Immigrant transit camps ‐ The formation of dependent relations in Israeli society

In this article three approaches to define and explain negative ethnic attitudes are discussed: the anthropology of cultural misunderstanding, the sociology of how differences in group positions are justified ideologically, and the social psychology of maintaining self‐esteem through intergroup differentiation. The‐ aim is to integrate these approaches into an interdisciplinary model. Social identity theory is used as a frame for this integration. The argument developed is that ingroup values are used for intergroup differentiation and evaluation. This leads to the development of stereotypes. Stereotypes reflect misunderstanding, but also anchor social representations of a hierarchy of group positions (ethnic hierarchy). Depending on the ethnic composition of the larger society, majority and minority groups will differ in their ethnic hierarchies. Discrepancies between ethnic hierarchies will lead to ethnic tension. From the perspective developed, a number of hypotheses is derived about how changes in the socio‐economic position of minority groups will affect intergroup evaluations. Hypotheses based on the category differentiation model and the social identity model are specified with respect to the expected changes in stereotypes and intergroup discrimination of the ethnic majority and minority groups.     

‘Playing’ at the ethnic boundary: strategic boundary making/unmaking among ethnic Chinese groups in Australia

The sociological literature has constructed a systematic typology of ‘modes’ and ‘means’ of strategic ethnic boundary making/unmaking. Through exploring different strategies, scholars illustrate the processes and contexts of boundary expansion or contraction. Other scholars also distinguish ethnic elements and ‘moral' values attached to certain ethnicities but not to others. This paper acknowledges dynamic boundary making/unmaking and moral aspects of ethnicity, while exploring the different degrees to which national and pan-national identity nest within each other among ethnic Chinese groups, as well as how ethnic boundary becomes a field where people ‘play' in their everyday interactions. Based on participant observations and in-depth interviews from two pan-Chinese worksites in Australia, the paper argues that different interpretations of ethnic identity as well as how different identities (national and pan-national) are nested give people room to ‘play' at the ethnic boundary and result in different outcomes. This paper also shows that people can cross the ethnic boundary (between Taiwanese/Hong Kongese and PRC-Chinese) without expanding/contracting the existing categories or ‘repositioning/transvaluing' their ethnic statuses.     

Recreated practices by Mapuche women that strengthen place identity in new urban spaces of residence in Santiago,Chile

The phenomenon of migration to cities by indigenous Mapuche people of Chile is associated with various consequences, such as the loss of ethnic identity and cultural practices. This study aims to describe how ethnic identity is maintained through the recreation of ancestral cultural practices that Mapuche women promote in their families, generating identification to new spaces of residence. This qualitative research draws on analyses of forty-eight interviews conducted with twelve families from four neighbourhoods in Santiago. The study reveals ways in which key traditional Mapuche practices are translated and recreated through the processes of place-referent continuity and place-congruent continuity in new urban areas of residence which in turn express variant forms of ethnic identity and everyday politics of care that extend beyond folkloric notions of rural indigeneity and more static political ideologies of ethno-national autonomy.     

Assessing the Effects of Indigenous Migration on Zootherapeutic Practices in the Semiarid Region of Brazil

Human migration implies adaptations to new environments, such as ways to benefit from the available biodiversity. This study focused on the use of animal-derived remedies, and we investigated the effects of migration on the traditional medical system of the indigenous Truká people. This ethnic group lives in Northeast Brazil and is currently distributed in four distinct villages. In these villages, the zootherapeutic knowledge of 54 indigenous people was determined through semi-structured questionnaires given from September 2013 to January 2014. The interviewees indicated 137 zootherapeutic uses involving 21 animal species. The variety of species and their uses have a higher similarity between villages that are closer to each other, which can be a reflection of geographic and environmental factors. However, even close villages showed a low similarity in the zootherapeutic uses recorded, which reflects a strong idiosyncrasy regarding the knowledge of each village. Hence, each village may be influenced by the physical environment and contact with other cultures, which may maintain or reduce the contact of younger villages with the original village.     

Tradition and Change in Aril,A Siamese Village in Kelantan

The paper traces the history of a Siamese village in the West Malaysia and outlines the manner in which its inhabitants have adopted to existence in a culturally Malay area. It documents the importance of the Buddhist religion for the maintenance of Siamese ethnic identity, a symbiosis with Chinese, and a generally harmonious, although subordinate relationship with local Malays.     

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.     

