Mediation as Diplomacy: Dynamics of Governance and Representation in Brazilian Indigenous Societies

Abstract

European colonisation shattered the indigenous societies of the Americas. Over five centuries, these societies were subjected to comprehensive military defeat, cultural suppression and political subjugation. A combination of violence, dispossession and disease led to catastrophic demographic decline and left indigenous peoples as minority populations in all but a handful of the territories they had occupied when Columbus made landfall in 1492. Yet they endured — and in many places they are now resurgent. The democratic ‘third wave’ of the late 20th century created space for the resurgence of identity politics, and in this context indigenous social movement organisations emerged. They successfully articulated demands for cultural and political recognition with the struggle for land and resources, building transnational alliances and securing rights guarantees through favourable legal judgements and constitutional reforms.