Forensic Injustice: Human Rights, Archival Science and Racialized Feminicide in Guatemala

The call to access and preserve the state records that document crimes committed by the state during Guatemala’s civil war has become an archival imperative entangled with neoliberal human rights discourses of “truth, justice, and memory.” 200,000 people were killed and disappeared in Guatemala’s civil war including acts of genocide in which 85% of massacres involved sexual violence committed against Mayan women. This dissertation argues that in an attempt to tell the official story of the civil war, American Human Rights organizations and academic institutions have constructed a normative identity whose humanity is attached to a scientific and evidentiary value as well as an archival status representing the materiality and institutionality of the record. Consequently, Human Rights discourses grounded in Western knowledges, in particular archival science and law, which prioritize the appearance of truth erase the material and epistemological experience of indigenous women during wartimes. As a result, the subjectivity that has surfaced on the record as most legible has mostly pertained to non-indigenous, middle class, urban, leftist men who were victims of enforced disappearance not genocide. This dissertation investigates this conflicting narrative that remembers a non-indigenous revolutionary masculine hero and grants him justice in human rights courtrooms simply because of a document attesting to his death. A main research question addressed in this project is why the promise of "truth and justice" under the name of human rights becomes a contentious site for gendered indigenous bodies? I conduct a discursive and rhetorical analysis of documentary film, declassified Guatemalan police and military records such as Operation Sofia, a military log known for “documenting the genocide” during rural counterinsurgencies executed by the military. I interrogate the ways in which racialized feminicides or the hyper-sexualized racial violence that has historically dehumanized indigenous women falls outside of discourses of vision constructed by Western positivist knowledges to reinscribe the ideal human right subject. I argue for alternative epistemological frames that recognize genocide as sexualized and gendered structures that have simultaneously produced racialized feminicides in order to disrupt the colonial structures of capitalism, patriarchy and heterosexuality. Ironically, these structures of power remain untouched by the dominant human rights discourse and its academic, NGO, and state collaborators that seek "truth and justice" in post-conflict Guatemala.

Bioethics, culture and infanticide in brazilian indigenous communities : the Zuruahá case

O artigo analisa a prática do infanticídio em comunidades indígenas brasileiras. Tomando como referência um caso específico envolvendo duas crianças do povo Zuruahá, focaliza o tema sob uma abordagem mais abrangente e discute como o infanticídio é interpretado em outros povos indígenas. Foram considerados, na discussão, os debates ocorridos durante a Audiência Pública realizada no Congresso Nacional Brasileiro, em dezembro de 2005, que analisou o tema, além de revisão bibliográfica. Diante dos posicionamentos assumidos naquela audiência, procurou-se identificar os problemas éticos e os dilemas morais, contextualizando-os e analisando-os à luz do respeito ao pluralismo cultural. A fim de contribuir com o debate, os autores analisam as possibilidades de intervenção nas práticas tradicionais de infanticídio, recusando qualquer opção que não esteja ancorada numa atitude de profundo respeito pela cultura de outros povos ou que não apresente condição de dialogar com indivíduos ou grupos com diferentes moralidades. ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT

A survey of smoking prevalence amoung Indigenous secondary school students in North Queensland

Request the full-text to ask the authors to provide the full-text version. Article published: Drug Alcohol Rev. 2004 Mar;23(1):101-7.

The modern state and the re-creation of the indigenous other: The case of the authentic Sami in Sweden and the white man's Indian in the United States of America

