DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Mapping Identity Politics: Indigenous and Black Land Rights on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua

身份政治是指基于文化差异的主张对资源和权利的主张，而不是基于社会阶级或政党的主张。这篇论文的研究项目涉及德克萨斯大学的一位文化人类学家，他研究了种族测绘项目如何影响尼加拉瓜大西洋沿岸土著群体的自然资源主张。学生将学习当地的米斯基图和克里奥尔社区如何与非政府组织和其他组织合作，提出对领土和自然资源的主张。该项目将特别注意这些主张对性别关系和其他形式的社区内不平等的影响。还将研究土著和黑人社区之间的紧张关系，这些社区和国家之间的关系，以及性别和阶级的交叉变量。将使用的方法包括家庭和口述历史访谈、参与者观察和档案研究，以及基于地理信息系统的制图。这项研究将促进我们对所谓的新社会运动的理解，集中一系列的理论方法，从身份形成的后结构主义分析到更传统的民族和种族政治理论。从这一案例研究中获得的新信息将有助于我们理解从前南斯拉夫到墨西哥恰帕斯的世界各地发生的类似的身份政治过程。

Identity politics refers to claims for resources and rights based on assertions of cultural difference, rather than claims based on social class or political party. This dissertation research project involves a cultural anthropologist from the University of Texas studying how ethnic mapping projects affect the natural resource claims of indigenous groups on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. The student will study how local Miskitu and Creole communities, in conjunction with NGOs and other organizations, advance claims over territory and natural resources. The project will pay special attention to the impact these claims have on gender relations and other forms of intra-community inequality. The tensions between indigenous and black communities, the relations between these communities and the state, and the intersecting variables of gender and class will also be studied. The methods to be used include family and oral history interviews, participant observation and archival research, as well as GIS-based mapping. This research will advance our understanding of the so-called new social movements, bringing into focus a range of theoretical approaches, from post-structuralist analyses of identity formation to more conventional theories of ethnic and racial politics. The new information to be gained from this case study will help us to understand similar processes of identity politics occurring throughout the world, from the former Yugoslavia to Chiapas, Mexico.