CIAO DATE: 11/2008
November 2007
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Rauna Kuokkanen addresses the interrelated issues of globalization, the securing of collective autonomy by Indigenous peoples, and the importance of individual autonomy for women within aboriginal societies in this paper. In these regards, she argues that the incorporation of Indigenous peoples into the global capitalist market economy has destroyed both the (collective) political and economic autonomy of indigenous societies and the (individual) political and economic autonomy of Indigenous women. In looking to the future, she adds that if Indigenous peoples are to restore and reclaim their sovereignty and/or establish new structures of self-determination and autonomy, they need not only to draw upon the needs and concerns of Indigenous women but also to build upon their historical and contemporary political and economic activities and roles. She notes that Indigenous women in company with peasant women in many developing countries foster a particular relational form of autonomy that must be nurtured and welcomed. What is more, this concept of relational autonomy along with the "gift" paradigm offers an alternative to the exchange and individualizing capitalist market economy. The logic of the gift, she points out, is already practiced in various communities (not limited to Indigenous peoples) in a multitude of forms and represents a form of relational autonomy par excellence. The gift is based on a different logic that perceives the world as being inhabited by autonomous but interrelated powers and entities that cannot be subjugated. It brings into question many of the current models of autonomy and self-government. The gift concept accomplishes this task by rearticulating the role of the individual in relation to the community not in the individualistic terms of liberal theory but through recognizing the fundamentally social nature of human beings.
Professor Kuokkanen develops this argument by first presenting an indigenous feminist critique of current self-governance models. She then turns to global capitalism and links the issue of viable autonomy with the question of the economy. Here she begins her exploration of alternative economic systems. In the third section of the paper, she discusses Jennifer Nedelsky's notion of relational autonomy built on Indigenous women's perspectives and articulations of sovereignty. In the final section of the paper, she suggests a specific form of relational autonomy based on the gift paradigm as a model of community autonomy and a sustainable economy. She stresses that the gift paradigm is not only relevant to Indigenous peoples and communities but also represents an alternative to the current, dominant market-driven ideology and system that have driven the world's ecosystems and communities to the brink of destruction.
Resource link: The Politics of Form and Alternative Autonomies: Indigenous Women, Subsistence Economies and the Gift Paradigm [PDF] - 889K