Victims of Progress - 6th Edition by John H Bodley (Paperback)

About the Book

This compelling account of how technology and development affect indigenous peoples throughout the world provides a provocative context in which students can think about civilization and its costs.

Book Synopsis

This compelling account of how technology and development affect indigenous peoples throughout the world provides a provocative context in which students can think about civilization and its costs.

Review Quotes

A beautifully written account of the tragic plight of indigenous peoples under the impact of technological and economic 'progress' of industrial nation-states over many centuries. Bodley's analysis skillfully combines quantitative data with qualitative assessments to illuminate global issues affecting us all. The book is a must for anyone concerned with issues of genocide, environmental destruction, and human rights. Thoroughly updated, this sixth edition will be a valuable asset in undergraduate and graduate courses alike.

A must-read... Through its clear arguments and abundant case materials, the sixth edition of Victims of Progress shows how far humans have come in mitigating the damage of an expanding commercial world--where tribal peoples were merely the first to suffer--and in defending our rights to exist as ourselves. It is a book not only of human tragedies, but also of human strengths. Useful in courses on culture change, modernization, and economic development.

Essential for its scope, detailed analysis, and documentary rigor, the sixth edition of Victims of Progress is an exceptionally learned and uncompromising critique of the neocolonial expansion of capitalist market economy into indigenous peoples' homelands. Bodley's updated classic is both an indictment of Euro-American aggressive world expansion and a eulogy of Native civilizations and their wisdom.

In this latest edition Bodley surveys the conditions of indigenous peoples in a wide range of places and times. As in earlier editions, in the first two-thirds of the book, the author reviews the conflicts at contact between Native peoples and colonizing Europeans and Americans. The theme is twofold: constantly changing boundaries were unable to keep the two peoples apart and at peace, but the resilience of indigenous societies in the face of decimating disease, land loss, and deforestation saw them through to a time when their rights and interests could garner somewhat greater international concern. Thus, the most recent chapters follow the course of UN and International Labour Organization conventions, national treaties, and the effects of global climate change and commercial contact to give a fuller picture of the current state of indigenous interests and situations. Brief yet striking examples from a wide variety of groups result in a very useful overview with enough specifics to keep the analysis from becoming too generalized. Useful for anthropology and public policy collections and courses, particularly when supplemented with more-detailed accounts and visual aids. Summing Up: Recommended. General university and high school libraries.


This unparalleled survey is an in depth analysis of the problems of survival, adaptation, and human rights faced by indigenous peoples the world over. From the imposition of external economic and political forces to colonialism to globalization, the sixth edition of Bodley's Victims of Progress covers a wide range of topics. This should be required reading for every student and professional in anthropology.

Victims of Progress appears in its sixth updated edition to consider, as an ongoing project, how technology is affecting indigenous peoples around the world, and is recommended for college-level collections strong in anthropology as well as global social issues and cultural studies. It considers the histories of struggles between small-scale indigenous communities and colonists and developers, examines intervention techniques, and posits the theory that these small-scale communities have done a good job in contemporary times of organizing as a political force to defend their territories, lifestyles, and interests. This sixth edition holds expanded discussions of both rebellions and deliberate isolationist tactics, and adds further details on the costs and threats posed to such communities by global warming. No global issues collection should be without this solid reference.

Victims of Progress reveals the political and ethnocentric nature of development in the name of 'progress' and contradicts the justification of 'inevitable' ethnocide, genocide, and ecocide found around the world and throughout time. A must-read for anyone interested in models of success based on demonstrated resiliency and dedication of small-scale peoples fighting for autonomy and sovereignty.

About the Author

John H. Bodley is Regents Professor Emeritus at Washington State University. His numerous publications include The Power of Scale (2003), Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems (Sixth Edition, 2012), Cultural Anthropology: Tribes, States, and the Global System (Fifth Edition, 2011) and The Small Nation Solution (2013).