The present study comparatively examined the socio-political and economic transformation of the indigenous Sámi in Sweden and the Indian American in the United States of America occurring first as a consequence of colonization and later as a product of interaction with the modern territorial and industrial state, from approximately 1500 to 1900. ^ The first colonial encounters of the Europeans with these autochthonous populations ultimately created an imagery of the exotic Other and of the noble savage. Despite these disparaging representations, the cross-cultural settings in which these interactions took place also produced the hybrid communities and syncretic life that allowed levels of cultural accommodation, autonomous space, and indigenous agency to emerge. By the nineteenth century, however, the modern territorial and industrial state rearranges the dynamics and reaches of power across a redefined territorial sovereign space, consequently, remapping belongingness and identity. In this context, the status of indigenous peoples, as in the case of Sámi and of Indian Americans, began to change at par with industrialization and with modernity. At this point in time, indigenous populations became a hindrance to be dealt with the legal re-codification of Indigenousness into a vacuumed limbo of disenfranchisement. It is, thus, the modern territorial and industrial state that re-creates the exotic into an indigenous Other. ^ The present research showed how the initial interaction between indigenous and Europeans changed with the emergence of the modern state, demonstrating that the nineteenth century, with its fundamental impulses of industrialism and modernity, not only excluded and marginalized indigenous populations because they were considered unfit to join modern society, it also re-conceptualized indigenous identity into a constructed authenticity.^

Strategic Diplomacies: Indigenous Governance, International Politics, and Natural Resources in Canada

International Relations theory would predict that central governments, with their considerable material resources, would be unlikely to face a challenge from a substate government. However, substate governments, and particularly Indigenous governments, are pushing back against central government control in both domestic and international spheres. Indigenous governments are leveraging their local mining sectors to realize their interests and express local identities—interests and identities that may not be congruent with those of the central government. Applying the case study of the resource extraction sector in Canada, this thesis asks: under what conditions are substate governments able to challenge the authority of central governments in the international arena? Canada’s reliance on the global extractive resource sector is a major driver of its international policy preferences, but the increased engagement of Indigenous governments in the sector challenges the control of the federal government. Focusing on the resource extraction sectors in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, this thesis argues that there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between Indigenous governments’ international engagement and their domestic autonomy; both challenge the parameters of state authority. Both force the state to respond to claims of control from multiple sites and to clarify convoluted policy environments. A confluence of factors—including increased Indigenous connections to the globalized economy, new Canadian regulatory frameworks, and recent Supreme Court of Canada cases regarding Indigenous lands—have all altered the space in which Indigenous governments in Canada participate in the resource extraction sector and produce overlapping or multilevel governance structures. This thesis demonstrates that Indigenous international engagement entrenches the authority and political legitimacy manifest in Indigenous governments’ insistence on equitable and horizontal negotiations in Canada’s lucrative resource extraction sector. A cumulative process occurs in which domestic and international expressions of political autonomy reinforce each other, produce further opportunities to express authority in both environments, and trouble the state’s capacity to fully realize its international policy preferences.

Non-indigenous Japanese oyster drill Pteropurpura (Ocinebrellus) inornata (Récluz, 1851) (Gastropoda: Muricidae) on the south-west coast of Portugal

The Japanese oyster drill or rock snail Pteropurpura (Ocinebrellus) inornata (Récluz, 1851), a marine mollusc, belonging to the family Muricidae, is reported from Portugal for the first time. This non-indigenous species, most likely introduced accidentally from French oyster rearing areas into mainland Portugal, has been regularly sampled in shellfish-culture and nearby environments in Sagres, Algarve, Southwest Portugal since 2005–2008. Detailed studies are urgently needed in order to assess whether or not it has become an invasive species due to a range expansion beyond its point of initial introduction. Outputs should provide information to decision-makers to predict and limit further spread which might result in biodiversity loss and negative economical consequences in locally species-rich areas.

Training and Updating of Education Boards in Indigenous Schools of Rural Areas: Strengthening Local Education Management

Education management in the schools of indigenous rural areas faces a number of difficulties to implement and comply with the guidelines and requirements of the laws related to budgetary management of resources allocated to Education or Administrative Boards. In addition to being located in scattered rural areas, far from the municipal heads and regional offices of the Ministry of Public Education, one of the main obstacles is that all regulations, laws and guidelines are written in Spanish, and there is people, in this indigenous rural communities, who do not speak, write, read or understand this language. This puts them at an enormous disadvantage, which has a direct impact on the indigenous children’s right to education.

