Indigeneity and the Sacred

Indigenous Revival and the Conservation of Sacred Natural Sites in the Americas

Fausto Sarmiento, Sarah Hitchner, Fausto Sarmiento, Sarah Hitchner

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781789204957
• eBook ISBN: 9781785333972
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Social Sciences

This book presents current research in the political ecology of indigenous revival and its role in nature conservation in critical areas in the Americas. An important contribution to evolving studies on conservation of sacred natural sites (SNS), the book elucidates the complexity of development scenarios within cultural landscapes related to the appropriation of religion, environmental change in indigenous territories, and new conservation management approaches. Indigeneity and the Sacred explores how these struggles for land, rights, and political power are embedded within physical landscapes, and how indigenous identity is reconstituted as globalizing forces simultaneously threaten and promote the notion of indigeneity.

Table of contents

• Indigeneity and the Sacred
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Part I — Geographies of Indigenous Revival and Conservation
• Introduction: Whose Sacred Sites? Indigenous Political Use of Sacred Sites, Mythology, and Religion
• Chapter 1 — Connecting Policy and Practice for the Conservation of Sacred Natural Sites
• Chapter 2 — Structural Changes in Latin American Spirituality
• Part 2 — Framing Sacred Sites in Indigenous Mindscapes
• Introduction to Part 2: Framing Sacred Sites in Indigenous Mindscapes
• Chapter 3 — El Buen Vivir and "the Good Life"
• Chapter 4 — Sacred Mountains
• Chapter 5 — Frozen Mummies and the Archaeology of High Mountains in the Construction of Andean Identity
• Chapter 6 — Sacred Sites and Changing Dimensions of Andean Indigenous Identities in Space and Time
• Chapter 7 — National Park Service Approaches to Connecting Indigenous Cultural and Spiritual Values to Protected Places
• Part 3 — Case Studies
• Introduction to Part 3: Case Studies
• Chapter 8 — Collaborative Archaeology as a Tool for Preserving Sacred Sites in the Cherokee Heartland
• Chapter 9 — Biocultural Sacred Sites in Mexico
• Chapter 10 — New Dimensions in the Territorial Conservation Management in Ecuador
• Chapter 11 — Sustainability and Ethnobotanical Knowledge in the Peruvian Amazon
• Conclusion
• Index