Ethnic Studies 156
Indigenous People

Advanced Study
General Education: Area D2 The Individual and Society

Course Description:

The course discusses the common existential experience of Indigenous People all over the world namely the Batwa and Pygmies in Central Africa, the Khoisan of Southern Africa, the Berber in Northern Africa, the Sami in Northern Europe, the Dravidians of India, the Hawaiians in the Pacific, the Ainu of Japan, the Aborigines in Australia, and Native Americans in the Americas
Course Justification:
The course fulfills the curricular goals of the Ethnic Studies Department in its efforts to develop courses with an international and global scope. The course is also important for comparative studies in ethnic and racial relations of pluralistic societies. The course will examine how this "endangered species" is similar and different from other minorities in the United States.

Expected Learning Outcomes:

1.Students are expected to be able to identify indigenous people.
2.Students are expected to know why indigenous people have become an "endangered species", dwindling in numbers and losing their culture.
3.Students are expected to be able to choose the more appropriate proposal among all alternatives to help indigenous people.

Assessment Strategies:

To assess the students' comprehension of concepts, issues, theories and the jargon, they will be evaluated in 3 ways: 5 typed double-spaced essays, an oral presentation and a final exam.
1. Of the 5 papers, 3 will be research papers five pages in length. Two will be a 50-minutes in class-essay.
2. The students will give a 10-15 minutes oral presentation.
3. The final exam tests students' comprehension of concepts, jargon , issues and theories.

Textbooks:

Diana Vinding, Editor. 2003. The Indigenous World 2002-2003. Somerset, NJ:
Transaction Publishers.
Suhas Chakma and Marianne Jensen, Editors. 2002. Racism against Indigenous
Peoples. Somerset, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Suggested Texts:

United Nations. 1994. Seeds of new partnership between indigenous peoples and the United Nations. New York: United Nations.
Mason, Paul, ed. 1997. Atlas of Threatened Cultures. Austin, Texas: Raintree Steck-Vaughn.

Course Outline:

Week 1. Who are the indigenous people?
Chapt. 1 David Maybury-Lewis; World map of endangered cultures (National Geographic)
www.
Week 2-3. Native Americans in the Americas:
Removal, relocation and massacres
The American Holocaust. David Stannard,
First term paper
Week 4. Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.

Week 5. The Aborigines in Australia.
Week 6. The Ainu in Japan.
Japan's Indigenous people, JLGC Newsletter Issue No25 Winter 1998
Second paper: in-class essay
Week 7. The Sami of Northern Europe.
An introduction to the Sami people: www.itv.se/boreale/samieng.htm
Week 8. The Basque
Week 9. The Berber of Northern Africa
The Berber People: BBC
The Berber: Encarta Encyclopedia
Morocco's Berbers battle to keep from losing their culture, San Francisco Chronicle, March 16, 2001
Third essay
Week 10. The Batwa and Pygmies of Central Africa.
Who are the Pygmies? www.cwu.edu/~yaegerl/pygmypage.htm
Week 11-12. The Khoisan of Southern Africa
Alan Barnard. 1992. Hunters and Gatherers of Southern Africa. Cambridge University Press.
Fourth paper: in-class essay
Week 13. Indigenous people and cultural survival
"Doctrines of Dispossession": Racism against Indigenous Peoples. UN Conference on Ending Racism, Durban, South Africa, 2001. www.un.org/wcar
Week 14-15. Oral presentations, final exam and 5th essay.

Course evaluation:

Class attendance and participation: 20%
Essay papers: 60%
Oral presentation: 10%
Final exam: 10%