Dilemmas of an Expert Witness
Indigenous Land Rights in Suriname and Guyana
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23640277 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kirsch (0000-0002-3448-1979, corresponding author), Stuart Kirsch |
| Year | 2018 |
| Publication date | 2018-03-30 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Engaged Anthropology (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | University of California Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1525/california/9780520297944.003.0008 |
| OpenAlex | W2889761563 |
| ISBN | 9780520297944 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
This chapter presents two affidavits submitted to the Inter-American Court. The first case was concerned with the negative consequences of Suriname’s refusal to recognize indigenous land rights, including the establishment of a nature reserve that become a de facto open-access zone on indigenous land. The second addressed problems associated with indigenous land tenure in Guyana under the Amerindian Act of 2006. Comparing the two cases allows the chapter to make several observations about the dynamics of short-term ethnographic research conducted for expert-witness reports. This includes the need to make affidavits legible to the three overlapping frames of the legal system, the communities seeking recognition of their rights, and anthropology. The chapter also considers the narrative choices in these affidavits, the political dilemmas of being an expert witness, and the compromises of short-term ethnography.
Art · Ethnography · Expert witness · Indigenous · Law and economics · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Witness · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Law
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |