Considering the Implications of the Concept of Indigeneity for Land and Natural Resource Management in Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos

The concept of “indigenous peoples”—which is today often linked to emancipatory support for ethnic minorities—is relatively new to Asia. Of course, the word “indigenous” has been used in Asia by Europeans since at least the nineteenth-century European colonial period, but during that time it was used to distinguish between colonial Europeans and colonized “natives,” regardless of ethnic background. In other words, it was an Othering tool of European colonialism, deployed in the defense of colonial power. For example, the British in Burma used the term “indigenous” to distinguish the British from Britain from colonial subjects (Keyes 2002). In