ABSTRACT
The global indigenous movement is alive with promising contradictions. This chapter examines the task of laying out a historically concrete history of divergent indigeneities. In Indonesia, the phrase used as an equivalent for “indigenous peoples” is masyarakat adat. However, the effective translation of the transnational indigenous movement goes beyond the problem of words. The meaning of the phrase “indigenous peoples,” in its local translations, varies nationally as well as regionally. National variation in the meaning of “indigenous” is structured by the exigencies of policy and politics. Nation-state policies have everywhere created the conditions for indigenous lives. Regional variations in the meaning of indigenous are tied to contingent histories of segregation, alliance, suppression, mobilization, leadership, and political culture. Mexican struggles for indigenous autonomy are distinctive; and yet they also partake in a wider Latin American conversation about the possibility of democratic reform through indigenous autonomy.
