Taiwan, home to over 580,000 Indigenous people in 16 state‐recognized groups, is one of three Asi... more Taiwan, home to over 580,000 Indigenous people in 16 state‐recognized groups, is one of three Asian countries to recognize the existence of Indigenous peoples in its jurisdiction. Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples remember their pre‐colonial lives as autonomous nations living according to their own laws and political institutions, asserting that they have never ceded territory or sovereignty to any state. As Taiwan democratized, the state dealt with resurgent Indigenous demands for political autonomy through legal indigeneity, including inclusion in the Constitution since 1997 and subsequent legislation. Yet, in an examination of two court rulings, we find that liberal indigeneity protects individuals, while consistently undermining Indigenous sovereignty. In 2021, the Constitutional Court upheld restrictive laws against hunting, seeking to balance wildlife conservation and cultural rights for Indigenous hunters, but ignoring Indigenous demands to create autonomous hunting regimes. In 202...
T he relationship between indigenous peoples and Marxism has long been ambiguous. Marx himself, a... more T he relationship between indigenous peoples and Marxism has long been ambiguous. Marx himself, as a 19 th century philosopher influenced by social Darwinism, assumed that "tribal" peoples represented simple forms of productive relations and were destined to disappear (Marx 1887:51). For him, tribal peoples represented the beginning of social evolution, as expressed in The German Ideology: "The first form of ownership is tribal [Stammeigentum] ownership. It corresponds to the undeveloped stage of production, at which a people lives by hunting and fishing, by the rearing of beasts or, in the highest stage, agriculture" (Marx and Engels 1965:33). Indigenous people have sometimes been equally dismissive of Marx. Native American author Leslie Marmon Silko, for example, thought that Marxism and indigenous rights were incompatible because Marxism, like capitalism, requires the exploitation of natural resources and industrial development that conflicts with indigenous ideas about the sacred nature of the Earth (Teale 1998). Undeniably, however, the result of more than four centuries of imperialism and colonialism has ensnared indigenous peoples in the traps of the capitalist world system (Bodley 2008). Around the world, indigenous lands are expropriated by states and capitalist corporations, in order to channel natural resources from above and below ground into ever-widening streams of capital accumulation. Indigenous labour is appropriated by capitalist firms in multinational systems of production that transform indigenous people into members of the
Canadian yournal of Development Studies l&mue canadienne d'ktudes du dheloppement ... Co-edi... more Canadian yournal of Development Studies l&mue canadienne d'ktudes du dheloppement ... Co-editor / Corkdacteur Co-editor / Corkdacteur Henry Veltmeyer Scott Simon ... Book Review Editor/ Rkdacteur de comptes rendus : Myron Frankrnan, McGill Froduction Manager / Directrice deproduction : Laurel Hyatt Editorial 3ssistant/ 3ssistant d la rkdaction : Pierre Doucette Copy-Edit and Translation / Rh'sion et traduction : Stephanie VanderMeulen, Brendan Wid, Lucie Masson, Denise Veilleux, Lyne St-Hilaire-Tardif Layout / Mise en page : Laura Brady
For more than two decades, indigenous autonomy has been one of the main demands of Taiwan’s indig... more For more than two decades, indigenous autonomy has been one of the main demands of Taiwan’s indigenous rights movement. Indigenous autonomy was incorporated into Chen Shui-bian’s campaign promises in 1999, and subsequently adopted as a policy goal in the 2000 DPP White Paper on Indigenous Policy. In 2005, the passage of the Basic Law on Indigenous Peoples made it seem as if this goal could soon be fulfilled. The Taroko Nation, recognized by the ROC in 2004, initially seemed poised to create Taiwan’s first indigenous autonomous region. Those goals, however, have been slowed down by the emergence of communities and individuals in their defined territory who refuse Taroko identity and have launched a competing drive for recognition as the Sediq Nation. Some Taroko people also resist the project of autonomy on the grounds that it merely empowers a small elite and does nothing to address their more immediate economic problems. These counter movements suggest that more is at stake in “aut...
Indigenous rights and wildlife conservation laws have become two important arenas for legal plura... more Indigenous rights and wildlife conservation laws have become two important arenas for legal pluralism in Taiwan. In a process of vernacularization, Taiwan has adopted international legal norms in indigenous rights and wildlife conservation. Local actors from legislators to conservation officers and indigenous hunters refer not only to international and state law but also to indigenous customary law and other cultural norms in their interactions. In Seediq and Truku communities, the customary law of Gaya continues to inform the ways in which local hunters and trappers manage natural resources according to their own legal norms. There are, however, different individual interpretations of Gaya, and, in the absence of adequate legal protection, many hunting activities are clandestine and difficult to regulate. Fuller political autonomy, as envisioned in both the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Taiwan's 2005 Basic Law on Indigenous Peoples, is ...
What are the political and ontological implications of COVID-19? I had plenty of time to refect o... more What are the political and ontological implications of COVID-19? I had plenty of time to refect on this from March to July after I ended feldwork in Guam and unexpectedly spent four months in Taiwan Because of Taiwan's proximity to China, where the pandemic began, it initially seemed as if it would be among the most serious cases Instead, Taiwan's public health measures allowed it to become one of the few places in the world relatively untouched by the virus The experience of Taiwan with COVID-19 was shaped most of all by tense relations with China and the non-recognition of the country by the World Health Organization (WHO) There are also intriguing diferences within Taiwan where historically Chinese settler groups and Indigenous peoples related to other Pacific Islanders fnd their place in the world through a broad spectrum of non-Western ontologies In travelogue genre, I refect upon their different stories and practices of worlding as fears of the pandemic contributed to ...
