Indigenous people in Colombia constitute a mere three percent of the
national population. Colombian indigenous communities' success in
gaining collective control of almost thirty percent of the national
territory is nothing short of extraordinary. In Managing
Multiculturalism, Jean E. Jackson examines the evolution of the
Colombian indigenous movement over the course of her forty-plus years of
research and fieldwork, offering unusually developed and nuanced insight
into how indigenous communities and activists changed over time, as well
as how she the ethnographer and scholar evolved in turn.
The story of how indigenous organizing began, found its voice,
established alliances, and won battles against the government and the
Catholic Church has important implications for the indigenous cause
internationally and for understanding all manner of rights organizing.
Integrating case studies with commentaries on the movement's
development, Jackson explores the politicization and deployment of
multiculturalism, indigenous identity, and neoliberalism, as well as
changing conceptions of cultural value and authenticity-including issues
such as patrimony, heritage, and ethnic tourism. Both ethnography and
recent history of the Latin American indigenous movement, this works
traces the ideas motivating indigenous movements in regional and global
relief, and with unprecedented breadth and depth.
