The author analyzes the uses that certain social and political organizations make of old anthropological concepts, demonstrating how these groups interpret certain anthropological theories, taking them for themselves. Debates on the rights of ethnic groups and other minorities, at a national level or in the United Nations, are at the base of certain national and international politics. Therefore, the author points out, it is important to clarify which concepts and which theories are being used in those discussions - concepts such as native or indigineous, current euphemisms for the out-dated primitive, civilization or culture, sometimes used interchangeably with race at other times, and theories such as evolutionism. In order to exemplify how different social movements make use of these concepts, the author analyses those political groups who defend the so called foragers and hunters, such as the Inuit in northern Canada or the Bushmen in the south of Africa.
culture; native; race; forages