Taiwan, home to over 580,000 Indigenous people in 16 state‐recognized groups, is one of three Asi... more Taiwan, home to over 580,000 Indigenous people in 16 state‐recognized groups, is one of three Asian countries to recognize the existence of Indigenous peoples in its jurisdiction. Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples remember their pre‐colonial lives as autonomous nations living according to their own laws and political institutions, asserting that they have never ceded territory or sovereignty to any state. As Taiwan democratized, the state dealt with resurgent Indigenous demands for political autonomy through legal indigeneity, including inclusion in the Constitution since 1997 and subsequent legislation. Yet, in an examination of two court rulings, we find that liberal indigeneity protects individuals, while consistently undermining Indigenous sovereignty. In 2021, the Constitutional Court upheld restrictive laws against hunting, seeking to balance wildlife conservation and cultural rights for Indigenous hunters, but ignoring Indigenous demands to create autonomous hunting regimes. In 202...
T he relationship between indigenous peoples and Marxism has long been ambiguous. Marx himself, a... more T he relationship between indigenous peoples and Marxism has long been ambiguous. Marx himself, as a 19 th century philosopher influenced by social Darwinism, assumed that "tribal" peoples represented simple forms of productive relations and were destined to disappear (Marx 1887:51). For him, tribal peoples represented the beginning of social evolution, as expressed in The German Ideology: "The first form of ownership is tribal [Stammeigentum] ownership. It corresponds to the undeveloped stage of production, at which a people lives by hunting and fishing, by the rearing of beasts or, in the highest stage, agriculture" (Marx and Engels 1965:33). Indigenous people have sometimes been equally dismissive of Marx. Native American author Leslie Marmon Silko, for example, thought that Marxism and indigenous rights were incompatible because Marxism, like capitalism, requires the exploitation of natural resources and industrial development that conflicts with indigenous ideas about the sacred nature of the Earth (Teale 1998). Undeniably, however, the result of more than four centuries of imperialism and colonialism has ensnared indigenous peoples in the traps of the capitalist world system (Bodley 2008). Around the world, indigenous lands are expropriated by states and capitalist corporations, in order to channel natural resources from above and below ground into ever-widening streams of capital accumulation. Indigenous labour is appropriated by capitalist firms in multinational systems of production that transform indigenous people into members of the
Canadian yournal of Development Studies l&mue canadienne d'ktudes du dheloppement ... Co-edi... more Canadian yournal of Development Studies l&mue canadienne d'ktudes du dheloppement ... Co-editor / Corkdacteur Co-editor / Corkdacteur Henry Veltmeyer Scott Simon ... Book Review Editor/ Rkdacteur de comptes rendus : Myron Frankrnan, McGill Froduction Manager / Directrice deproduction : Laurel Hyatt Editorial 3ssistant/ 3ssistant d la rkdaction : Pierre Doucette Copy-Edit and Translation / Rh'sion et traduction : Stephanie VanderMeulen, Brendan Wid, Lucie Masson, Denise Veilleux, Lyne St-Hilaire-Tardif Layout / Mise en page : Laura Brady
For more than two decades, indigenous autonomy has been one of the main demands of Taiwan’s indig... more For more than two decades, indigenous autonomy has been one of the main demands of Taiwan’s indigenous rights movement. Indigenous autonomy was incorporated into Chen Shui-bian’s campaign promises in 1999, and subsequently adopted as a policy goal in the 2000 DPP White Paper on Indigenous Policy. In 2005, the passage of the Basic Law on Indigenous Peoples made it seem as if this goal could soon be fulfilled. The Taroko Nation, recognized by the ROC in 2004, initially seemed poised to create Taiwan’s first indigenous autonomous region. Those goals, however, have been slowed down by the emergence of communities and individuals in their defined territory who refuse Taroko identity and have launched a competing drive for recognition as the Sediq Nation. Some Taroko people also resist the project of autonomy on the grounds that it merely empowers a small elite and does nothing to address their more immediate economic problems. These counter movements suggest that more is at stake in “aut...
Indigenous rights and wildlife conservation laws have become two important arenas for legal plura... more Indigenous rights and wildlife conservation laws have become two important arenas for legal pluralism in Taiwan. In a process of vernacularization, Taiwan has adopted international legal norms in indigenous rights and wildlife conservation. Local actors from legislators to conservation officers and indigenous hunters refer not only to international and state law but also to indigenous customary law and other cultural norms in their interactions. In Seediq and Truku communities, the customary law of Gaya continues to inform the ways in which local hunters and trappers manage natural resources according to their own legal norms. There are, however, different individual interpretations of Gaya, and, in the absence of adequate legal protection, many hunting activities are clandestine and difficult to regulate. Fuller political autonomy, as envisioned in both the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Taiwan's 2005 Basic Law on Indigenous Peoples, is ...
What are the political and ontological implications of COVID-19? I had plenty of time to refect o... more What are the political and ontological implications of COVID-19? I had plenty of time to refect on this from March to July after I ended feldwork in Guam and unexpectedly spent four months in Taiwan Because of Taiwan's proximity to China, where the pandemic began, it initially seemed as if it would be among the most serious cases Instead, Taiwan's public health measures allowed it to become one of the few places in the world relatively untouched by the virus The experience of Taiwan with COVID-19 was shaped most of all by tense relations with China and the non-recognition of the country by the World Health Organization (WHO) There are also intriguing diferences within Taiwan where historically Chinese settler groups and Indigenous peoples related to other Pacific Islanders fnd their place in the world through a broad spectrum of non-Western ontologies In travelogue genre, I refect upon their different stories and practices of worlding as fears of the pandemic contributed to ...
In this article, the two authors discuss how can Canada continue to benefit from Canada-Taiwan re... more In this article, the two authors discuss how can Canada continue to benefit from Canada-Taiwan relations, and contribute to the prevention of cross-strait conflict. This is one of the most urgent issues we face.
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