ABSTRACT
Indigenous and traditional peoples worldwide are facing a crisis, one that supersedes that inflicted on indigenous peoples during the imperial age. Just as, during the last 500 years, imperialism caused the encapsulation of indigenous societies within the new settler nation states, their subjection to colonial political formations and their loss of territory and jurisdiction, so have the globalizing market and the post-industrial/technological complex brought about another phase of profound change for these societies. The further encapsulation of indigenous societies by the global complex, to which nation state formations are themselves subservient, has resulted in continuing loss of territory as a result of large-scale developments, urban post-colonial population expansion, and ongoing colonization of the natural world by the market. This last point is illustrated, for example, by the bioprospecting and patenting of life forms and biota by new genetic and chemical engineering industries. Coincidental with the new colonization is the crisis of biodiversity loss – a critical issue for indigenous peoples, particularly hunting and gathering societies. The massive loss of biota through extinction events, loss of territory and species habitats, and environmental degradation, together with conservationist limitation of indigenous harvesting, constitute significant threats to indigenous ways of life.