Spatial-temporal variability of the benthic communities in Ravenna harbour using Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) with focus on Non-Indigenous Species (NIS)

A Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) is defined as an organism, introduced outside its natural past or present range of distribution by humans, that successfully survives, reproduces, and establish in the new environment. Harbors and tourist marinas are considered NIS hotspots, as they are departure and arrival points for numerous vessels and because of the presence of free artificial substrates, which facilitate colonization by NIS. To early detect the arrival of new NIS, monitoring benthic communities in ports is essential. Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) are standardized passive collectors that are used to assess marine benthic communities. Here we use an integrative approach based on multiple 3-month ARMS deployment (from April 2021 to October 2022) to characterize the benthic communities (with a focus on NIS) of two sites: a commercial port (Harbor) and a touristic Marina (Marina) of Ravenna. The colonizing sessile communities were assessed using percentage coverage of the taxa trough image analyses and vagile fauna (> 2 mm) was identified morphologically using a stereomicroscope and light microscope. Overall, 97 taxa were identified and 19 of them were NIS. All NIS were already observed in port environments in the Mediterranean Sea, but for the first time the presence of the polychaete Schistomeringos cf. japonica (Annenkova, 1937) was observed; however molecular analysis is needed to confirm its identity. Harbor and Marina host significantly different benthic communities, with significantly different abundance depending on the sampling period. While the differences between sites are related to their different environmental characteristic and their anthropogenic pressures, differences among times seems related to the different life cycle of the main abundant species. This thesis evidenced that ARMS, together with integrative taxonomic approaches, represent useful tools to early detect NIS and could be used for a long-term monitoring of their presence.

A Rosetta Stone For Nature's Benefits To People.

After a long incubation period, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is now underway. Underpinning all its activities is the IPBES Conceptual Framework (CF), a simplified model of the interactions between nature and people. Drawing on the legacy of previous large-scale environmental assessments, the CF goes further in explicitly embracing different disciplines and knowledge systems (including indigenous and local knowledge) in the co-construction of assessments of the state of the world's biodiversity and the benefits it provides to humans. The CF can be thought of as a kind of Rosetta Stone that highlights commonalities between diverse value sets and seeks to facilitate crossdisciplinary and crosscultural understanding. We argue that the CF will contribute to the increasing trend towards interdisciplinarity in understanding and managing the environment. Rather than displacing disciplinary science, however, we believe that the CF will provide new contexts of discovery and policy applications for it.

A lingüística indígena no Brasil

This article presents a panorama of the area of the linguistics of the indigenous languages in Brazil within the discipline of Brazilian linguiistics as a whole. Special attention is given to those aspects related to its specific development. It is argued that in contrast to what is commonly supposed, the arrival of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (1959) not only was not the beginning of this area of study in the country, but it even contributed to the delay in its establishment. It was only after the return of Brazilian scholars educated abroad who were interested in the study of the national indigenous languages that a specialized branch of linguistics directed to the study of these languages began to take form. The present situation of the area and perspectives for future development are both explored.

Mulheres indigenas: poder e tradição

This study contemplates reports and reflections about gender and the interfaces with work, power and woman's political participation within the Bororo indigenous communities in Mato Grosso, Guarani/Kaiowá and Kadiwéu ones, in Mato Grosso do Sul. In the study with the Bororo community, the woman valorization occurred because she represents the guardian of the culture and of the traditional knowledge, and at the same time, she is an important speaker for the Bororo and the non indigenous society. In the case of Guarani/Kaiowá community, the most important facts are, on one side, the departure of the men and their wish to become city men, and on the other, the women who wish or need to keep the Guarani identity and live in the reserve. In the Kadiwéu community, the most important fact is the women political power and a role division between men and women, without the attribution of more value to one role or the other.

Educação fisica, escola e cultura : o enredo das diferenças

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física