‘After the break’: re-conceptualizing ethnicity,national identity and ‘Malaysian-Chinese’ identities

Focusing on ethnic Chinese as cultural citizens of the nation, this paper examines national identity in the context of generational change. In so doing, it connects to colonialist conceptions of identity the dominant framework of ethnicity that operates in Malaysia. It argues that this framework allows for the nationalist imagining of ‘Malaysian-Chinese’ as ‘outsiders’. In probing the complex conceptual relationship between ethnicity, national identity and cultural citizenship, this article asks: How does ‘ethnicity’ enter into negotiations over the ‘national’ in the cultural realm? What are the notions of cultural difference and national otherness that operate in the negative dualisms by which nation and ethnicity are defined? How are these dualisms tied to notions of authenticity and cultural citizenship? Using the novel The Harmony Silk Factory by Malaysian author Tash Aw to address these questions, this paper argues the need to rethink current policies and narratives of ethnic and national identity in Malaysia.     

Ethnicity and race as ‘symbolic’: the use of ethnic and racial symbols in asserting a biracial identity

Contemporary research indicates that religious institutions can play bonding and bridging roles in the lives of immigrants, strengthening the bonds within immigrant groups while simultaneously connecting immigrants to the wider society. The majority of this research focuses on religious institutions in US cities with long histories of immigration and sizable immigrant populations. This article examines the role of religious institutions in the lives of refugees living in a city with a small, but rapidly growing immigrant population. Evidence from interviews with Catholic and Muslim refugees and participant observation at two houses of worship suggests that the functions of religious institutions differ for refugees from majority and minority religious traditions. Catholic refugees use their church for bonding and bridging purposes, while Muslim refugees use their mosque primarily for bonding purposes.     

Testing the ‘plant domestication-reduced defense’ hypothesis in blueberries: the role of herbivore identity

Domestication is predicted to reduce resistance of agricultural crops against insect herbivores; however, its impact on herbivores with different feeding modes and evolutionary histories needs investigation. To this end, we conducted greenhouse experiments to explore the effects of domestication of blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum), a crop native to North America, on the performance of two chewing herbivores [the native Sparganothis fruitworm (Sparganothis sulfureana (Clemens)) and non-native gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.)], and one piercing-sucking herbivore [the blueberry aphid (Illinoia azaleae (Mason))]. Lymantria dispar performed better (i.e., larvae gained more mass, damaged more leaves, and had greater survival) on cultivated V. corymbosum than on its wild counterpart. In contrast, domestication had no impact on the native S. sulfureana larval mass, consumption, and survivorship. Domestication increased survivorship, but not offspring production, of the aphid I. azaleae. To examine changes in plant chemistry due to domestication, we measured phenolic and nutrient (macro- and micro-elements) content in wild and cultivated V. corymbosum leaves. Although there were no differences in total phenolic content, two compounds were absent, while two were at lower and one at higher concentration in domesticated than in wild plants. Wild V. corymbosum leaves had higher amounts of phosphorus, sulfur, and sodium than cultivated leaves; the opposite was found for aluminum. While our findings provide support for the ‘plant domestication-reduced defense’ hypothesis, the effects of domestication were dependent on feeding modes and adaptations of the herbivores such that the non-native chewing species was more positively affected than the chewing and the piercing-sucking natives.     

‘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.     

Ethnicity, ‘status groups’ and racialization: A contribution to a debate on national identity in Britain

This paper is an intervention in a debate on national identity between ­Kenneth Smith on the one hand, and Tariq Modood, Richard Berthoud and James Nazroo, on the other, which had its origins in the influential study, Ethnic Minorities in Britain written in 1997 by Modood, Berthoud and Nazroo, and also Jane Lakey, Patten Smith, Satnam Virdee and Sharon Beishon. I pay particular attention to Smith’s insistence on ethnic self-­selection; his critical observations on the concept of ‘ethnicity’; and his advocacy of its replacement with the Weberian concept of ‘status groups.’ It is argued first of all, that self-selection should be pre-eminent; second that, in racialized societies, ‘ethnicity’ needs to be retained as a defining category; and third that the Marxist-derived concept of ‘racialization’ is more useful than ‘status groups’ as a way of understanding racism, both historically and in the present.     

Plant use by the q’eqchi’ maya of belize in ethnopsychiatry and neurological pathology

Plant Use by the Q’eqchi’ Maya of Belize in Ethnopsychiatry and Neurological Pathology. Economic Botany 59(4):326–336, 2005. Neurological and mental health disorders are extremely debilitating, and sufferers in developing countries often rely on traditional practitioners for these medical needs. Few studies have focused on botanical remedies used in this context, although these offer interesting treatment alternatives. The present study investigated plant use for the treatment of neurological and mental health disorders by Q'eqchi' Maya healers of southern Belize. We found that these healers generally recognize and treat epilepsy/seizures, headache, madness, fright (susto), depression, numbness, insomnia, and stress with herbal remedies. Quantitative analyses showed that there is selection for the use of certain species and botanical families, namely for species of the Pteridophyta division and for plants from the Piperaceae family. This study denotes the importance and selectivity of plant use by Q'eqchi' healers of southern Belize for the treatment of neurological and mental conditions and points to a possible underrepresentation of these disorders in the ethnobotanical literature.     

