Aaron C

 In the prologue, Diaz defines indigeneity as such: “The cultural, historical, and political condition of being indigenous or native to a place, and the analytical possibilities that such an ontology or mode of being offers critical scholarship and political movements” (4).  Is this a fair description of what common language understands as indigeneity?  What does critical scholarship have to do with the ontological mode-of-being indigenous? Moreover, why does the word “political” correlate with indigeneity? Should it? Or what about on page eighteen when he says that, indigeneity “might be defined as the historical condition of being indigenous to a specific region or place and claiming aboriginal status in it.” Why is it necessary to “claim” indigeneity?  If we deny (or perhaps refute) Diaz’s definition of indigeneity, what does it do to the structure of his arguments?