Victims of Progress

Victims of Progress provides a global overview of the struggle between small-scale indigenous societies and the colonists and corporate developers that invaded their territories over the past 200 years to extract resources. It shows how these small-scale societies have survived by organizing politically to defend their basic human rights, and shows that they are now being impacted by oil and natural gas development and tropical deforestation, as well as global warming. This compelling account of the effects of technology and development on indigenous peoples throughout the world examines major issues of intervention: social engineering, economic development, self-determination, health and disease, and ecocide. Victims of Progress provides a provocative context in which to think about civilization and its costs. In this new fifth edition, Bodley provides extensive new discussions on the increased political power of the Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic, the role of indigenous people in the Arctic Council, shifts in Aboriginal rights in Australia, and many new developments on the impact of global warming on indigenous populations around the world.

This compelling account of the effects of technology and development on indigenous peoples throughout the world examines major issues of intervention: social engineering, economic development, self-determination, health and disease, and ecocide. Victims of Progress provides a provocative context in which to think about civilization and its costs.

John H. Bodley is a cultural anthropologist and Regents Professor at Washington State University and author of Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems, 5th Edition.