In our world more and more kinds of culture are treated as property. But do different kinds of people own their culture in the same way? Claims of intellectual property have been advanced to empower native groups. But do these people have to make themselves into the Other (the group, the “native”) to find their place in a liberal or neoliberal world of property? How does the language of cultural property and collective ownership challenge liberal regimes? How does it reinforce a global trend toward enclosure and propertization? In our day these questions have arisen in relation to indigenous art and music; bioprospecting of flora and fauna; and the disposition of human remains.

This public workshop draws together anthropologists, musicologists, and historians to discuss the ramifications of these questions for indigenous social life; intellectual property and other forms of metaculture; and academic practice.

Six distinguished scholars will frame questions for our common conversation:

Elazar Barkan (Anthropology, Claremont), Ann Fabian (History & American Studies, Rutgers), Daniel Fisher (CCA Fellow), Aaron Fox (Anthropology and Ethnomusicology, Columbia), Cori Hayden (Anthropology, UC Berkeley), Elizabeh Povinelli (Anthropology, Columbia)