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Feit Harvey, FRSC | Professor Emeritus

Harvey Feit

FRSC | Professor Emeritus

Emeritus Faculty
Department of Anthropology

Biography

Biography (MAC Experts and Dept 2018/09/15) 

Working closely with Eeyou (James Bay Cree) People on ethnographic and engaged projects I have learned from and I write about Eeyou everyday lives, and their practices of collective autonomy, governing, co-governing, surviving and resisting. I also learned about their ways of living amidst colonialism, dispossession, treaty abrogation, and pervasive ways of shaping conduct. These ways include how Eeyou seek to shape the conduct of non-Eeyou governments, corporations, and new co-governance regimes.


At different times I have worked primarily as a researcher, expert witness, program and policy developer, and advisor with Eeyou negotiators and organizations, especially during the first decade of their treaty negotiations and implementation of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975. I have continued to do so on an intermittent basis since, as well as to work on research I initiated and have conducted with Eeyou partners. These collaborations have stimulated joint projects exploring Eeyou “ways of doing things.”


My research also explores human/animal/land relations, and how people seek to sustain the lands, worlds and ways of living that they value. Detailed multi-year research with Waswanipi Eenou hunters shows how they could hunt intensively without generally depleting vulnerable game animals’ collective well-being.


Other research explores Eeyou families’ understandings of ‘power,’ their practices of situated governance, and their ways of nurturing practical and ontological commensurabilities with non-Eeyou.


My contributions to these projects have appeared in two co-edited volumes and over 75 book chapters, journal articles, reports and expert affidavits and testimonies. These include publications on:
- colonialism and its effects, alongside the continuation of Indigenous self-governance, everyday autonomies, resistance and co-governance;
- showing how nation state governments, and some Indigenous forms of governance, obscure or only partly acknowledge already existing and developing forms of state - Indigenous co-governance;
- critically examining histories of anthropological engagement/scholarship, the inseparability of academic knowledge practices as engagement, and the consequences of the scholarly practices that seek to render them separate;
- demonstrating flaws in optimal bio-economic modeling of subsistence hunting, and in modes of production models and histories of the evolution of sharing economies;
- critically challenging claims that Northern Indigenous People’s conservation of land and game animals is specious, or was only historical and is not contemporary, or is derived solely from non-Indigenous peoples;
- researching, helping to design, and documenting a basic income program to sustain an Eeyou social economy and substantial self-sufficiency of families living on the land;
- documenting and exploring ways that Indigenous Peoples and scholars can enhance existing dialogues and commensurabilities, and possibilities of co-governance.


Harvey Feit is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Professor Emeritus at McMaster University, co-founder of the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster, and a member of the
Adjunct Graduate Faculty, Indigenous Studies PhD, Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies at Trent University.

Education

PhD McGill, 1979

Research

Selected Publications
Feit, Harvey A. 2018. “Dispossession with Possession, Governance with Colonialism: Algonquian Hunting Territories and Anthropology as Engaged Practice.” Anthropologica 60: 149-160. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23928.


Feit, Harvey A. 2017. “Dialogues on Surviving: Eeyou Hunters’ Ways of Engaging with Land, Governments and Youth” In Entangled Territorialities: Negotiating Indigenous Lands in Australia and Canada, Françoise Dussart and Sylvie Poirier, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Pp. 25-50.


Feit, Harvey A. 2016. “Creating Jobs and an Eenou Social Economy.” In Together We Survive. John S. Long and Jennifer S.H. Brown, eds. Montreal: McGill – Queen’s Press. Pp. 46-70.


Feit, Harvey A. 2014. “Hunting and the Quest for Power: Relationships between James Bay Crees, the Land and Developers.” In Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience. Fourth Edition. C. Roderick Wilson and Christopher Fletcher, eds. Toronto: Oxford University Press. Pp. 115-145. Expanded version of a 1986 article; 2nd edition 1995, 3rd edition 2004. The 4th and 1st versions are available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23927.


Feit, Harvey A. 2010. “Le peuple cri de la Baie James parle aux gouvernements: développement, gouvernance et co-gouvernance.” In Les Inuit et les Cris du Nord du Québec. Jacques-Guy Petit, Yv Bonnier Viger, Pita Aatami and Ashley Iserhoff, eds. Rennes and Québec: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, and Presses de l’Université du Québec. Pp. 119-132. Available along with an English version manuscript, at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23922.


