Introduction. Confrontations and Alliances in the Colonial and Contemporary Americas

In November 2002, the Society of Americanists in Brussels organized its second seminar around the theme of rivalry in the Americas, entitled Trails, War, and Peace Pipes: Conflicts and Alliances in the Americas from Yesterday to Today. The organizers and participants at the symposium sought to highlight the ambivalence often expressed in the confrontation/cooperation relationships between indigenous Amerindians and European colonists. This issue of Civilsations offers a set of texts from the conference, as well as several that followed, emphasizing the introduction of the Other as a source of conflict. Adapted from the source document.