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Territories of Life

Exploring ways Indigenous and other collectives strive to sustain unique territories of life under modernization, coloniality

Research | Books at Memorial

Territories of Life: Equivocations, Entanglements and Endurances highlights the multiplicity and heterogeneity of worlds and collectives, some labelled Indigenous, as they struggle to sustain their territories of life.

Territories of Life is co-edited by Dr. Mario Blaser, a professor in the departments of Anthropology and Geography at Memorial University and a tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Studies from 2009-19. His co-editors are Sylvie Poirier and Penelope Anthias.

Contributors are Penelope Anthias, Jacinta Baragud, Mario Blaser, Yamila Gutierrez Callisaya, Benoit Éthier, Sipi Flamand, Hernán Ruiz Fournier, Sarah C. Moritz, Adam Nye, Sylvie Poirier, Lorna Quiroga, Qwalqwalten (Garry John), Cristina Rojas, Scott E. Simon, Kim Spurway, Annick Thomassin, Carolina Tytelman, and Paul Wattez.

Sustaining diverse modes of existence

Each of the 10 chapters is grounded in long-term ethnographic work from various countries, including those colonially known as Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Paraguay and Taiwan.

The book offers a grounding to discuss the challenges and possibilities that exist for the continuation of territories of life that have endured, for the renewal of those that have been severely damaged and for the creation of those that must flourish to sustain diverse modes of existence.

The book’s contributors explore the diverse ways Indigenous and other collectives strive to sustain their unique territories of life under the heavy shadow of modernization and coloniality.

They emphasize that these struggles involve not only humans but also more-than-human collectives.

To portray the complexity of the relations between these collectives and the forces of modernization, the volume is structured around three keywords: equivocation, entanglement and endurance.

Publisher

Territories of Life: Equivocations, Entanglements and Endurances is published by the University of Alberta Press.

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