Tortured People: The Politics of Colonization (Howard Adams)
More languages
More actions
Tortured People: The Politics of Colonization | |
|---|---|
| Author | Howard Adams |
| Publisher | Theytus Books |
| First published | 2002 |
| Type | Book |
| https://annas-archive.org/md5/2cbfd9e6eabcfa8b3a63f28f1aeb5df6 | |
About
A Tortured People critiques Canada's settler-colonial framework through Indigenous resistance lenses, building on his later Red Skin, White Masks. It argues colonization tortures Indigenous peoples via ongoing dispossession, not just historical violence.
Coulthard adapts Marx's "primitive accumulation" to Canada, where land theft—via treaties, reserves, and resource extraction—remains active, proletarianizing Indigenous nations while denying self-determination. He contrasts this with Hegelian recognition politics (e.g., Charles Taylor), showing state "recognition" as a mask perpetuating dependency, echoing Fanon's analysis of colonial misrecognition that imprisons the colonized in devalued identities.
Beyond initial conquest, policies like the Indian Act enforce "torture" through child welfare removals, sexist membership rules stripping women of status, and forced relocations, fracturing communities.
State multiculturalism offers cultural nods (e.g., land claims) that facilitate capital's access to territory without dismantling power imbalances, turning resistance into co-optation. This work draws from Dene struggles and Fanon to advocate "place-based" resurgence—reviving pre-colonial economies and governance—over assimilation.