On the correct use of ‘data’

Acknowledgement  Thanks are due to Drs. Paul Johnston (P.Johnston@ exeter.ac.uk) and E. William Beese (ebeese@t-online.de) for kindly providing dictionary definitions and for sharing their thoughts about the correct use of ‘data’.     

Defining the national in the transnational: Cultural identity in the Afro‐Caribbean Diaspora

On the basis of a case study of the small Caribbean nation‐state of St. Kitts‐Nevis, this article discusses the problems of defining a national culture in a former colonial area. It is argued that African‐Caribbean culture emerged, to a great extent, in the margins of the colonial regime. During the last century and a half this margin has become extended to involve relations with emigrants who are dispersed over the globe. The cultural traditions which most clearly demarcate and unify the nationals in the new independent entity therefore are expressed and defined largely in a transnational context which cannot easily be called upon to support a national entity.     

‘Hertwig Effect’ in plants: induced parthenogenesis through the use of irradiated pollen

Summary Studies of four combinations of Nicotiana involving four species, N. langsdorffii (N. l.), N. alata (N. a.), N. glutinosa (N. g.) and N. tabacum (N. t.), have shown that parthenogenetic haploid and diploid maternal individuals may arise with the use of male gametes (pollen) treated with high doses of ionising radiation in plants, similar to that found in animals (Hertwig Effect). At lower doses (10–20 Kr) rapidly diminishing numbers of seedlings were produced and many of these died soon after germination or before reaching maturity. In the intraspecific combination N. l. × N. l., viable seeds were produced only at the lower doses of 10 and 15 Kr. In the interspecific combination N. l. × N. a., at lower doses, all plants that came to bloom showed variable hybrid morphology. There were no plants resembling the female parent. In the combination N.t. × N.a., at lower doses there were rare surviving plants which were maternal dihaploid (1 plant out of 4 at 15 Kr) or tetraploid N. tabacum (all 5 plants at 20 Kr). All surviving plants at higher doses (50 and 100 Kr) were maternal tetraploids. In the combination N.t.×N.g., plants produced at lower than 20 Kr were almost all either aneuploid or triploid hybrids. Dihaploid, maternal N. tabacum plants appeared at 20 Kr and higher doses. After 50 Kr the large proportion of plants produced were maternal dihaploid or tetraploid N. tabacum.     

Racial,ethnic and religious social distance in Surinam: An exploration of the ‘strategic alliance hypothesis’ in a Caribbean community

The poly‐ethnic Caribbean can be seen as a laboratory for the study of the evolution of inter‐ and intra‐ethnic relationships. Using the Caribbean experience as context, the present study begins by focusing on the dynamics of Muslim‐Hindu relations in Surinam and then extends its analysis to South Asian‐Creole relations. Building on the work of van der Burg and van der Veer (1986), the study develops and examines a ‘strategic alliance hypothesis’: that Hindus and Muslims have avoided overt conflict in their Surinamese homeland in order to advance their common interests against the country's other major ethnic groups, and, by extension, South Asians have joined multi‐ethnic coalitions to advance these same interests. To explore these strategic alliance hypotheses, 376 secondary‐school students in western Surinam were administered a modified Bogardus (1925) social distance scale in order to measure the degree of reciprocal tolerance that the sample's respondents expressed towards Surinam's prominent ethno‐religious groups. The survey results offered qualified support for the strategic alliance hypothesis ‐ the degree of preferential closeness Hindus and Muslims in the sample would tolerate for each other fell approximately midway between the social distance they would allow between themselves and the Creoles, their major competitors, and the distance preferred for members of other sects within their own religion. These data are contextualized within Surinam's ongoing struggle to restore the independent and civilian constitutional government that was overthrown in a 1980 military coup.     

‘Us’ and ‘Them’: The role of religion in mediating and challenging the ‘model minority’ and other civic boundaries

This article examines how Korean Americans use the cultural resources of religious communities to mediate race, ethnic, and socio-economic boundaries that have consequences for civic life. Specifically, I compare involvement of Korean Americans in second-generation Korean congregations to those in multiethnic churches. I find Korean Americans who participate in second-generation Korean churches use religion to largely reproduce images of Korean Americans as model minorities, and implicitly distance themselves from those whom they perceive as less financially successful. In contrast, Korean Americans in multiethnic congregations use religion to emphasize the commonality Korean Americans have with other minorities. By using a cultural framework that allows for the agency of individuals in identity and group boundary construction, this work more generally shows the potential for new Americans to use the cultural resources of local organizations to change existing ethnic and racial boundaries in the United States.