Cunning of Recognition: Indigenous Alterities and the Making of Australian Multiculturalism

Politics, History, and Culture

by Elizabeth A. Povinelli

A critique of liberal multiculturalism through a study of state-aboriginal relations in Australia, employing an innovative hybrid of theoretical approaches from anthropology, political theory, linguistics, and psychoanalysis.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Ethnography, Race

353 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Elizabeth A. Povinelli is Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies at Columbia University where she has also been the Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Law and Culture.

Reviews

[Naomi McCormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is book is so devastatingly smart it will make you want to drop out of your phd program - because the best thing ever has already been written. or, at the very least, shamlessly overcite it in your own dissertation

[Andrew Nolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are many things problematic about this book, but the only I can really be bothered typing about right now is Povinelli's gargantuan blind spot in how she is positioned in relation to her subjects.

It could also be my barely self-acknowledged dislike of anthropology and anthropologists coming to the fore.

I'll stick with Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Lorenzo Veracinini, and Linda Tuhiwai Smith in the realm of critiques of contemporary forms of colonial power.

[Marcel Tabuteau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and frustrating dive into liberal recognition and the reinstatement of these liberal laws by those seeking to support local claimants.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pessimism about liberal/neoliberal governance. Ethnography of the difference between political rhetoric and practice.