The Plastic Cassowary: Problematic ‘Pets’ in West Papua

This article explores the ambivalent relations of indigenous Marind to domesticated animals in Merauke District, West Papua. Marind pity village animals because they lose their ‘wildness’ and behave like human settlers, whom Marind consider alien because of their ‘modern’ lifestyle and non-Papuan origins. These transformations evoke to Marind their own experiences of political oppression and ethnic domination as coerced subjects of the Indonesian state. However, domesticates also appear to enjoy living in the village and refuse to return to the wild. Similarly, many Marind are drawn by the promises of modernity and have given up hope for political freedom. Furthermore, Marind themselves replicate the oppressive role of the state over their lives by subjecting animals to human control. In this light, domesticates as ‘matter out of place’ in the village environment provoke pity and anxiety because they offer an all too faithful reflection of the ambiguous condition of their keepers.     

Ethnic identity on display: West Indian youth and the creation of ethnic boundaries in high school

The black immigrant population in New York City has grown exponentially since 1990, such that West Indians now compose the majority of the black population in several neighbourhoods. This article examines how this ethnic density manifests among youth in high school, and how it has influenced ethnic identity formation among second-generation West Indians. My findings are based on twenty-four interviews and eight months of participant observation in two Brooklyn high schools from 2003 to 2004. The results show that in both schools, Caribbean island identities have become a ‘cool’ commodity within peer groups. Further, although it was important to express pride in one's island identity, these young people often blurred their national origin boundaries by drawing on Jamaican popular culture as way of projecting a unified ‘West Indian identity’. The research also uncovers evidence of a de-stigmatization of Haitianness as a way to incorporate them as cultural insiders into the larger Caribbean collective.     

Predictors of Ethno-Cultural Identity Conflict Among South Asian Immigrant Youth in New Zealand

The study tested a predictive model of ethno-cultural identity conflict (EIC) in a sample of 262 first-generation South Asian youth (aged 16–26, M = 19.4) in New Zealand. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to investigate the influence of: 1) attachment styles (preoccupied, dismissive, secure, and fearful); 2) family relations (intergenerational conflict and family cohesion); 3) ethnic (belonging, centrality, and exploration) and national identities; and 4) interactions between the components of ethnic and national identity. Controlling for demographic factors, results indicated that a preoccupied attachment style and experiences of acculturative intergenerational conflict exacerbated EIC, whereas family cohesion, ethnic identity centrality, and ethnic group belonging protected against EIC. It was also found that national identity moderated the effects of ethnic identity on EIC. Overall, these findings suggest positive self-regard, family cohesion, and integrated achieved identities should be promoted for immigrant youth.     

Making up People in Papua

This article focuses on a frequently reported but poorly analysed aspect of colonial and post-colonial relations in Melanesia, the episodic jettisoning of social practices. Under what conditions does this occur and what forms does it take? It is argued here that such changes are part of the process of 'making up people'. Making up people in Melanesia is where 'human kinds' are created through the 'looping effects' of government, mission and capitalist, and local, discourses and coercions. These processes are analysed among the Fuyuge of highland Papua, where since the 1940s there has emerged a transformed relation between homicide and head-dress adornments. The Fuyuge actively changed aspects of their appearance as part of the means of becoming people who know the 'law', becoming people of a specific kind. The article draws comparisons with analogous Melanesian materials, including the well-known examples of 'cargo cults'.     

The manipulation of ethnicity: from ethnic cooperation to violence and war in Yugoslavia

The story of the failure of bargaining among ethnic élites and of international diplomacy is well known. What has not been well explained is the spread and support for xenophobic nationalism and ethnic violence among people who had lived cooperatively for thirty-five years. I draw on key ideas of four views on ethnicity and ethnic conflict, and add the concept of cognitive frame in ethnic relations. Yugoslavs possessed two ethnic frames in their minds, an ethnic cooperation and peace frame for normal times, and a crisis frame anchored in World War II memories. Élite contention and mass media propaganda awakened the dormant crisis frame, suppressed the normal frame, and spread insecurity and fear. I explain why ethnic manipulation succeeded, people believed falsehoods, voted for nationalists, how moderates were purged and why men in militias killed innocent civilians.     

Internal migration and ethnic division: the case of Palmas,Brazil

Starting from the observation that Brazilian history has led to the development of a very distinct system of race relations, this paper focuses on the (re)creation of ethnic divisions in a new city, Palmas, the capital of the Brazilian state Tocantins. Because the city was only founded in 1990, internal migration has heavily influenced the composition of the city’s population. The research shows that residential proximity and interaction between whites and non‐whites is largely limited to the poor neighbourhoods of the city. Subtle racism continues to exist, deriving from a way of thinking that naturalises the racial hierarchy. The absence of clearly defined racial categories and the centrality of miscegenation to the Brazilian identity complicate the further dismantling of this racist culture.     

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.     

Ethnic identity and race: the “double absence” and its legacy across generations among Australians of Southern Italian origin. Operationalizing institutional positionality.

