Even if Canadian anthropology is a subject little known to most Americans, the discipline plays an important role in helping define Canadian national identity, according to Regna Darnell, professor of anthropology at the University of Western Ontario.
In a speech given yesterday before a modest showing in Rocky 1, Darnell discussed anthropology's role in relating the Native-American peoples of Canada, or First Nations, to a national identity that is often defined solely in the context of French Canadians vs. English Canadians.
"I think that Canada is alone among developed nations in celebrating diversity as a force of social cohesion," Darnell said in her presentation entitled "First Nations, Anthropology and Canada's National Identity." She added that Canada has historically rejected the 19th century model of a monolithic, homogeneous nation-state in favor of a country based on English, French and First Nation cultural traditions.
Although Darnell said the aboriginal peoples of Canada have had a history closely entwined with that of the English and French-speaking populations of the country, she argued that many people oversimplify what it means to be Canadian.
"Canadian national identity is far more complex than outsiders consider it to be," Darnell said, adding that this complexity has led to a situation where Canadians are often more than willing to compromise on political and cultural issues to resolve debates and preserve order.
"This approach preserves a ground from which to meet any swing of the unpredictable pendulum that is social order. Irrevocable commitment to any position is somehow un-Canadian," she said.
With regard to anthropology's role in analyzing and defining Canadian identity, Darnell said that although Canadian anthropologists have long studied aboriginal cultures and peoples almost to the exclusion of others, she did not wish "to separate Canada and the First Nations."
Darnell emphasized that the current situation in Canada, in which the people of the First Nations maintain a "critical mass" of population in every province, ensures a degree of political influence unknown by Native-Americans in the United States, where significant areas of the country are largely devoid of them, and where many continue to live on reservations. According to Darnell, less than 50 percent of Canadian Indians live on reservations.
She also discussed the recommendations released by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People, a Canadian political organization charged with producing a plan to reestablish a sense of equality between Native-Americans and other Canadian communities.
The recommendations, which attempted to define "peoples" as distinct from "nations," and which declared that First Nations membership should no longer have a racial basis, were cited by Darnell as evidence that the First Nations remain a significant political presence in contemporary Canada.
Darnell concluded that this presence, when seen in the context of a Canadian history of non-violent resolution to disagreement, often serves as a means of defusing a potentially bitter political conflict between the opposing poles of French and English Canada.
"First Nations serve as an alternative to the Canadian binary structure," she said. "This middle ground can draw binary extremes into a discourse."
After the lecture, Darnell fielded questions on the Commission on Aboriginal People, the number of Canadian anthropologists conducting research outside the country and Canadian anthropological writings.
