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What is Ethnicity?

30 important questions on What is Ethnicity?

Positive contributions by the chicago school

- fludiity and dynamics of ethnic relations

- relevance of ethnicity varies situationally and is contextual

- ethnic identities can be manipulated

Positive contributions by the manchester school

- retribalisation: reclaiming identity

- detribalisation: tribal bons becoming less important

- overcommunication

- undercommunication

- organization of new subsystems based on ethnic membership

Relation between ethnicity and culture Barth

- the social organisation of a group is more important than culture, it is about the boundaries

- cultural differences can be the consequences of boundaries instead of the cause

- only when cultural differeces are considered important they matter in differentiation

- ethnic boundaries are social boundaries

Eriksen relation between ethnicity and culture

- ethnic boundaries do not necessarily correspond with cultural boundaries

- ethnicity is the enduring and systematic communication of cultural differences between groups

-ethnic groups are not perse cultural groups

- ethnicity is relational and situational

Spradley and mccurdy, culture is..

the learned and shared knowledhe that people use to generate behavior and interpret experiences

includes both tacit (you are not aware of) and explicit knowledge

Critique on furnivall and smith

- ethnic groups presented as static, takes not change into account

- reification of culture (seeing cultures as fixed and closed systems, making something abstact in something concrete, making it a thing)

Reductionist sociology of culture (criticised by benhabib)

- cultures are clearly delineable wholes

- cultures are congruent with population groups and a non controversial discription is possible

- politics or policies are not hindered by the fact that culture and groups may not stand in a one-to-one relationship

Benhabib about identity politics

not everyone shares the same interests therefore identity politics not good

not everyone within the community shares the same interests

Grand family nationalism

based on blood/kin relations

Fundamental differences between psychological identity and anthropological

identity as inner core - in interaction

unchangeable - process

fixed - choice

unconcious - awareness is needed

Copperbelt studies manchester school

qurbanization in Southern Africa: qlabour migration qpeople of different ethnic background living together qethnic (‘tribal’) background economically relatively unimportant. q yet in certain contexts: over-emphasis on ethnic identity (overcommunication of shared group characteristics) }Retribalisation (J. C. Mitchell) }Detribalisation (G. Wilson)

Overeenkomsten burundi en rwanda

- same colonial rulers

- same violent past

- same history of identity politics

- same ruling minority (till '62)

Longstanding ideas about migration before were:

- push-pull (calculating rational choices)- assimilation (complete integration)- temporary (return or assimilation)- one directional

New studies on migration showed..

migration as a social phenomenon (not economic)

relevance of social networkd

role of perception

culture of migration

Social capital (sylhet)

social links between sylhet and london as a means to gain financial help or realize the plan for migration

Londonis send remittances and make social investments because..

security

emotional ties

development

State action when ethnic diversity is a problem:

domination >>segregation

forced assimilation

enforced displacement

genocide

Minority responses to states

assimilation

accepting subordination or coexistence

exit (leave) or succesion (organize politcally)

New ethnic categories emerge based upon ancestry as..

an extension of existing identifications

or fission: reducing the size of the group

> presentday constructions of the past

Critical multiculturalism (turner)

diversity as a basis for challenging and relativizing basic notions and principles - dialogue and exchange

construct a more vital, open and democratic common nature

Cold societies and hot (levi-strauss)

consider themselces as timelss and unchanging

modern societies change fast, notions of progress

Globalization efffects (eriksen)

people are becoming more similar and more disctinctive at the same time

ethnicity is one expression of distinctiveness

ethnicity whoulf be studies in the context of the global world

ethnic differentiation on the basis of social, cultural and political resources

Dual paradoxical process

homogenization and heterogenization

centriputal (more connected) centrifugal reconstruction of local uniqueness

universal cosmopolitanism and fundamentalism or parochial localism

Critique on the concept of the state

many people seek identification now along different axes

the world is now a single place

the individual is situationally shifting

Why delimit ethnicity

you cannot organize the world in fixed groups

one sided focus may prevent us from seeing: other criteria for identification, anomalies

Ethnic lens and critique

distorts migration, reinforces methodological nationalism, disregards the role of city scale and transnational connection

Dual phenomena of ethnicity

aspects of utility(political : gain and loss) and aspects of meaning

Why did they kill? genocide

1 fear

2 prejudice

3 desire for revenge

4 opportunism

5 obedience

Migrant aspirations influence local lifes

- educational choices

- refusal to take traditional jobs

- marriage market (definition of a good catch changed)

Native/analytical concepts

These concepts are not the same. There are often discrepancies between what people say and what they do, and there will nearly always be discrepancies between informants' descriptions (native, emic) of their society and the anthropologist's description (analytic, etic) of the same society.
Native = day to day, actor's terms, emic
Analytial= anthropologists terms, scientific, etic

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Ethnicity and Nationalism | 9780745330426 | Thomas Hylland Eriksen

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