The Basics:

Who are Indigenous Peoples?

• According to current estimates- over 250 million people in 70 countries of the world are listed as indigenous peoples.

• People range from Indian groups of the Amazon Rainforest to the Sami in the higher reaches of Northern Europe to the Aborigines in the Australian outback
• Comprise 4% of global population

• UN uses a flexible multi-factored definition of an indigenous person consisting of four criteria
• Pre-existence
• Non-dominance
• Cultural difference
• Self-identification

• "Indigenous peoples" refers mainly to those groups of people who were earlier describes as "tribal societies"
• Originally societies living in a small area
• Having no central political authority
• Dependent agriculture, swiddening, nomadic livestock breeding or hunting/gathering

• This description no longer reflects the present day realities of indigenous communities, as there is hardly any difference in the lifestyle of many indigenous peoples and the great mass of small farmers
• Indigenous peoples are also residents of urban centers and slum areas
• Reject the term "tribe" as a colonially loaded term

• Until a few decades ago, states reserved the right to determine what could be classified as "indigenous"
• Now, many non profits and other organizations acknowledge the need to also recognize "indigenousness" as a matter of subjective perception

Haller, Tobias. "Introduction." Fossil Fuels, Oil Companies, and Indigenous Peoples: Strategies of Multinational Oil Companies, States, and Ethnic Minorities ; Impact on Environment, Livelihoods and Cultural Change / Tobias Haller, Eds. .... [et Al.]. Wien: Lit, 2007. Print

MI and Indigenous Health

• Two contrasting perspective on markets and health of indigenous peoples:

1. Improves health through access to higher incomes, formal education, and health care services
1. Income and education are associated with ability to smooth consumption, purchase medical services, treat illness promptly, and maintain proper sanitary conditions
2. Markets can also function as a safety net for fluctuating dietary intakes during seasonal short falls in resource availability
3. Increase in household income can augment individual energy intake through improved access to food
2. Market economies are detrimental to health of indigenous populations because market expansion is accompanied by increased disease and dietary alternation
1. Ecological approaches suggest that traditional societies have adapted to their environments in ways that maintains good health and nutrition
2. Greater integration into a market economy and exposure and assimilation into a dominant society can result in shifts in modes of subsistence, decision-making about resource use, and access to health-related goods and services
3. Exposure to acculturative forces (formal education, language skills of dominiant society, frequency of contact) can result in adoption or reject of new values and preferences

• Important to remember: in most places, people are not controlling or determining their own relationship with the market economy and are therefore in a disadvantageous position

Byron, Elizabeth M. MARKET INTEGRATION AND HEALTH: THE IMPACT OF MARKETS AND ACCULTURATION ON THE SELF-PERCEIVED MORBIDITY, DIET, AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF THE TSIMANE’ AMERINDIANS OF LOWLAND BOLIVIA. Diss. UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, 2003.