Citizens, Strangers and Indigenous Peoples: Multiple Constructions and Consequences of Rights, Resources and People

Abstract

"Human beings become citizens, strangers or indigenous peoples by cognitive and normative constructions. In all societies human beings and collectivities are typified and endowed with a special status to which is attached a wide array of rights, obligations, and ranges of normatively acknowledged autonomy and self-determination. Such typifications may be used as important constituent elements of all-encompassing normative systems. They are also regularly made up ad hoc in routinized life situations and in problematic situations, at interpretations of existing general types or as innovative constructions."