The administration of federal Indian aid in the North-West Territories, 1879-1885

In 1879 the buffalo disappeared from the Canadian North-West, leaving the Plains Indians in an extreme state of destitution. In accordance with its treaty commitments to the Indians, the federal government undertook the responsibility of feeding the Indians of Treaties Four, Six and Seven. The government, in addition, introduced the reserve agricultural program, which it was hoped would transform the Indians into a self-supporting agrarian people. While the initial costs of rationing the Indians and assisting them in farming operations were high, it was hoped that within a few years the government would be largely relieved of such expenditures.In spite of the promising early returns made on reserves in the early 1880's the agricultural program did not succeed quickly enough to suit the government. One of the major reasons for the delay of the program was in fact the government's preoccupation with maintaining economy in Indian administration at all costs. When the government undertook a general reduction of expenditures on Indian administration in the North-West in 1833, any possibility of the reserve agricultural program succeeding was ended.The actions of various Indian bands and leaders in the North-West during these years were characterized by a desire to achieve suitable terms which would permit their people to make the transition to the farming way of life. The general cutbacks in spending introduced in 1883, however, sparked the formation of an Indian political movement seeking improved conditions. This movement grew rapidly, and likely would have unified Indians from all sections of the North-West in insisting upon the renegotiation of the treaties during the summer of 1885, had the Metis not rebelled. Although Indian participation in the North-West Uprising of 1885 was limited, it prompted the adoption of a policy of repression by the government in dealing with the Indians. The plan of assisting the Indians in becoming self-sufficient farmers was forgotten, and they became the charges of the Department of Indian Affairs

Working the boundaries: anthropology and multidisciplinarity in Canada

The pronounced governmental and administrative endorsement in Canada of interdisciplinary and collaborative research raises questions about the purposes and impacts of these approaches upon a discipline such as anthropology. Although Canadian anthropology has a lengthy history of involvement in extradisciplinary undertakings, the conditions that have enabled such voluntary collaborations are being rapidly replaced by a quite different set of arrangements and prescriptions. This paper examines the implications of working within and across disciplinary boundaries in contemporary Canadian anthropology, making particular reference to the field of Aboriginal studies and to the study of sport and childhood. It is argued that the most effective means to defend anthropology against the marginalization threatened by current developments is to rigorously distinguish multi- from inter-disciplinarity and to embrace the former as a means that both permits and requires continuing articulation of anthropology’s distinctive practices and objectives.A interdisciplinaridade e a investigação colaborativa são fortemente valorizadas pelas entidades governamentais e administrativas no Canadá, o que levanta questões sobre os objetivos e efeitos de tais opções numa disciplina como a antropologia. Embora a antropologia canadiana tenha uma longa história de envolvimento em ações extradisciplinares, as condições que permitiram essas colaborações voluntárias estão a ser rapidamente substituídas por um conjunto bem diferente de normas e orientações. O artigo analisa as implicações do trabalho no interior das fronteiras disciplinares e para além delas na antropologia canadiana contemporânea, com referência especialmente aos campos dos estudos aborígenes e dos estudos sobre desporto e infância. O autor defende que a maneira mais eficaz de defender a antropologia contra o risco de marginalização ditado pela situação atual será distinguir rigorosamente a multidisciplinaridade da interdisciplinaridade e apostar na primeira, como meio que simultaneamente permite e requer a continuidade da articulação das práticas e objetivos próprios da antropologia

Introduction: anthropology and the neoliberal agenda

This short introduction contextualises the three contributions to this special section. Globally, anthropologists are feeling the effects of the neoliberal restructuring of the university. Here we examine the new pressures on anthropological research, to transcend the boundaries of the discipline in particular ways – through forms of interdisciplinarity and / or a focus on the societal or economic impact of research.Esta breve introdução contextualiza os três artigos que compõem o dossiê. Os antropólogos estão a sentir, de uma forma geral, os efeitos da restruturação neoliberal da universidade. Analisamos aqui como a investigação em antropologia está a ser sujeita a novas pressões para que transcenda as fronteiras da disciplina de determinadas maneiras – através de certas modalidades de interdisciplinaridade e / ou de uma especial atenção ao impacto da investigação sobre a sociedade e a economia

Returning home: heritage work among the Stl'atl'imx of the Lower Lillooet River Valley

This article focusses on heritage practices in the tensioned landscape of the Stl’atl’imx (pronounced Stat-lee-um) people of the Lower Lillooet River Valley, British Columbia, Canada. Displaced from their traditional territories and cultural traditions through the colonial encounter, they are enacting, challenging and remaking their heritage as part of their long term goal to reclaim their land and return ‘home’. I draw on three examples of their heritage work: graveyard cleaning, the shifting ‘official’/‘unofficial’ heritage of a wagon road, and marshalling of the mountain named Nsvq’ts (pronounced In-SHUCK-ch) in order to illustrate how the past is strategically mobilised in order to substantiate positions in the present. While this paper focusses on heritage in an Indigenous and postcolonial context, I contend that the dynamics of heritage practices outlined here are applicable to all heritage practices

Psychedelics, meditation, and self-consciousness

In recent years, the scientific study of meditation and psychedelic drugs has seen remarkable developments. The increased focus on meditation in cognitive neuroscience has led to a cross-cultural classification of standard meditation styles validated by functional and structural neuroanatomical data. Meanwhile, the renaissance of psychedelic research has shed light on the neurophysiology of altered states of consciousness induced by classical psychedelics, such as psilocybin and LSD, whose effects are mainly mediated by agonism of serotonin receptors. Few attempts have been made at bridging these two domains of inquiry, despite intriguing evidence of overlap between the phenomenology and neurophysiology of meditation practice and psychedelic states. In particular, many contemplative traditions explicitly aim at dissolving the sense of self by eliciting altered states of consciousness through meditation, while classical psychedelics are known to produce significant disruptions of self-consciousness, a phenomenon known as drug-induced ego dissolution. In this article, we discuss available evidence regarding convergences and differences between phenomenological and neurophysiological data on meditation practice and psychedelic drug-induced states, with a particular emphasis on alterations of self-experience. While both meditation and psychedelics may disrupt self-consciousness and underlying neural processes, we emphasize that neither meditation nor psychedelic states can be conceived as simple, uniform categories. Moreover, we suggest that there are important phenomenological differences even between conscious states described as experiences of self-loss. As a result, we propose that self-consciousness may be best construed as a multidimensional construct, and that “self-loss,” far from being an unequivocal phenomenon, can take several forms. Indeed, various aspects of self-consciousness, including narrative aspects linked to autobiographical memory, self-related thoughts and mental time travel, and embodied aspects rooted in multisensory processes, may be differently affected by psychedelics and meditation practices. Finally, we consider long-term outcomes of experiences of self-loss induced by meditation and psychedelics on individual traits and prosocial behavior. We call for caution regarding the problematic conflation of temporary states of self-loss with “selflessness” as a behavioral or social trait, although there is preliminary evidence that correlations between short-term experiences of self-loss and long-term trait alterations may exist