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3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Treasured Possessions: Indigenous Interventions into Cultural and Intellectual Property

Treasured Possessions: Indigenous Interventions into Cultural and Intellectual Property

Paperback

Series: Objects/Histories

Art HistoryAnthropologyGeneral Law

ISBN10: 0822354276
ISBN13: 9780822354277
Publisher: Duke Univ Pr
Published: Jun 4 2013
Pages: 328
Weight: 1.25
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.60 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
What happens when ritual practitioners from a small Pacific nation make an intellectual property claim to bungee jumping? When a German company successfully sues to defend its trademark of a Māori name? Or when UNESCO deems ephemeral sand drawings to be intangible cultural heritage? In Treasured Possessions, Haidy Geismar examines how global forms of cultural and intellectual property are being redefined by everyday people and policymakers in two markedly different Pacific nations. The New Hebrides, a small archipelago in Melanesia managed jointly by Britain and France until 1980, is now the independent nation-state of Vanuatu, with a population that is more than 95 percent indigenous. New Zealand, by contrast, is a settler state and former British colony that engages with its entangled Polynesian and British heritage through an ethos of biculturalism that is meant to involve an indigenous population of just 15 percent. Alternative notions of property, resources, and heritage--informed by distinct national histories--are emerging in both countries. These property claims are advanced in national and international settings, but they emanate from specific communities and cultural landscapes, and they are grounded in an awareness of ancestral power and inheritance. They reveal intellectual and cultural property to be not only legal constructs but also powerful ways of asserting indigenous identities and sovereignties.

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Anthropology