Teaching ethnic and racial relations: some comments on Michael Banton

Banton's critique of race and ethnic relations highlights differences between the U.K. and the U.S.A. The interplay between ethnic politics and the teaching of the subject in the universities reflects differing reactions to the demise of Marxism, the impact of globalization and the growth of transnationalism. In America, anthropology, economics, cultural studies and conflict resolution have had a mixed impact on the field, but an examination of textbooks over the past thirty years - as well as Banton's prolific scholarship - suggests that most of the core problems remain the same.     

The view from America: comments on Banton

This article reflects on Michael Banton's thought-provoking essay on the state of ethnic studies, both in terms of teaching and conducting research. By focusing on the US in contrast to Banton's British emphasis, it offers a comparative reference for exploring the central points Banton makes about the need for conceptual clarification, the challenges posed by fusing scholarship and partisanship, and the desirability of expanding cross-national comparative research.     

Introduction: Framing difference: racial and ethnic studies in twentyfirst-century Britain

The events in Britain since the beginning of the new millennium starkly and dramatically reflect the continued salience of racial and ethnic difference. In media, political and academic discourse, the struggles over nationhood and multiculturalism, the duties of citizenship and the right to cultural expression, similarity and difference have been played out against global and national backdrops, and across many local stages. The articles in this volume aim to explore the contours of this changing terrain, and suggest new avenues for research and theorization. They are primarily an engagement with British debates and events, but seek to place these within a broader global and diasporic context. The aim of this introductory article is to sketch the background to the events that surround the production of these articles, to outline a broad conceptual overview of the current academic debates and to explore the links between each contribution.     

Black Jews in the Northern Province: a study of ethnic identity in South Africa

The article examines ways in which the Lemba people of the Northern Province of South Africa have used their oral history and traditional customs associated with distant Semitic origins in Yemen, to claim a modern Jewish identity in racially divided South Africa. While Lemba live in Mozambique and Zimbabwe as well as in South Africa, it is only in the latter that belief in a Jewish origin is found. The article seeks to show that early white missionaries and colonial officials propagated a Semitic identity for the Lemba and in their writings emphasized the differences between the Lemba and their African neighbours through comparisons of Lemba customs with Jewish communities in Europe. Such writings contributed to an ethos of a distinct identity, through which, via the establishment of the Lemba Cultural Association, middle-class Lemba intellectuals sought to promote the Lemba. This was achieved in a situation where the apartheid regime in South Africa pursued a divide and rule policy which allowed the Bantustans to discriminate against ethnic minorities under their control.     

Collecting ethnic statistics in Europe: a review

Abstract

Statistics on ethnicity, if not on ‘race’, are common in a large number of countries around the world, but not in the western part of Europe. This divergence can be explained by legal prohibitions attached to data protection provisions and by a political reluctance to recognize and emphasize ethnic diversity in official statistics. Following different traditions of political framing, northern, central and eastern European countries have implemented different ways of collecting ‘ethnic statistics’. This article provides a review of the heterogeneity of methodologies used for converting ethnicity into statistics and discusses their limitations for any potential standardization. As part of the enforcement of anti-discrimination policies, European human rights institutions are urging a reconsideration of the choice of ‘colour-blind’ statistics. Counting or not counting by ethnicity raises epistemological and methodological dilemmas which this article attempts to identify.     

Diadromy,history and ecology: a question of scale

The existence of diadromous migrations has significant implications for understanding a broad series of biogeographical and ecological questions and for doing so across a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. Understanding these implications is important for interpretation of patterns in historical and ecological biogeography as well as in community ecology and conservation. This article explores these implications. Guest editors: S. Dufour, E. Prévost, E. Rochard & P. Williot Fish and diadromy in Europe (ecology, management, conservation)     

Marriage and the maintenance of ethnic group boundaries: the case of Mauritius

Research on how cognitive and cultural biases shape marital decisions in Mauritius suggests that ethnic endogamy will remain the norm and maintain ethnic group boundaries. Results of a pile sorting exercise of Mauritian university students intimates that preferences for ethnic endogamy are paramount and override class-based considerations. Thus, despite socio-economic stratification within each ethnic group, inter-ethnic marriage is not common. Results from in-depth interviews suggest that individuals and their parents prefer to marry within their ethnic group to ensure that their spouse will abide by ethnically-specific norms and conventions, increasing the chances of coordinating reciprocal exchanges within a marriage. The presence of some inter-ethnic marriage does not weaken the boundaries between groups because children of inter-ethnic marriages tend to take on the ethnic identity and corresponding cultural norms of a single parent as a strategy to better negotiate social relations, and to marry someone of that same ethnicity.     

