Colin H. Scott

Associate Professor,
McGill University
Anthropology
E-mail: colin.scott@mcgill.ca
Institution page



Education

Ph.D. McGill University 1983.


Research

One of my major research interests has been the way that social metaphors of respect, reciprocity and communication among hunting, fishing and gathering peoples serve as paradigms for environmental knowledge. How do indigenous cosmologies shape and conjoin the ethical and instrumental aspects of social practice for livelihood and resource management, and how are they reciprocally shaped by this experience? A second major interest has been the land and sea tenure and resource management arrangements that are both the context for, and the product of, ecological knowledge. I have pursued these interests among coastal James Bay Cree of northern Quebec since 1976, and among Torres Strait Islanders in northern Queensland since 1996. My research in both regions tracks the evolution of indigenous land and sea rights, as state governments, metropolitan developers and indigenous peoples make competing claims for ownership and jurisdiction. I also examine the bearing of ethnological notions of cultural identity, tradition, continuity and change on the discursive restructuring of rights.

QCBS students

Camilo Gomez

Ph.D.
(Start: 2016, End: 2020)
The Value of the Sacred: Extraction of Natural Resources in Indigenous Territories. Culture, Spirituality, and Conflict in the Colombian Amazon
Personal page

Sarah Carmen Moritz

Ph.D.
(Start: 2012)
“Fish is there for our descendants!” - Intersections of Hydro-Electric Development, Interior Salish St’át’imc Subsistence Fishing and Environmental Change in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia
Personal page

Katherine Scott

Ph.D.
(Start: 2008)
Links to the past, paths to the future: Innovation, tradition and a Cree cultural center in Wemindji, James Bay, Québec

Katherine Sinclair

Ph.D.
(Start: 2011)
Photographs, Policy and People: Imagining Arctic Canada

Matthew Kristjansson

M.Sc.
(Start: 2010)
Mitchikanbikok'inik life Projects, Bureaucratic Power and the Colonial State

Previous students (since 2009)

Peter Rudiak-Gould

Postdoctoral fellow
(Start: 2011, End: 2013)
Climate change in the southwestern Pacific and among Nordic Sami

Janelle Baker

Ph.D.
(Start: 2012, End: 2017)
Cree knowledge of wild food contamination in the oil sands region
Personal page

Geneviève Dionne

Ph.D.
Other (co-)supervisor: John Galaty
(Start: 2003, End: 2010)
How 'agency' makes a complex organisation work: a journey in everyday practices at the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)

Jessica Dolan

Ph.D.
Other (co-)supervisor: André Costopoulos
(Start: 2007, End: 2013)
Iroquoian ethnobotany at Six Nations

Eulalio Guieb

Ph.D.
(Start: 2002, End: 2009)
Other QCBS (co-)supervisor: Monica Mulrennan
Local knowledge, tenure and conservation: Marine protected areas in two Bohol villages, the Philippines

Annie Lalancette

Ph.D.
(Start: 2006, End: 2016)
Other QCBS (co-)supervisor: Monica Mulrennan
Reconciling Local and Scientific Fisheries Knowledge in the Context of the Tropical Rock Lobster Fishery, Torres Strait, Northern Australia

Olivier Larocque

Ph.D.
Other (co-)supervisor: John Galaty
(Start: 2005, End: 2010)
Western rangeland management and new alliances between ranchers and environmentalists

David Lessard

Ph.D.
(Start: 2007, End: 2013)
Social and Cultural Implications of the emergence of a Cree community: The Case of the First Nation of Washaw Sibi Eeyou

Paulina Lezama Nuñez

Ph.D.
Other (co-)supervisor: Catherine Potvin
(Start: 2010, End: 2011)
Mexican Creole livestock in indigenous social-ecological systems

Karen MacAllister

Ph.D.
Other (co-)supervisor: John Galaty
(Start: 2001, End: 2005)
Transforming Lao Upland communities: Shifting rights, resources and representation

Stephen Moiko

Ph.D.
Other (co-)supervisor: John Galaty
(Start: 2004, End: 2010)
Local Agency in Securing Land Rights, Communal Indigenous Livelihoods, and Enviromental Sustainability in East African Rangelands

Wren Nasr

Ph.D.
(Start: 2008, End: 2012)
Politics of protected areas in Eeyou Istchee: Protection, development, and culture on the Eastern James Bay

Annick Thomassin

Ph.D.
(Start: 2005, End: 2010)
Co-management of Marine Environment in Torres Strait: A Sea of Changes in Power Relationships and Management Practices? [provisory]

Magdalena Garcia Perez

M.Sc.
(Start: 2009, End: 2011)
Other QCBS (co-)supervisor: Monica Mulrennan
A Comparative Exploration of Indigenous Protected Area (PA) Governance Arrangements in Chile and Canada

Daniel Ruiz-Serna

M.Sc.
(Start: 2011, End: 2013)
Nature and animism in the Northwest Amazon



Publications

26- Introduction: From beavers to land: Building on past debates to unpack the contemporary entanglements of algonquian family hunting territories
Chaplier M , , Scott C ,
2018 Anthropologica (Date Added: 2018-11-07)

25- Family territories, community territories: Balancing rights and responsibilities through time
Scott C ,
2018 Anthropologica (Date Added: 2018-11-07)

