DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Mapping Identity Politics: Indigenous and Black Land Rights on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

Identity politics refers to claims for resources and rights based on assertions of cultural difference, rather than claims based on social class or political party. This dissertation research project involves a cultural anthropologist from the University of Texas studying how ethnic mapping projects affect the natural resource claims of indigenous groups on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. The student will study how local Miskitu and Creole communities, in conjunction with NGOs and other organizations, advance claims over territory and natural resources. The project will pay special attention to the impact these claims have on gender relations and other forms of intra-community inequality. The tensions between indigenous and black communities, the relations between these communities and the state, and the intersecting variables of gender and class will also be studied. The methods to be used include family and oral history interviews, participant observation and archival research, as well as GIS-based mapping. This research will advance our understanding of the so-called new social movements, bringing into focus a range of theoretical approaches, from post-structuralist analyses of identity formation to more conventional theories of ethnic and racial politics. The new information to be gained from this case study will help us to understand similar processes of identity politics occurring throughout the world, from the former Yugoslavia to Chiapas, Mexico.