Natural epigenetic variation in plant species: a view from the field

Researchers are beginning to use wild plant populations to survey and assess cytosine methylation polymorphisms in a population and ecological genetic framework. These studies support the plausibility of adaptive epigenetic alleles, but uncertainty remains due to the difficulty in untangling genetic and epigenetic variation in wild populations. The increasing emphasis on stress-induced epigenetic alterations and transgenerational phenomena among researchers focused on epigenetic mechanisms should push practitioners of this subfield to consider the questions and tools of colleagues grappling with epigenetics from ecological and evolutionary perspectives.     

Golgi in copper homeostasis: a view from the membrane trafficking field

Copper is essential for a variety of important biological processes as a cofactor and regulator of many enzymes. Incorporation of copper into the secreted and plasma membrane-targeted cuproenzymes takes place in Golgi, a compartment central for normal copper homeostasis. The Golgi complex harbors copper-transporting ATPases, ATP7A and ATP7B that transfer copper from the cytosol into Golgi lumen for incorporation into copper-dependent enzymes. The Golgi complex also sends these ATPases to appropriate post-Golgi destinations to ensure correct Cu fluxes in the body and to avoid potentially toxic copper accumulation. Mutations in ATP7A or ATP7B or in the proteins that regulate their trafficking affect their exit from Golgi or subsequent retrieval to this organelle. This, in turn, disrupts the homeostatic Cu balance, resulting in copper deficiency (Menkes disease) or copper overload (Wilson disease). Research over the last decade has yielded significant insights into the enzymatic properties and cell biology of the copper ATPases. However, the mechanisms through which the Golgi regulates trafficking of ATP7A/7B and, therefore, maintains Cu homeostasis remain unclear. This review summarizes current data on the role of the Golgi in Cu metabolism and outlines questions and challenges that should be addressed to understand ATP7A and ATP7B trafficking mechanisms in health and disease.     

Dynamics of ethnic and racial self-identification in contemporary Peru

This study has sought to analyse how the social and cultural dynamics of the population are expressed in the recent processes of ethnic self-identification in Peru. Data from 2012 to 2016 Peru National Household survey was used to investigate specifically: (a) on the contribution of the questions about ethnic and racial self-identification included in the National Household Survey to the visibility of indigenous and Afro-Peruvian populations; (b) on the individual and local characteristics related with certain self-identification categories; and (c) if the self-identification patterns have remained stable or have varied during the survey period. Results show that the number of persons who identifies as indigenous varies according to the question used. Likewise, it was found that characteristics such as age, migratory experience, education, and income level influence on the self-identification. Finally, modest but significant changes over time were registered, which could be shedding light on some processes of social transformations.     

Demographic behaviour of adults of mixed ethnic ancestry: Jews in Israel

We examine demographic behaviour of Jewish adults of mixed ethnic ancestry, relative to those of the two major Jewish ethnic groups in Israel. Research has shown that for measures of socioeconomic status, such as educational attainment, outcomes for multi-ethnics are in between – and very close to the middle of – those associated with the two major ethnic groups. We find that, in contrast, the marriage and fertility behaviour of multi-ethnic adults is nearly identical to that of the more socially advantaged ethnic group and quite distinct from that of the less advantaged ethnic group. Through multivariate analyses, we explore factors associated with families of origin, including socioeconomic status and cultural indicators of family norms, which are associated with these patterns. We discuss interpretations of our findings.     

An idea of community and its discontents: towards a more reflexive sense of belonging in multicultural Britain

In many less developed countries economic development is not in conformity with the actual level of consumption. In part this is to be explained by the huge informal sector that is not included in official statistics. However, using Suriname as a case study, it is argued in this article that a significant part of the discrepancies can be explained from private household transfers from The Netherlands. Migration is not a loss in all respects, but sometimes an asset. In contrast the remittances from temporarily migrated workers, the transfers from people constituting a transnational community cannot be taken for granted. This private family aid expresses personal commitments at the primordial level, and is therefore a kind of moral capital. Depending on the size of the migrated community and the moral commitments of their members, these transfers constitute a net surplus from the former metropolis to the periphery.     