Feit, Harvey A. 2010. “Neo-liberal Governance and James Bay Cree Governance: Negotiated Agreements, Oppositional Struggles, and Co-Governance.” In Indigenous Peoples and Autonomy: Insights for a Global Age. Mario Blaser, Ravi de Costa, Deborah McGregor and William D. Colemen, eds. Vancouver: UBC Press. Pp. 49-79. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24142.


Feit, Harvey A. 2009. “Governmental Rationalities and Indigenous Co-Governance: James Bay Cree Co-Existence, from Mercantilist Partnerships to Neoliberal Mechanisms.” In Unsettled Legitimacy: Political Community, Power, and Authority in a Global Era. Steven Bernstein and William D. Coleman, eds. Vancouver: UBC Press. Pp. 97-128. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24044.


Feit, Harvey A. 2009. “Histories of the Past, Histories of the Future: The Committed Anthropologies of Richard Slobodin, Frank G. Speck and Eleanor Leacock.” In A Kindly Scrutiny of Human Nature: Essays in Honour of Richard Slobodin. Richard Preston, ed. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press. Pp. 45-76.


Feit, Harvey A. 2007. “Myths of the Ecological Whitemen: Histories, Science, and Rights in North American – Native American Relations.” In Native Americans and the Environment: Perspectives on the Ecological Indian, Michael E. Harkin and David Rich Lewis, eds. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Pp. 52-92. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24251.


Spaeder, Joseph and Harvey A. Feit, eds. 2005. Co-management and Indigenous Communities: Barriers and Bridges to Decentralized Resource Management. A special issue of Anthropologica 47 (2): 147-288. The Introduction by the editors is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23909.


Feit, Harvey A. 2005. “Re-Cognizing Co-Management as Co-Governance: Histories and Visions of Conservation at James Bay.” Anthropologica. 47 (2): 267-288. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23908.


Blaser, Mario, Harvey A. Feit and Glenn McRae, eds. 2004 (E-book, 2013). In the Way of Development: Indigenous Peoples, Life Projects and Globalization. London: Zed Books with Canadian International Development Research Centre. 372 pp. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23543. Also at: https://www.idrc.ca/en/book/way-development-indigenous-peoples-life-projects-and-globalization.


Feit, Harvey A. 2004. “James Bay Crees’ Life Projects and Politics: Histories of Place, Animal Partners and Enduring Relationships.” In Blaser, Feit and McRae, eds., above. Pp. 92-110. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23540.


Blaser, Mario, Harvey A. Feit and Glenn McRae. 2004. “Indigenous Peoples and Development Processes: New Terrains of Struggle.” In Blaser, Feit and McRae, eds., above. Pp. 1-25. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23542.


Feit, Harvey A. 2004. “Contested Identities of ‘Indians’ and ‘Whitemen’ at James Bay, or the Power of Reason, Hybridity and Agency.” In Senri Ethnological Studies. (Osaka) 66: 109-126. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23555. Also at: https://minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/index.php?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_snippet&index_id=255&pn=1&count=20&order=7&lang=japanese&page_id=13&block_id=21


Feit, Harvey A. and Colin H. Scott. 2004. "Applying Knowledge: Anthropological Praxis and Public Policy." In Ethnography and Development: The Work of Richard F. Salisbury. Marilyn Silverman, ed. Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press. Pp. 233-255. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24241.


Feit, Harvey A. 2001. “Hunting, Nature and Metaphor: Political and Discursive Strategies in James Bay Cree Resistance and Autonomy.” In Indigenous Traditions and Ecology. John A. Grim, ed. Cambridge: Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School and Harvard University Press. Pp. 411-452. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23910.


Feit, Harvey A. and Robert Beaulieu. 2001. “Voices from a Disappearing Forest: Government, Corporate and Cree Participatory Forestry Management Practices.” In Aboriginal Autonomy and Development in Northern Quebec and Labrador. Colin H. Scott, ed. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Pp. 119-148. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24041.


Feit, Harvey A. 2000. “Les animaux comme partenaires de chasse: Réciprocité chez les Cris de la Baie James.” Terrain (Paris) 34:123-142. Available along with an English version manuscript, at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23535. Aussi en ligne: http://journals.openedition.org/terrain/1005 ; DOI : 10.4000/terrain.1005.


