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88 Book Reviews
sis but have tended to take it as a given. In fact, it was in particular the process of
fonning nation-states, itself a fonn of ethnogenesis, which set going the dynamics
which led to the consolidating of ethnic identities which have subsequently become
familiar.
Similar patterns of identity change and fonnation are to be found in literature from
other parts of the world that have been influenced by European colonialism. As some
of the authors here show, in circumstances of fluid ethnic identities, persons could participate
in more than one. 'There is compelling evidence to indicate that the Assiniboin
Broken Ann and the Cree Broken Ann of the Wood Mountain area were one and the
same person.' These comments bring to mind Edrnund Leach's description of Kachin
becoming Shan while remaining Kachin in Highland Burma, as well as his comments
on the deleterious effects of the nation-state model on non-European populations.
Some reference to this or similar discussions of instances outside of the Americas
would have been in place. Taken as a whole, the collection presents a reasonably similar
set of cases and usefully assumes a place within a broader literature pertaining to
the Americas, but might have been situated more firmly in an even wider literature.
R.H.BARNES