“Sole Property and Domain”: Intellectual Property Law and the Contemporary Puerto Rican Taíno Indigenous Movement

• Published in: American religion (Bloomington, Ind. : 2019) Vol. 1; no. 1; pp. 67 - 87
• Main Author: Dew, Spencer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bloomington Indiana University Press 01.10.2019
• Subjects: Colonialism; Culture; Diaspora; Genocide; Intellectual property; Jurisprudence; Leadership; Museums; Oppression; Religion; Spirituality; Websites; Puerto Rico; Florida; United States > US; New Jersey; New York City New York
• ISSN: 2643-9255; 2643-9247; 2643-9247
• DOI: 10.2979/amerreli.1.1.05

The contemporary Puerto Rican Taíno movement, on both the archipelago and the US mainland, is predicated on claims to indigenous identity understood as explicitly religious (a matter of “sacred” beliefs and practices) but also always legal (and thus as an orientation toward legal activism, seeking recognition from the state of their indigenous status). The Jatibonicu Taíno Nation of Boriken is unique in its emphasis on intellectual property law, advancing claims to copyright and trademark, claims that function to generate the Jatibonicu Taíno Nation as a legal subject (a corporate holder of such rights) and serving as evidence, in Jatibonicu rhetoric, of legal recognition (as the recognized holder of such rights). Consideration of the Jatibonicu example contributes to understandings of popular “legal consciousness” and creative (subaltern) engagements with legal theory and practice, to understanding of the ways that subjectivity is generated through citation and engagement with the law, and to the ways (imperial) law can be coopted by communities struggling against colonialism and “cultural genocide.” Intellectual property law is used by the Jatibonicu Nation as an essential tool for survival.