The paper provides a discussion on the concept of “double absence” and its legacy among participants originating from Calabria, Italy. It illustrates the impact of such an embodied affective state in light of race-ethnic relations perceived intergenerationally. While the first generation of participants manifest a condition of feeling “absent”, the second generation present a condition of “liminality”, as a result of a socialization process between “the world” of their immigrant parents and the Australian one. The third generation, due to a perceived positive evaluation about their ethnic background, manifests its ethnicity proudly. A pivotal role is played by the amount of cultural capital accumulated by the participants, dynamics of assimilation and the exogenous pressures the participants perceived from the “common sense” of the dominant society, as Gramsci terms it. Individuals’ ethnic identity appears to be shaped by their institutional positionality, which is their ethnic perception of “being in the world”.     

Re-making the majority? Ethnic New Zealanders in the 2006 census

Abstract

The national census is often seen as a site of struggle for minorities seeking recognition and equality. Much less is known about the conditions under which ethnic majorities are galvanized to stake identity claims in the census. This article examines recent trends in New Zealand where an increasing number of people from the dominant New Zealand European group are redefining themselves as ethnic New Zealanders. Drawing from the literature on ethnic boundaries, we theorize the factors underlying the surge in New Zealander identification, and present census data to demonstrate its selective appeal. We also review patterns of national naming in North America and Australia to show that the New Zealander phenomenon reflects a broader shift by settler state majorities to reimagine their identities. The implications for ethnic counting in other contexts are briefly considered.     

Ethnicity and class identity: The case of French‐ and English‐speaking Canadians*

This study addresses the racial and religious contexts of identity formation among Lebanese immigrants to the United States of America and Somali immigrants to Canada. Each enters with a different racial status: Lebanese as white; Somalis as black/visible minority. Ethnographic interviews explore the strategies of adaptation and identity development within these groups. Specifically, we compare and contrast the Lebanese and Somali experience through an analysis of ethnic relations in the country of origin, the conditions of immigration, and through accounts of their encounters and identity negotiation with the host society. We demonstrate the strategies each group implements to negotiate both race and religion in identity development. Our findings reveal that each group attempts to make their religious identity evident, however, Somali immigrants must negotiate the effects of ‘othering’ processes with both race and religion, while Lebanese immigrants build a religious identity from privileges afforded to them by virtue of their white racial status.     

The management of otherness beyond the state: integration policies and inclusive citizenship as a government paradigm in the Basque Country

The ethnic identity of second-generation immigrant youth has important implications for their association with, and integration in, receiving countries. This paper deals with the ethnic identity formation of second-generation Turkish immigrant youth in Germany, with particular attention paid to the notion of reactive ethnicity. While much of the literature discusses the ethnic retention of this specific group as unwillingness to integrate, this paper frames their ethnic identity formation as reactive ethnicity, which emerges in reaction to social exclusion. Utilizing a case study of Turkish students of disadvantaged schools, the article illustrates that reactive ethnicity is strongly linked to perceived discrimination and that it acquires characteristics of resistance when the dominant group denigrates and invalidates the immigrants' culture.     

Agta Foragers: Alternative Histories,and Cultural Autonomy in Luzon

This paper looks at how the Agta are perceived by non-Agta and the relevance such perception has on Agta involvement in logging, environmental conservation, evangelical Christianity, and hosting their admirers: the anthropologists. We focus on two groups of Agta: (1) the people of the municipality of Palanan, site of the World Bank and Dutch government funded Sierra Madre Wilderness Park, and (2) the people of Maconacon north of Palanan, the location of a defunct logging operation, missionary effort, and Armed Forces Philippines/New People's Army struggle. While inundated with outside pressures, the Agta people are increasingly asserting their own identity and becoming active players in a global and post-colonial context. We suggest that the Agta are not completely subordinate to their petty capitalist and farming neighbours. While the Agta are participants and consumers of global culture, they have retained a degree of cultural autonomy and an ability to create their own history.     

Explaining Chinese identification in Hong Kong: the role of beliefs about group malleability

ABSTRACT

Hong Kong is an epicentre of identity conflicts in China. While numerous accounts have been proposed to explain the rise of “localism”, few have explained why many Hong Kong Chinese have maintained their ethnic identification with China. Based on an original survey of a representative sample of the population and an experiment conducted among college students, this article advances a novel explanation, arguing that people who perceive the core character of groups as shaped by context (i.e. it is malleable) are more likely to have a higher level of Chinese identification. The explanation is that in the face of deep cultural and political differences between mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, the belief induces the latter to understand those differences as stemming from people’s current situations rather than from some unchangeable national traits, thus reducing their need to adopt an alternative identity. The findings have important implications on (ethno) nation-building policies.