A hominid tooth from Bulgaria: the last pre-human hominid of continental Europe

A hominid upper premolar was discovered in the Azmaka quarry, near Chirpan (Bulgaria). The associated fauna, especially the co-occurrence of Choerolophodon and Anancus among the proboscideans, and Cremohipparion matthewi and Hippotherium brachypus among the hipparions, constrains the age of the locality to the second half of the middle Turolian (ca. 7 Ma), making it the latest pre-human hominid of continental Europe and Asia Minor. The available morphological and metric data are more similar to those of Ouranopithecus from the Vallesian of Greece than to those of the early to middle Turolian hominids of Turkey and Georgia, but the time gap speaks against a direct phyletic link, and Turolian migration from the east cannot be rejected.     

The process of ethnogenesis among Haitian and Israeli immigrants in the United States

This article examines the process of ethnic identity formation among two different groups of recent immigrants to the United States: secular kibbutz‐born Israelis and middle‐class Haitians. While the two groups are different in a number of ways, they share an ambivalence with the identities that American society would assign to them ‐ as Jews and blacks respectively. By contrasting these two case studies we identify the role of the ‘proximal host’, the category to which the immigrants would be assigned following immigration. The determination of the ultimate definition of the ethnic identities of these immigrants is a result of the interaction of the conception of identity the immigrants bring with them from their countries of origin, the definitions and reactions of the proximal host group, and the overall ordering and definitions of American society. The ambivalence of both groups of immigrants towards their post‐immigration identities is a result of both macro‐forces determining the definition of categories and micro‐forces of individual choice. In conclusion we show that because of the primacy of race in American society, Israelis are likely to face many more options in the determination of their identities, than are Haitians, although they both face a similar structural dilemma.     

cagA gene variants in Malaysian Helicobacter pylori strains isolated from patients of different ethnic groups

Helicobacter pylori infection of a distinct subtype of cagA may lead to different pathological manifestation. The aim of this study is to determine the presence of cagA gene and its variants in H. pylori infection among different ethnic groups and its effect on gastroduodenal diseases. Overall detection of cagA among the 205 clinical isolates of H. pylori was 94%. Variations in size of the 3' region of cagA gene were examined among 192 Malaysian H. pylori cagA-positive strains. Results showed that three cagA variants differing in fragment length of PCR products were detected and designated as type A (621-651bp), type B (732-735bp) and type C (525 bp). Although there was no association between any of the cagA subtypes with peptic ulcer disease (p>0.05), an association between cagA subtypes with a specific ethnic group was observed. Specific-cagA subtype A strains were predominantly isolated from Chinese compared to Malays and Indians (p<0.0005), and cagA subtype B strains were predominantly isolated from Malays and Indians compared to Chinese (p<0.05). The cagA type A strains of H. pylori is commonly found in the Chinese patients who have a higher risk of peptic ulcer disease, thus indicating that it could be used as an important clinical biomarker for a more severe infection.     

Colonial Constructions and African Initiatives: The History of Ethnicity in Northwestern Ghana

The article discusses the colonial construction of ethnic categories, their linkage with precolonial models of identity and the multiple meanings which ethnicity has assumed for different groups over the past decades, using the example of northwestern Ghana – a region which, in the precolonial period, was neither politically centralized nor knew distinct ‘tribes’. The article analyses how ethnic categories, boundaries and institutions were created and continually redefined by colonial officials, anthropologists, chiefs, labour migrants and educated elites, and how the different ethnic discourses fed into each other. It also draws on some of the older literature on ethnicity in Africa because it can still contribute to our understanding of the making of ethnic identities when framed in a deeply historical approach.     

Phenotypic flexibility in basal metabolic rate and the changing view of avian physiological diversity: a review

Comparative analyses of avian energetics often involve the implicit assumption that basal metabolic rate (BMR) is a fixed, taxon-specific trait. However, in most species that have been investigated, BMR exhibits phenotypic flexibility and can be reversibly adjusted over short time scales. Many non-migrants adjust BMR seasonally, with the winter BMR usually higher than the summer BMR. The data that are currently available do not, however, support the idea that the magnitude and direction of these adjustments varies consistently with body mass. Long-distance migrants often exhibit large intra-annual changes in BMR, reflecting the physiological adjustments associated with different stages of their migratory cycles. Phenotypic flexibility in BMR also represents an important component of short-term thermal acclimation under laboratory conditions, with captive birds increasing BMR when acclimated to low air temperatures and vice versa. The emerging view of avian BMR is of a highly flexible physiological trait that is continually adjusted in response to environmental factors such as temperature. The within-individual variation observed in avian BMR demands a critical re-examination of approaches used for comparisons across taxa. Several key questions concerning the shapes and other properties of avian BMR reaction norms urgently need to be addressed, and hypotheses concerning metabolic adaptation should explicitly account for phenotypic flexibility.