From Time Immemorial: Indigenous Peoples and State Systems

by Richard J. Perry

Around the globe, people who have lived in a place "from time immemorial" have found themselves confronted by and ultimately incorporated within larger state systems. During more than three decades of anthropological study of groups ranging from the Apache to the indigenous peoples of Kenya, Richard J. Perry has sought to understand this incorporation process and, more importantly, to identify the factors that drive it. This broadly synthetic and highly readable book chronicles his findings. Perry delves into the relations between state systems and indigenous peoples in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Australia. His explorations show how, despite differing historical circumstances, encounters between these state systems and native peoples generally followed a similar invasion, genocide, displacement, assimilation, and finally some measure of apparent self-determination for the indigenous people—which may, however, have its own pitfalls. After establishing this common pattern, Perry tackles the harder question—why does it happen this way? Defining the state as a nexus of competing interest groups, Perry offers persuasive evidence that competition for resources is the crucial factor in conflicts between indigenous peoples and the powerful constituencies that drive state policies. These findings shed new light on a historical phenomenon that is too often studied in isolated instances. This book will thus be important reading for everyone seeking to understand the new contours of our postcolonial world.

Genres: Nonfiction

318 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1995

Reviews

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Perry reviews the removal of aboriginal peoples from their homelands in Mexico, United States, Canada, Australia with some mention of other countries like Indonesia, citing the systematic absence of native rights, the cruel treatment of aboriginal people, and loss of homeland as the "state system" felt justified in removing people from lands they have lived on for thousands of years.
The juxtaposition of these chapters emphasize the similarities of how colonizers in all these countries that felt any means, even corraling and shooting aboriginals, was justified so the colonizers and their governments could take over land and wealth.
This book is about widespread inhumanity deemed acceptable because all these countries behaved the same way. The last short chapters discuss modern day compensation for mistreatment. This subject needs in entire book in itself. The struggle is still going on.
This book is a surprisingly gripping read and makes one wish to take a class of Dr. Perry's.