From Roots and Routes to Returns: Is There a History of Consciousness Here?

This is a review essay of James Clifford’s recent book, Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century, viewed in the context of his entire trilogy. The thematic transition from roots and routes to returns is the evolution of an approach to cultural relocations and indigenous histories that parallels Clifford’s subjective shift from that of discursive observer to cultural-historical interlocutor.