Feit, Harvey A., North American Section Editor. 1999 [Paperback, 2004]. “Introduction: North America,” and “James Bay Cree.” The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers. Richard B. Lee and Richard Daly, eds. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 23-30; 41-45.


Feit, Harvey A. 1997. “Spiritual Power and Everyday Lives: James Bay Cree Shaking Tent Performers and Their Audiences.” In Circumpolar Animism and Shamanism. Takako Yamada and Takashi Irimoto, eds. Sapporo: University of Hokkaido Press. Pp. 121-150. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23916.


Feit, Harvey A. 1994. “The Enduring Pursuit: Land, Time, and Social Relationships in Anthropological Models of Hunter-Gatherers and in Hunters' Images.” In Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research. Ernest S. Burch, Jr. and Linda J. Ellanna, eds. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Pp. 421-439. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23515.


Feit, Harvey A. 1994. “Dreaming of Animals: The Waswanipi Cree Shaking Tent Ceremony in Relation to Environment, Hunting and Missionization.” In Circumpolar Religion and Ecology. Takashi Irimoto and Takako Yamada, eds. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. Pp. 289-316. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23915.


Scott, Colin H. and Harvey A. Feit. 1992. Income Security for Cree Hunters: Ecological, Social and Economic Effects. Montréal: McGill Programme in the Anthropology of Development, Monograph Series. 448 pp. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23918.


Feit, Harvey A. 1991. “The Construction of Algonquian Hunting Territories: Private Property as Moral Lesson, Policy Advocacy and Ethnographic Error.” In Colonial Situations: Essays on the Contextualization of Ethnographic Knowledge. George W. Stocking, Jr., ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. (History of Anthropology, Volume 7). Pp. 109-134. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24040.


Feit, Harvey A. 1991. “Gifts of the Land: Hunting Territories, Guaranteed Incomes and the Construction of Social Relations in James Bay Cree Society.” Senri Ethnological Studies (Osaka) 30:223-268. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23557. Also available at: https://minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/index.php?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_snippet&index_id=291&pn=1&count=20&order=7&lang=japanese&page_id=13&block_id=21.


Harvey A. 1989. “James Bay Cree Self-Governance and Land Management.” In We Are Here: Politics of Aboriginal Land Tenure. Edwin N. Wilmsen, ed. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 68-98. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23911.


Feit, Harvey A. 1988 [1987]. “Waswanipi Cree Management of Land and Wildlife: Cree Cultural Ecology Revisited.” In Native Peoples: Native Lands. Bruce Cox, ed. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, Pp. 75-91. (2nd printing 1988 was corrected). Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24145.


Feit, Harvey A. 1988. “Self-Management and State-Management: Forms of Knowing and Managing Northern Wildlife.” In Traditional Knowledge and Renewable Resource Management in Northern Regions. Milton M.R. Freeman and Ludwig N. Carbyn, eds. Edmonton: Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, and International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Pp. 72-91. Republished in 1993 and available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23534. Also at: http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/book-images/Open%20Access/9781772122527_WEB.pdf.


Feit, Harvey A. 1988. “The Power and the Responsibility: Implementation of the Wildlife and Hunting Provisions of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.” In James Bay and Northern Quebec: Ten Years After. Sylvie Vincent and Garry Bowers, eds. Montreal: Recherches amérindiennes au Québec. Pp. 74-88. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23919.


Feit, Harvey A. 1987. “North American Native Hunting and Management of Moose Populations.” Viltrevy, Swedish Wildlife Research (Supplement 1): 25-42. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23935.


Feit, Harvey A. 1986. “James Bay Cree Indian Management and Moral Considerations of Fur-bearers.” In Native People and Renewable Resource Management. 1986 Symposium of the Alberta Society of Professional Biologists (ASPB), Edmonton: ASPB. Pp. 49-65. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23936.


Feit, Harvey A. 1985. “Legitimation and Autonomy in James Bay Cree Responses to Hydro-electric Development.” In Indigenous Peoples and the Nation State. Noel Dyck, ed. St. John's: Memorial University, Institute for Social and Economic Research. Pp. 27-66. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23595.