Who Owns Native Culture? Resources for understanding the struggle for control of indigenous knowledge

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Recent Developments, Indigenous Cultural/Intellectual Property
Background information for students using this website.
The International Journal of Cultural Property is now regularly carrying articles on indigenous IPR and is actively seeking innovative submissions on this and related topics. For additional information, browse the website of the International Cultural Property Society.
*RSS feed for Who Owns Native Culture?* website.**
Some blogs to track if you're interested in indigenous IPR, heritage protection, and questions of open access: SavageMinds, the Museum Anthropology blog, Material World, Culture Matters, and Kimberly Christen's Long Road. You might also want to check the web page of a project at Simon Fraser University in BC, Canada, called "Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage." Likewise the website of the Lawyers' Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation as well as Traditional Knowledge Online. For general information on indigenous-rights issues, check out the blog Indigenous People's Issues Today.

News, Stories, Documents
Two important recent publications: Stephen R. Munzer and Kal Raustiala, "The uneasy case for intellectual property rights in traditional knowledge," Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal 27 (1), 2009. Maria Glowacka, Dorothy Washburn, and Justin Richland, "Nuvatukya'ovi, San Francisco Peaks," Current Anthropology 50 (4), 2009.[Link is to abstract; full-text requires login.] Discusses Hopi perspective on controversy over ski-resort development in the San Francisco Peaks area of Arizona.
"WIPO Work Likely To Continue On Traditional Knowledge, But How?" by Kaitlin Mara. From IP-Watch.org, 30 June 2009.
"UN accused of shutting out indigenous groups." The International Institute for Environment and Development issues report claiming that the UN and WIPO have shown themselves unwilling to adapt IP laws to accommodate the special needs of indigenous communities seeking to protect traditional knowledge. 29 June 2009.
The Elgin/Parthenon Marbles are back in the news as Greece celebrates the opening of its new Acropolis Museum. Hard to see how the British Museum can resist the growing pressure to repatriate its share of the marbles. I don't often agree with Christopher Hitchens these days, but his recent articles in Vanity Fair and elsewhere, as well as his new book on the case, present powerful arguments for bringing back together the elements of this single work of art. 29 June 2009.
From the all-publicity-is-good-publicity department: Brief quote from Brown and Bruchac, "NAGPRA from the middle distance" (2006), in the online essay "Anthropologists as good guys," by Elizabeth Weiss, History News Network, 22 June 2009. The essay draws on themes that Weiss explores in Reburying the Past: The Effects of Repatriation and Reburial on Scientific Inquiry, 2008.
WIPO announces the publication of Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Peoples, which is available for download from the WIPO website. 7 June 2009, added here 23 June.
From New Scientist: "Poor farmers to guard Earth's crop riches," by Andy Coghlan. Dated 13 June 2009, posted here 23 June.
Another unpublished open-access paper by Elizabeth Burns Coleman: "Disrupting the order of the world: Religious symbols and blasphemy." PDF, dated 2008.
	Tales of ongoing weirdness in the world of IP : (1) EU Plaintiffs duke it out over ownership of the concept of chocolate bunnies (second story here); (2) ASCAP may want you to pay royalties for downloaded ringtones, on the grounds that cell phone sounds constitute a "public performance." 23 June 2009. I'd love to know whether such stories induce at least a moment of queasiness in those determined to turn traditional cultural expressions into a form of conventional intellectual property.
Tragedy follows on the heels of recent federal bust for illegally trafficking in Native American artificacts . 21 June 2009.
Campaign to have Mount Taylor, New Mexico, designated as a Traditional Cultural Property succeeds. The Cibola Beacon, Grants, NM, explains the rationale for the new status. 23 June 2009.
Stephen R. Munzer and Phyllis C. Simon, "Territory, plants, and land-use rights among the San of Southern Africa: A case study of regional biodiversity, traditional knowledge, and intellectual property." William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 17, 2009. Available full text.
Interesting (if not so new) law review article, apparently available full-text: "Lindsey L. Wiersma, "Indigenous lands as cultural property: A new approach to indigenous land claims." Duke Law Review, vol. 54, 2005.
"Washington Redskins win trademark dispute in D.C. Circuit," 15 May 2009 but posted here 10 June.
"UN Indigenous Forum calls for consultation on patents," 30 May 2009.
	Cultural appropriation runs off the rails: Slate.com has a funny (if predictably snarky) piece by Ron Rosenbaum on the 12/12 doomsday meme, supposedly based on Maya calendrical and prophetic traditions. If you have a taste for this kind of existential silliness, look here and here. For a Euro-Indigenous prophecy video, check this at YouTube. 22 May 2009, posted here 28 May.
The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the claim that Hawaii's 1993 Apology Resolution implicitly recognizes Native Hawaiian rights in 1.2 million acres of public lands. Wall Street Journal, 1 April 2009, posted here 26 May 2009.
