This volume brings together key perspectives in the study of the indigenous. Drawing contributions from all continents where the indigenous continue to survive, it features comprehensive and informative essays on indigeneity, nation, gender, rights, language, orality, performance and knowledge, as inter-related key concepts that occur frequently in any discussion of indigenous communities. Despite the vast region-specific differences between the communities spread over different continents, entirely unconnected in geography or history, the common threads found among them bring them together in a worldview that forms the core of being indigenous. Most of the contributing authors are either from the indigenous communities themselves or have lived very closely with them and studied them with an unusually high degree of inwardness.

Bringing together academic insights and experiences from the ground, this unique book, with its wide coverage, will serve as a comprehensive guide for students, teachers and scholars of indigenous studies. It will be essential reading for those in social and cultural anthropology, tribal studies, sociology and social exclusion studies, cultural studies, media studies and performing arts, postcolonial studies, religion politics, Third World and Global South studies, as well as activists working with indigenous communities.