TY - JOUR
T1 - Reframing So-Called Primitive Accumulation for Settler Colonial Contexts
T2 - Ancestral Enclosures and Spatial Conceptions of History
AU - Guernsey, Paul J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Center for Political Ecology.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - The question of land must be centered if anti-capitalist and anticolonial camaraderies are to be sustained between settler and Indigenous peoples. This essay suggests that enclosures of Indigenous homelands, or what might be called primitive accumulations in the Marxist tradition, are not always understood by settlers who are inclined to transpose European experiences onto Indigenous ones. Enclosures of Indigenous homelands cut people off not only from the “means of production” and material foundations forming a way of life, but also from their national futurity, living kin, and spiritual relationships. For the purposes of this essay, this experiential difference is marked by the concept of ancestral enclosures. Theorizations of settler colonialism as a temporally fluid and ongoing system of domination synchronizes with recent Marxist scholarship on primitive accumulation from Harvey (accumulation by dispossession), De Angelis (the continuity of primitive accumulation), and others. My argument emphasizes that the temporal continuity of primitive accumulation must be understood alongside heterogeneous ontologies, attending not only to the "when" but also the "what" of primitive accumulation. The concept of ancestral enclosures is therefore crucial for settler colonial contexts where it is not only the “means of production” that is seized, but also a living, breathing ancestor.
AB - The question of land must be centered if anti-capitalist and anticolonial camaraderies are to be sustained between settler and Indigenous peoples. This essay suggests that enclosures of Indigenous homelands, or what might be called primitive accumulations in the Marxist tradition, are not always understood by settlers who are inclined to transpose European experiences onto Indigenous ones. Enclosures of Indigenous homelands cut people off not only from the “means of production” and material foundations forming a way of life, but also from their national futurity, living kin, and spiritual relationships. For the purposes of this essay, this experiential difference is marked by the concept of ancestral enclosures. Theorizations of settler colonialism as a temporally fluid and ongoing system of domination synchronizes with recent Marxist scholarship on primitive accumulation from Harvey (accumulation by dispossession), De Angelis (the continuity of primitive accumulation), and others. My argument emphasizes that the temporal continuity of primitive accumulation must be understood alongside heterogeneous ontologies, attending not only to the "when" but also the "what" of primitive accumulation. The concept of ancestral enclosures is therefore crucial for settler colonial contexts where it is not only the “means of production” that is seized, but also a living, breathing ancestor.
KW - Indigenous homelands
KW - Primitive accumulation
KW - ancestral enclosures
KW - settler colonialism
KW - spatial conceptions of history
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179680334&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10455752.2023.2291523
DO - 10.1080/10455752.2023.2291523
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85179680334
SN - 1045-5752
VL - 35
SP - 138
EP - 156
JO - Capitalism, Nature, Socialism
JF - Capitalism, Nature, Socialism
IS - 2
ER -