Luisa Steur is Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam. She is also Lead Editor of Focaal-Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. Extending her work on indigenism in Kerala, she is now engaged in comparative research on racial inequality and anti-racist activism in Cuba.

"This is a wonderfully written piece that will raise some eyebrows and generate some wonderful debates. The critique of indigenist "identity" politics has been sorely needed for a long time, and this work helps us assess that context in a more robust and critical fashion without falling into a lackluster, celebratory mode of championing indigenous politics on a pure level of 'identity' and 'rights'." * Ananthakrishnan Aiyer, University of Michigan

• List of Figures Maps Acknowledgements PART I: INTRODUCTION Introduction: Research and activism in, on, and beyond a capitalist world system PART II: ADIVASINESS AND ITS DISCONTENTS Chapter 1. The "tribe" in world time Chapter 2. The importance of being Adivasi PART III: CONTENTION AND CONFLICT AT THE END OF A REFORMIST CYCLE Chapter 3. Electoral Communism and its critics Chapter 4. Widening circles of political dis-identification PART IV: CONDITIONING INDIGENISM: THE "KERALA MODEL" IN CRISIS Chapter 5. Salaried but subaltern: On the vulnerability of social mobility Chapter 6. Adivasi labor: Of workers without work PART V: CONCLUSION Chapter 7. The (dis)placements of class Glossary Bibliography Index