Paper short abstract:

Drawing on Canadian and South African examples, I use Kuper’s discussion of indigeneity to explore anthropological debates on commonality, diversity, social justice and advocacy.

Paper long abstract:

Kuper's discussion of indigeneity raises many pertinent questions about the current focus of anthropology. Is our discipline about commonality, diversity, advocacy or social justice? Can it successfully address all these aspects without losing credibility over the invariable contradictions that arise from lived cultural experiences and expectations? As Sider (2006) has recently pointed out, anthropology is inescapably affected by and influential in policy-making. Here I challenge Sider's bleak assessment of anthropology's limited potential to move beyond the endorsement of colonial legacy, by exploring three cases of land restitution in Canada and South Africa. As is clear in these cases, albeit in revealingly different ways, the management of land restitution is a prime example of how policies affect and influence ethnic identities. Kuper's assessment of indigeneity exposes the reactionary and racist potential in some of anthropology's most honoured and honourable traditions. But it does so in ways that reaffirm anthropology's potential for lively, engaging and powerfully relevant intellectual debate.