The practical and artistic creations of native peoples permeate everyday life in settler nations, from the design elements on our clothing to the plot-lines of books we read to our children. Rarely, however, do native communities benefit materially from this use of their heritage, a situation that drives growing resistance to what some denounce as "cultural theft."

Who Owns Native Culture? documents the efforts of indigenous peoples to redefine heritage as a proprietary resource. Michael Brown takes readers into settings where native peoples defend what they consider their cultural property: a courtroom in Darwin, Australia, where an Aboriginal artist and a clan leader bring suit against a textile firm that infringes sacred art; archives and museums in the United States, where Indian tribes seek control over early photographs and sound recordings collected in their communities; and the Mexican state of Chiapas, site of a bioprospecting venture whose legitimacy is questioned by native-rights activists.

By focusing on the complexity of actual cases, Brown casts light on indigenous claims in diverse fields--religion, art, sacred places, and botanical knowledge. He finds both genuine injustice and, among advocates for native peoples, a troubling tendency to mimic the privatizing logic of major corporations.

The author proposes alternative strategies for defending the heritage of vulnerable native communities without blocking the open communication essential to the life of pluralist democracies. Who Owns Native Culture? is a lively, accessible introduction to questions of cultural ownership, group privacy, intellectual property, and the recovery of indigenous identities.

Michael Brown brings a discerning anthropological eye and ear to the passionate questions raised by efforts to protect native heritage from use by outsiders. Who Owns Native Culture? is a major and vital work, opening up to view a tournament of values central to contemporary thinking about culture. -- Fred Myers, New York University The genius of the book is both to bring together a vast amount of disparate material... and to add to this the author's own touch: his ability to present embattled people and conflicting logics with hopes for provisional, practical, empirically wise and humane solutions. -- Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge An outstanding book on a subject of vital importance. Michael Brown has emerged as a commanding figure in debate about this subject, and here we see why. Not only does he cover a tremendous range of issues but unlike other books on the subject, his offers guidelines for how such complex issues should be politically negotiated. Must reading! -- Katherine Verdery, University of Michigan Everyone whose research involves indigenous cultures, indigenous property rights, or intellectual property issues should have a closely read and well-highlighted copy of Brown's book. -- Joe Watkins, University of New Mexico

About the Author
Michael F. Brown is President of the School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe.

Reviews
Michael Brown brings a discerning anthropological eye and ear to the passionate questions raised by efforts to protect native heritage from use by outsiders. Who Owns Native Culture? is a major and vital work, opening up to view a tournament of values central to contemporary thinking about culture. -- Fred Myers, New York University
The genius of the book is both to bring together a vast amount of disparate material... and to add to this the author's own touch: his ability to present embattled people and conflicting logics with hopes for provisional, practical, empirically wise and humane solutions. -- Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge
An outstanding book on a subject of vital importance. Michael Brown has emerged as a commanding figure in debate about this subject, and here we see why. Not only does he cover a tremendous range of issues but unlike other books on the subject, his offers guidelines for how such complex issues should be politically negotiated. Must reading! -- Katherine Verdery, University of Michigan
Everyone whose research involves indigenous cultures, indigenous property rights, or intellectual property issues should have a closely read and well-highlighted copy of Brown's book. -- Joe Watkins, University of New Mexico
Every once in a while critical reason triumphs over political correctness and identity politics, and the result can be exhilarating. Michael F. Brown, who is the Lambert professor of anthropology and Latin American studies at Williams College and knows more about intellectual property law than most legal scholars, has written a brave, logical and even witty book about some of the hazards and challenges of cultural heritage protection. -- Richard A. Shweder * New York Times Book Review *
This is an excellent guide to conflicting logics and to what occurs when 'culture' is transformed from an abstraction into something apparently tangible and immutable as 'heritage.' This outstanding book is also a plea for flexibility in civil society and social justice for First Nations. -- O. Pi-Sunyer * Choice *
This is one of the most important books in cultural economics published in the last fifteen years. -- Tyler Cowen * Journal of Cultural Economics *
In a series of case studies of battles concerning the ownership rights to native or indigenous (interchangeable terms) artifacts, places, and practices, the reader is lead through layers of political, religious, bureaucratic, and moral entanglements. When one finally emerges on the other side, one is left with a useful picture of the contemporary muddle. Notable for the tone and temperament Brown brings to the discussion, he is decidedly unsentimental in his evaluation of claims to culture brought by natives and other bodies, like the United Nations. At the same time he is conscientious of and sympathetic to the histories of colonial oppression that contextualize current conflicts between governments, commercial interests, and indigenous peoples worldwide. He questions the practical ability of native peoples to lay exclusive, restrictive claim to their "culture," while acknowledging that "heritage" can and should be respected Acknowledging that it is difficult to square the "emotivism of heritage claims with the factual demands of the law," Brown addresses important epistemological and philosophical discontinuities that exist between heritage, law, and morality. -- Daniel Thomas Cook * American Journal of Sociology *
For the uninitiated, Michael Brown's thoughtful book, Who Owns Native Culture?, can serve as a welcome point of entry into current debates on cultural property. Written for a general audience in an engaging style, the book offers a virtual fieldtrip in which readers are introduced to the issues through consideration of recent court cases, public debates, and policy developments...Who Owns Native Culture? is a rich introduction to discussions that will occupy us for the foreseeable future and that will surely lead in unexpected directions. -- Jason Baird Jackson * Journal of American Folklore *


Awards
Nominated for David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History or Biography 2003 and James Willard Hurst Prize 2004 and Ray and Pat Browne Award 2004 and John G. Cawelti Award 2004 and PROSE Awards 2003 and Littleton-Griswold Prize 2004 and John C. Ewers Award 2004 and Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize 2004.



Book Information
ISBN 9780674016330
Author Michael F. Brown
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press
Dimensions(mm) 210mm * 140mm * 21mm