Race, Indigeneity, and Social Justice in Abya Yala

Course Description

What does being Black and/or Indigenous mean in Latin America? How do contemporary understandings of social justice translate across borders? This course will trace the centuries-long contestations of Indigenous and Afro-descendent Peoples across The Western Hemisphere, also called Abya Yala. Meaning “Continent of Life” in the language of the Kuna peoples of Panama and Colombia, Abya Yala is used to denominate the American continents in their entirety.  Beginning in the 1970s, Indigenous leaders in Latin America proposed that the term be utilized in their documents and declarations to emphasize the importance of maintaining North-South relations in their scholarship and social justice activism.

Through the lens of ethnographic writing, film, novels, and cultural productions, we will explore how contemporary scholars and authors take up themes relevant across Abya Yala such as: oral traditions, Indigenous knowledge systems, political activism, race, ethnicity, state governance, contemporary social organization, and connections to land. This course introduces students to the diverse ways Indigenous and Afro-descendent Peoples negotiate the complex forces facing them today through alternative forms of transnational political contestation and representation, and in the process have come to redefine understandings of citizenship and democracy.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Outline key scholarly concerns and approaches to Indigeneity, race, and ethnicity in Latin America.
• Understand how the category of “Indigenous” and “Afro-descendent” Peoples arose and trace the emergence of multiculturalism and its effects during the late 20th century, and how marginalized groups in Latin America negotiate the complex forces facing them today.
• Understand and apply a basic vocabulary for discussing key issues within cultural anthropology as it relates to Indigeneity, race, and Social Justice in Latin America, including: culture, race, gender, sexuality, kinship and relatedness, inequality, migration, material culture, health and healing, symbolism, and ritual.
• Understand the barriers to adopting a hemispheric perspective of race, Indigenous, and social justice in Latin America, and the ways in which Indigenous and Afro-descendent people have sought to overcome these geographies of power.
• Practice analytic reading, writing, and discussion skills that are broadly useful in the humanities, social sciences, and professional contexts.