Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Making Identity: Law, Memory, And Race In Comparative Perspective, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In this essay, I would like to focus on identity formation with respect to one of these groups-the Xoco community-especially the relationship between law, identity, and race. I hope to bring to light, if only in a tentative and suggestive way, the broader significance of such an inquiry by narrating the story of the Xoco in dialogue with some discussions of similar issues in the United States. In particular, I will compare the successful struggle for recognition of the Xoco with similar struggles for recognition in the U.S. by the Lumbee and Mashpee Indians, who have not achieved full legal …