specifically cater to tribal
children, are arguably one of
the biggest threats to the
Tribal children at an Indian
survival of many of the
residential school for 27,000
minority cultures all over
pupils, which opened in 1993.
the world.

In the same way that

colonial governments
Papuan boys locked in an highlighted backwardness
Islamic boarding school in and primitiveness, and
Jakarta supported religious
conversion, so too are
millions of children still
being targetted.
 Orang Rimba children
learning with Sokola
Rimba (The Jungle
School), Indonesia
Baka child studying with
indigenous education
project ’Two Rabbits’ in
Cameroon
The Enawene Nawe of Brazil
control their education, which is
rooted in their culture and
language
Why do Minority
Cultures Matter?
Although many of the
cultures are risk today
number in the millions
collectively, individually they
may be very few. The loss of
indigenous knowledge,
language, skills etc. is
inestimable. Many of these
groups have not been
studied, and anthropologists
are focusing on working
with them, to establish their
right to survive.
 The children in this poor
African rural school would
gladly trade places with
our children in a Singapore
school.
The reality is that these
Amazonian would end up
in places like these in
Africa.
Do They Really Want
Progress?
In places like Africa, the
Post-colonial legacy is one
of fast growing cities where
few jobs are available. As
the rural poor continue to
flock into the slums, the
conditions in which people
are forced to survive pose
huge threats to health.
People living in isolated
cultures are often happy
and healthy and do not
want to change their way of
life.

The majority of Amerindians
died of new diseases, shock
and depression.
First Contact
When the Spanish, British
and French first claimed
various territories in the
New World, they
introduced diseases that the
native people had never
been exposed to: measles,
smallpox, flu, chickenpox,
scarlet fever, diphtheria etc.
Many were also made slaves
and died because they were
unsuited to the working
conditions in mines and
plantations.
 The Price of
Contact
The indigenous peoples of
the Americas were among
the hardest hit following
‘First Contact’.
Indigenous Mexican tribes were almost wiped out in the 15th
century. They are currently the greatest group at risk from The descendants of those
the Covid Pandemic in Mexico. who survived the
decimation of European
colonialism , are now facing
This Yanomami family a similar threat from the
is waiting to be tested 2020 Covid Global
for Corvid-19 outside Pandemic. They are more
a government health vulnerable because they
post. have almost access to
primary health care.
 The Sioux resisted
removal from The Native
ancestral lands in Americans
the infamous Battle
of Little Big Horn in The Native Americans did
1876. acquiesce easily to
conquest, and actively
resisted colonisation. They
attacked and slaughtered
The Indian Wars were a successive series of confrontations settlers on their lands, and
between different European powers and the nations of the where prudent that
North American continent between 1609 – 1924. negotiated settlements and
treaties; some 370 between
Between 1830 and 1778 and 1871, all of which
1850, 60,000 Native were eventually broken by
Americans were the US Government.
forced from their
ancestral homelands
into designated Indian
areas in an episode
known as The Trail of
Tears.

Many Native American
tribes were not farmers;
they were seasonal
migrants who moved
across their territories on
a seasonal basis making
uses of the lands
resources.
The Land Grab
The Allotment Policy, which
was in operation between
1880 and the 1920s,
allowed Native Americans
to live on and make use of
the land ‘allotted to them’
by the government. They
were not allowed to sell it,
however, for 25 years.
white settlers were able to
buy much of this land
cheaply when the Native
Americans could finally sell
after 25 years.
 This chart shows the land
acreage bought up by Bill
Gates across the US.
Much, not all, is former
Native American land.
Ted Turner’s 2 million acre
buffalo ranch is bigger than
Native American land
holdings.
The Land Grab
Continues
Billionaire Americans have
slowly being buying up
millions of acres of land
across the country. Much of
the land was, often until
recently, in the hands of
Native Americans.
Many people continue to
speculate why they should
wish to own and control
such huge plots of land.
 The Impact of Slow
Violence
Over successive centuries
of slow violence, and seeing
their land gradually stripped
away, the Native Americans
now represent the most
disadvantaged group in US
society.
These statistics
demonstrate that Their health is among the
the majority of lowest in the country, and
people recognised they have little access to
as living in poverty healthcare.
are the Native
Americans.
 What Happens
When Land is
Taken?
Freeport was given the
right to use any natural
resources in the area, and
the power to forcibly
The Kamoro and Amungme indigenes inhabited an area relocate the indigenes and
stretching from the upland forests, river valleys, and coastal provide housing. How much
plains. The land they once lived on sustainably has become a did the wooden cabins cost
polluted wasteland because of the gold and copper mining. compared to what they
tribes lost?

Obesity, poor living conditions, and
high risk of early death from
alcoholism and substance abuse
among displaced indigenous people
What Happens to
Health?
When indigenous people
are removed from their
traditional diets, lifeways
and environments, they
invariably fall prey to
diseases of poverty,
especially in the poor
settlements they are given
to live in.
Where indigenes have long
contact with western
dominance they are prey to
obesity, diabetes, high blood
pressure and premature
death.
 The Way it Used to
be
The plight of many of the
last surviving indigenous
minorities is such that it
forces the experts in
developed societies to
Amazonian hunter-gatherers
have a healthy diet and question how beneficial
relatively carefree life. progress and development
are.

Numerous case studies

Hopi Indians from the
have demonstrated that
American Southwest
generally people are happier
added ashes from
and healthier when left
burned green plants
alone.
to food to provide
calcium and iron that
was otherwise lacking.
 The man who lives alone in
this hut on a patch of land
surrounded by cattle
ranchers is that last living
representative of his people.
The Piripkura people may
have been completely wiped
out, massacred by illegal
loggers invading their forest
hunting grounds.
The Kawahiva are constantly
being forced to flee from
illegal loggers who target
them in order to claim their
traditional hunting grounds.
Last Man Standing
Finally, I would like you
to imagine that you, and
perhaps your nearest
family members are the
last representatives of
your people. When you
die all your history,
language and culture
will disappear.
Everything you value is
gone and you wait to
die.
Write down what you
think people in tis
predicament must feel!
Summary
 1. There are still a substantial number of cultures, often small groups, maintaining limited or no
contact with the outside world.
 They pursue centuries-old subsistence lifeways
 2. as minorities they have little or no influence on the policies and decisions that affect their
lives.
 They are not consulted about decisions that will affect them
 They rarely have legal representation.
 3. ancestral land may be taken away in the ‘national’ interest for dams, mining, logging and
conservation projects.
 Compensation may be non-existent or woefully inadequate.
 4. Once evicted from ancestral land they end up in shanty settlements or slums.
 The only work available (if any) is menial and often dangerous
 5. Children may be forcibly removed from families and placed in factory schools and forced to
integrate into mainstream society.
 They suffer long term psychological and traumatic effects.
 They are often physically, emotionally and sexually abused.
 6. Once removed from ancestral land they become prone to severe health problems.
 7. When cultures are wiped out, languages, unique skills and important knowledge is lost
forever.