TY - BOOK ID - 10686762 TI - The Americas in Early Modern Political Theory : States of Nature and Aboriginality PY - 2016 SN - 1137519983 1137519991 PB - New York : Palgrave Macmillan US : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, DB - UniCat KW - World politics. KW - Political science KW - History KW - Political theory. KW - United States-Politics and gover. KW - Political Theory. KW - US Politics. KW - Political History. KW - Colonialism KW - Global politics KW - International politics KW - Political history KW - World history KW - Eastern question KW - Geopolitics KW - International organization KW - International relations KW - Administration KW - Civil government KW - Commonwealth, The KW - Government KW - Political theory KW - Political thought KW - Politics KW - Science, Political KW - Social sciences KW - State, The KW - United States—Politics and government. KW - Political science. KW - America KW - American Politics. KW - Politics and government. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:10686762 AB - This book examines early modern social contract theories within European representations of the Americas in the 16th and 17th century. Despite addressing the Americas only marginally, social contract theories transformed American social imaginaries prevalent at the time into Aboriginality, allowing for the emergence of the idea of civilization and the possibility for diverse discourses of Aboriginalism leading to excluding and discriminatory forms of subjectivity, citizenship, and politics. What appears then is a form of Aboriginalism pitting the American/Aboriginal other against the nascent idea of civilization. The legacy of this political construction of difference is essential to contemporary politics in settler societies. The author shows the intellectual processes behind this assignation and its role in modern political theory, still bearing consequences today. The way one conceives of citizenship and sovereignty underlies some of the difficulties settler societies have in accommodating Indigenous claims for recognition and self-government. ER -