24- The Endurance of Relational Ontology: Encounters between Eeyouch and Sport Hunters
Scott, C
2017 Entangled Territorialities: Negotiating Indigenous Lands in Australia and Canada (Date Added: 2017-07-08)

23- The role of digital data entry in participatory environmental monitoring
Brammer, JR, Brunet, ND, Burton, AC, Cuerrier, A, Danielsen, F, Dewan, K, Herrmann, TM, Jackson, M, Kennett, R, Larocque, G, Mulrennan, M, Pratihast, AK, Saint-Arnaud, M, Scott, C, Humphries, MM
2016 Conservation Biology (Date Added: 2016-07-05)

22- Ontology and Ethics in Cree Hunting: animism, totemism and practical knowledge
Scott, C
2013 The Handbook of Contemporary Animism (Date Added: 2016-08-16)

21- Le partage des ressources au Québec: perspectives et stratégies autochtones
Scott, C
2013 Les Autochtones et le Québec: Des premiers contacts au Plan Nord (Date Added: 2016-08-16)

20- Revamping community-based conservation through participatory research
Mulrennan, ME, Mark, R, Scott, CH
2012 The Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe canadien (Date Added: 2012-06-13)

19- The Politics of Indigenous Knowledge in Environmental Assessment: James Bay Crees and Hydro-Electric Projects
Nasr, W, Scott, C
2010 Cultural Autonomy: Frictions and Connections. (Date Added: 2011-11-14)

18- Reconfiguring Mare Nullius: Torres Strait Islanders, Indigenous Sea Rights, and the Divergence of Domestic and International Norms
Scott, C, Mulrennan, M
2010 Indigenous peoples and autonomy : insights for a global age (Date Added: 2011-08-03)

17- Bear Metaphor: Spirit, Ethics and Ecology in Wemindji Cree Hunting
Scott, C
2007 Nature des esprits dans les cosmologies autochtones / Nature of Spirits in Aboriginal Cosmologies (Date Added: 2011-11-14)

16- Spirit and practical knowledge in the person of the bear among Wemindji Cree hunters
Scott, C
2006 Ethnos (Date Added: 2012-01-11)

15- Co-management—An Attainable Partnership? Two Cases from James Bay, Northern Quebec and Torres Strait, Northern Queensland
Mulrennan, ME, Scott, CH
2005 Anthropologica (Date Added: 2011-11-16)

14-Frontières et territoires: mode de tenure des terres des Cris de l’Est dans la région frontalière Québec/Ontario – II – Reconstruction et renouveau
Scott, C, Morrison, J
2005 Recherches Amérindiennes au Québec ( Date Added: 2011-11-14)

13- Co-management and the Politics of Aboriginal Consent to Resource Development: the Agreement Concerning a New Relationship between Le Gouvernement du Québec and the Crees of Quebec
Scott, C
2005 Canada: The State of the Federation, 2003 Reconfiguring Aboriginal-State Relations (Date Added: 2011-11-14)

12-Our Feet are on the Land, but our Hands are in the Sea:' Knowing and Caring for Marine Territory at Erub, Torres Strait
Scott, C
2004 Woven Histories, Dancing Lives: Torres Strait Islander Identity, Culture and History ( Date Added: 2011-11-14)

11-Frontières et territoires : mode de tenure des terres des Cris de l’Est dans la région frontalière Québec/Ontario – I – Crise et effondrement
Scott, C, Morrison, J
2004 Propriété, territorialité et identité politique, special issue, Recherches Amérindiennes au Québec ( Date Added: 2011-11-14)

10- Conflicts between Cree Hunting and Sport Hunting: Co-management Decision-making at James Bay
Scott, C, Webber, J
2001 Aboriginal Autonomy and Development in Northern Quebec and Labrador (Date Added: 2011-11-14)

9-Aboriginal Rights and Interests in Canadian Northern Seas
Mulrennan, M, Scott, C
2001 Aboriginal Autonomy and Development in Northern Quebec and Labrador ( Date Added: 2011-11-14)

8-Indigenous Rights and Control of the Sea in Torres Strait
Mulrennan, M, Scott, C
2001 Indigenous Law Bulletin 5(5) ( Date Added: 2011-11-14)

7-Aboriginal autonomy and development in northern Quebec and Labrador
Scott, C(
2001 ( Date Added: 2011-09-08)

6-Mare Nullius: Indigenous Rights in Saltwater Environments
Mulrennan, M, Scott, C
2000 Development and Change 31(3) ( Date Added: 2011-11-16)

5- Mare nullius: Indigenous rights in saltwater environments
Mulrennan, ME, Scott, CH
2000 Development and Change (Date Added: 2011-04-14)

4-Land and Sea Tenure at Erub, Torres Strait: Property, Sovereignty and the Adjudication of Cultural Continuity
Scott, C, Mulrennan, M
1999 Oceania ( Date Added: 2011-11-16)

3-Canada Geese: Joint Management on the Mid-Atlantic Flyway
Scott, C, Mulrennan, M
1998 A Casebook of Environmental Issues in Canada ( Date Added: 2011-11-16)

2-Great Whale: Lessons from a Power Struggle
Mulrennan, M, Scott, C
1998 A Casebook of Environmental Issues in Canada ( Date Added: 2011-11-16)

1-Science for the West, Myth for the Rest? The Case of James Bay Cree Knowledge Construction
Scott, C
1996 Naked science: anthropological inquiry into boundaries, power, and knowledge ( Date Added: 2011-09-08)