New and useful reference site: International Foundation for Art Research's "Art Law and Cultural Property," which points visitors to relevant legislation and case law from around the world. 13 May 2009.
Class action suit filed to challenge patent on cancer gene. New York Times, 12 May 2009.
More on the risks of digitizing anything: Now books are being pirated on the web. New York Times, 11 May 2009.
In recent months there has been considerable public debate in New Mexico about whether Mount Taylor should be registered as a traditional cultural property. The National Trust for Historic Preservation provides information here; information on property-owner opposition and responses to it can be read here and here. 4 May 2009.
	Online documentary: The Green Gold Rush/La Fiebre del Oro Verde, co-production of Swiss NGO Volunteers Overseas and the Bolivian government. Downloadable in multiple formats. 28 April 2009.
Just out and definitely worth a look: Jane E. Anderson, Law Knowledge, Culture: The Production of Indigenous Knowlege in Intellectual Property Law (Edward Elgar Publishing, April 2009).
"The limits of moral arguments for rights from culture and religion," (PDF) a paper by Elizabeth Burns Coleman, who has written extensively and incisively about indigenous IP issues. No background provided on the audience for which this essay was written; it appears to date to 2008.
The New York Times of April 14 carries a story on Hueco Tanks State Historical Site in Texas, which has tried, with varying degrees of success, to develop policies that balance use of the park by rock climbers and protection of pictographs and petroglyphs that are important to various Indian tribes.
Available full-text (PDF) from the IJCP: "Intellectual Property Rights Systems and the Assemblage of Local Knowledge Systems," by Saskia Vermeylen, George Martin, and Roland Clift, 2008. From the abstract: "The mounting loss of the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples presents environmental as well as ethical issues. Fundamental among these is the sustainability of indigenous societies and their ecosystems . . . One reason for this is an unresolved conflict between two perspectives. In the modernist view, traditional knowledge is a tool to use (or discard) for the development of indigenous society, and thereforeit must be subordinated toWestern science. Alternatively, in the postmodernist view, it is harmonious with nature, providing a new paradigm for human ecology, and must be preserved intact.We argue that this encumbering polarization can be allayed by shifting from a dualism of traditional and scientific knowledge to an assemblage of local knowledge, which is constituted by the interaction of both in a third space. We argue that IPR can be reconfigured to become the framework for creating such a third space." 10 April 2009.
For those who think it will be easy to stop the piracy of indigenous cultural productions, a cautionary tale from the New York Times: "Digital Piracy Spreads, and Defies a Fix," 6 April 2009. If the world's most powerful media companies can't stem piracy, what are the odds for the Aranda or the Kayapó?
Peripheral to indigenous IPR but still worth reading: Philippe Descola's online essay, "Who Owns Nature?" Dates to early 2008; linked here April 2009.
The AAA's Anthropology Newsletter, April 2009, has published a raft of complementary essays under the rubric of "Visual Ethics." These are currently available full-text on an open-access basis. I'm not sure whether they fall back behind the subscription wall next month. If they do, Christen's terrific article, at least, should be available via her blog Long Road. Kimberly Christen, "Access and Accountability: The Ecology of Information Sharing in the Digital Age" Kate Hennessy, "Virtual Repatriation and Digital Cultural Heritage: The Ethics of Managing Online Collections" Bridget McDonnell, "Ethical Considerations in Collaborative Visual Work: Developing the Somali Lenses Photo Exhibition" Georgina Drew, "Whose Representation? Power and Voice in a Photojournalism Project" Marilyn Walker, "Spirit Matters: The Ethics of Photographing Unseen Worlds" Livia Hinegardner, "Engaging Ethnographic Film: The Ethics of Constructing Dramatic Tension"
For your "IPR Horror Stories" file, an article from the Wall Street Journal about Monster.com's litigiousness regarding the commercial use of the word "monster" by anyone other than them. 4 April 2009.
Protests about a "Go Native" party organized by Burning Man group. From East Bay Express: "More than fifty Bay Area Native American rights activists converged on the historic East Oakland property at 9:30 p.m. to ensure the shutdown of popular Burning Man group Visionary Village's "Go Native!" party. The fired-up Hopis, Kiowas and other tribal members spent more than four hours lecturing the handful of white, college-class Burners about cultural sensitivity until some of them simply broke down crying . . . . " Rest of the story here. Rex of the blog Savage Minds picks up the debate here. See also this from the blog Stuff White People Do. 3 April 2009.
Just out: James Cuno, editor, Whose Culture? The Promise of Museums and the Debate over Antiquities (Princeton University Press, 2009). My own contribution to the volume, "Exhibiting Indigenous Heritage in the Age of Cultural Property," can be downloaded full-text here. 19 March 2009.
To defend its traditional cuisine, the ancient walled city of Lucca, in Tuscany, denies access to immigrant-owned restaurants. Is this heritage protection or discrimination against immigrants? New York Times, 13 March 2009.
Many more archived stories about recent developments in Indigenous IP, 2003-2006, 2007-