This dissertation investigates the social and cultural contours of citizenship and nationhood of Kahnawake Mohawks. The central question that I seek to answer is "What other narratives of nationhood and citizenship are there than those of membership in the American or Canadian states?" Mohawks and other Iroquois nations have long asserted their ideological, and in the case of some, economic independence from the governments of Canada and the United States. My multi-sited research illustrates that this historical assertion is more than rhetoric; it is also a practice or " praxis," as Mohawks configure citizenship across the imposed borders that separate their reserves from cities and states from states. This dissertation engages contemporary theories of nationhood, historical and contemporary ethnographic literature on the Iroquois, as well as contemporary literature in political theory and policy to examine the gendered and sometimes racialized contours of Indigenous nationhood and citizenship across borders. Kahnawake Mohawk narratives and the choices that they entail have implications for the way that all "post-colonial" nationals attempt to imagine and construct their place and their membership within and beyond the boundaries of their communities and that of the state.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.84681 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Simpson, Audra |
| Contributors | Scott, Colin H. (advisor), Trigger, Bruce G. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Anthropology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002083151, proquestno: AAINQ98374, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds