16th IUAES World Congress
(Kunming, China, July 27-31, 2009)
"Representing Ethnicity:
Dynamics of Practice and Research"
Session Abstract
What is ethnicity and how do ethnic groups come into existence? Do all
ethnic groups ultimately aspire to sovereignty? How does belonging to
an ethnic group affect behavior, identity, and collective representation?
The relationship of ethnicity and nationalism to democracy has been defined
as one of the central questions of our age. Similarly, sorting out the
relationship between cultures, subcultures, and ethnic groups remains
a core theoretical issue in anthropology. In spite of the growth in the
cultural heterogeneity of nation-states triggered by globalization, there
is little agreement among social scientists on how best to respond to
it in terms of policies that protect the cultural rights of minority groups
without fostering separatist movements. Multicultural education has been
seen as a particularly promising strategy toward the establishment of
genuinely pluralistic forms of governance. However, the link between power--social,
political, economic--and cultural hegemony seems to be very strong, and
cultural dissonance in hierarchical, centralized polities sets into motion
a powerful centrifugal process. This process often leads to the self-segregation
of any group seeing itself as “different” from the mainstream,
and this in turn precipitates ethnogenesis, ultimately resulting in secessionist
aspirations. Because of this, multicultural education often seems part
of an accommodationist strategy, aimed at defusing conflict by focusing
the attention of non-dominant populations on issues of cultural identity,
rather than on the ongoing realities of socio-political inequality. Furthermore,
the way multicultural education has been developed and applied seems to
vary along a broad spectrum. Indeed, multiculturalism in general is defined
and applied in very culture-specific ways, and these differences correlate
to the various ways ethnicity itself is perceived, expressed, and represented
by in-group and out-group members within any national setting. Such cross-cultural
differences need to be documented and explored and anthropologists have
the best disciplinary tools to apply toward the necessary clarification
of the conceptual categories to be used in ethnicity research. This session
gathers and presents research and scholarship which clarifies current
representations of ethnicity and assesses them cross-culturally. In particular,
it will document the contrasting ways ethnicity is defined, expressed,
analyzed, and represented within and outside specific ethnic groups. It
will also contrast and compare lay and analytical terminological uses,
and attempt to relate the resulting typology to historical and cultural
variation. Finally, the session will also highlight the presentation of
both empirical research and theoretical proposals on policies that promise
to positively address ethnic conflict, ameliorate ethnic relations, and
establish constructive forms of cultural pluralism.
Summary:
The aim of this session is to gather and present research and scholarship
which clarifies and cross-culturally assesses the way ethnicity is defined,
expressed, analyzed, and represented both within and outside specific
ethnic groups, in the process contrasting lay and analytical categories
and their variation in time and place.
SESSION PROGRAM
Session Chair & Organizer
E.L. Cerroni-Long, COER Chair
Summary of Panels
A. Ethnic Transitions
B. Ethnic Interactions
Panels Composition
A. Ethnic Transitions
(Discussant: tba)
1. Mary PATTERSON
University of Melbourne, Australia
From Tribal to Ethnic: Shifting Identities in the Pacific
2. Karen L ITO
University of California at Los Angeles, USA
Ethnicity and Class among Indigenous Americans
3. Melani ANAE
University of Auckland, New Zealand
Teu le va: Pacific Educational Research in New Zealand
4. Marta CRIVOS, María Rosa Martínez, Laura Teves, Carolina
Remorini, Anahí Sy
Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina
Implementing Multiculturalism: The Guarani Cathedra
5. Hyup CHOI
Chonnam National University, Korea
Inter-Ethnic Marriage in Korea
6. Lana PETERNEL and Anita Sujoldžić
Institute for Anthropological Research, Croatia
Ethnic Identity and Acculturation: Immigrant Youth in Croatia
7. Chunxiang WEN
Xiamen University, China
Cultural Representation and Ethnic Identity: A Critical Study
of the She People
8. E. L. CERRONI-LONG
Eastern Michigan University, USA
Ethnicity in the Museum
B. Ethnic Interactions
(Discussant: Leif Ole Manger)
1. Stanley R. BARRETT
University of Guelph, Canada
Ethnic Conflict and Feud: Models of Violence
2. Jianxin ZHOU and Zhijun LIU
Gannan Normal University and Zhejiang University, China
Hakka Ethnic Group Identification and Cultural Production:
An Anthropological Study of the World Hakka Conference
3. Galina ERMAK
Far Eastern State University, Russia
Ethnicity and Social Identity
4. Johan LEMAN, Christiane Stallaert, Iman Lechkar
Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
Crossing Ethnic Boundaries: Islamic Conversion in Europe
5. M. Nazif SHAHRANI
Indiana University, USA
Nation-States, Identity Politics, and Crises of Governance
in Southwestern Asia
6. Yuki HIRANO
Simon Fraser University, Canada
Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Westernization of Japan
7. Magid SHIHADE
University of California at Davis, USA
Ethnic Conflict and State Intervention: Colonialism in Motion
8. Oleg PAKHOMOV
Kyoto University, Japan
Construction and Representation of Ethnicity: Korean Immigrants
in USA, Japan and Russia
Abstracts
Panel A. Ethnic Transitions (Chair: E. L. Cerroni-Long)
1. From Tribal to Ethnic: Shifting Identities in the Pacific
Mary Patterson
University of Melbourne, Australia
From early European encounters with Pacific peoples, in popular literary
and travel writing, not to mention in the academic discourse of anthropology
until quite recently, major socio cultural and linguistic groups have
been referred to as ‘tribes’. Tribal loyalties, or something
called ‘tribalism’ was seen as the source of a failure of
development in the evolutionary progression to modernity, stalled in the
Pacific as in Africa and elsewhere because of it. While the language of
tribalism replaced an earlier more racist categorisation of Pacific peoples
into the more ‘advanced’ Polynesians of the East and those
seen by Europeans as less so in the West, it has become increasingly common
for ‘ethnic group’ to replace ‘tribe’ and ‘ethnicity’
to replace ‘tribalism’, especially in the media. Conflicts
between linguistic groups, or between members of different islands, for
example those that have recently occurred in the Solomon Islands and Papua
New Guinea, are commonly referred to as ‘ethnic conflicts’
with all that such conflicts imply from other regions of the world and
indeed in neighbouring regions like Fiji, where historic conflicts between
indigenous Fijians and Indians have always been referred to in this way.
This paper examines the politics of representation in this shift while
addressing the underlying contexts that produce it, particularly in the
Western Pacific Island states commonly still referred to as Melanesia.
Key Words: Modernity, indigenous populations, representation
2. Ethnicity and Class among Indigenous Americans
Karen L. Ito
University of California at Los Angeles, USA
There are two levels upon which one can consider ethnicity. One is of
course on the personal level of an ethnic group and the individuals within
that sometimes blurry and often elastically defined group. The second
is on the meta-level of the globalization process. With indigenous populations,
their ethnic and even racial boundaries are influenced by global market
forces such as tourism. In addition, in this age of electronic communication,
political movements of indigenous rights have become interconnected and
self-referent. This paper will discuss ethnicity among a Pacific Island
population that is heavily influences by tourism and by indigenous political
movements, both in the Pacific and on the mainland United States. Hawaiians
are one of two Polynesian populations who loom large in the Western fantasies
of an exotic other; the second being Tahitians. Both are not of a monolithic
economic class, either historically or presently. They are among the few
of the Pacific Island populations who developed a rigid class system prior
to contact with the West. This paper will focus on 1) the personal experience
of race and class differences among Hawaiians, and 2) the interrelationship
between ethnicity, race, and class as influenced by not only the global
tourist market but also by global political movements of indigenous rights
among Hawaiians.
Key Words: Globalization, indigenous rights, tourist market
3. Teu le va: Pacific Educational Research in New Zealand
Melani Anae
University of Auckland, New Zealand
In New Zealand, much of the development of Pacific paradigms, models
of ‘well-being’, research methodologies and cultural competencies,
has occurred in the health sector. With current government demands for
‘evidence-based’ and ‘culturally appropriate’
research, and Pacific communities’ calls for research which is ‘for
Pacific by Pacific’, the drive to develop new ways to think about
research and the need to build Pacific research capability and capacity
have become more and more apparent. In this paper I contend that much
of this development appears to be ad hoc, piecemeal and fragmented, highlighting
the necessity for more coordination and focus. This can be traced to the
need for a more comprehensive conceptual framework for well-being which
offers holistic theoretical foundations upon which we can think about
doing Pacific research in New Zealand. I contend that the Samoan concept/tenet/practice
of ‘teu le va’ provides a significant cultural reference point
for such a framework in highlighting the need to ‘tidy up’
the physical, spiritual, cultural, social, psychological and tapu (sacred)
‘spaces’ of human relationships in research praxis. In this
paper I contend that much Pacific research in New Zealand has glossed
over and ignored not only the multi-ethnic nature of Pacific communities,
but also the intra-ethnic nuances of the diverse groupings of Pacific
peoples. Until this is addressed, Pacific research in New Zealand will
be ineffective and lack ability for transformative change for a component
of New Zealand’s population which remains marginalised. I argue
that this can be addressed by guidelines for research that will provide
pathways through these complexities which will lead to more robust research
processes and more effective outcomes. I propose to do this by re-introducing
the Ethnic Interface Model (Tanya Samu 1998) and offering a Pacific indigenous
philosophical methodology which focuses on the centrality of reciprocal
‘relationships’ as a conceptual point of reference for future
Pacific research in New Zealand.
Key Words: Cultural complexity, research methodology, indigenous concepts
4. Implementing Multiculturalism: The Guarani Cathedra
Marta Crivos, María Rosa Martínez, Laura Teves, Carolina
Remorini, Anahí Sy
Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina
In this paper we present an analysis of the attempt to establish the
Free Cathedra of Culture Mbya Guaraní at the Universidad Nacional
de La Plata, Argentina (UNLP). The objective of this attempt was the institutionalization
of a structure for intercultural dialogue between members of the communities
Mbya Guarani of the province of Missions, the university community, and
the larger society. In response to the claim of cultural, political and
territorial autonomy of indigenous populations vis-à-vis the national
state, public policies are being developed that encourage interaction
with these groups, acknowledging their ethnic, cultural and linguistic
particularities. At the same time, it must be ensured that these particularities
do not become barriers for communication and/or collaboration. To work
jointly with the members of the Mbya communities in initiatives that enhance
the benefit of sharing traditional and contemporary knowledge and practices,
allows us to go beyond the “essentialist” views of indigenous
populations that often result in projects aimed at “conserving”
the cultural patrimony of these groups as strongly anchored in their natural
environment. However, the feasibility of this project's design and the
success of its implementation have to contend with one issue: the land
claims of both communities and the necessary preservation of settlements.
The intervention in this process of different agents, such as ENDEPA and
other organizations dedicated to the defense of indigenous rights, has
deepened the breach between the academic ideal of conservation and sustainable
development and the ideal of restitution of all the lands demanded by
the native populations. The UNLP project includes as principal actors
the Mbya communities, some of whose members, at first, participated actively
in the elaboration of the project, assuming teaching responsibilities
for the cathedra. At present, however, the land claim is considered by
them a pre-condition to any participation in joint projects. The complexity
of the intercultural dialog we have attempted to establish constitutes
a major challenge. By analyzing the various factors involved we hope to
gain new perspectives through which alternative routes of resolution may
be found.
Key Words: Intercultural dialog, indigenous populations, land claims
5. Inter-Ethnic Marriage in Korea
Hyup Choi
Chonnam National University, Korea
Ethnic diversity has long been a remote reality for Korean society as
inter-ethnic marriage has been negligible throughout Korea’s history.
However, the situation has been changing rapidly since the 1990s. In 2005,
according to governmental estimate, about 14 per cent of new marriages
in Korea were international marriages. The percentage increases even further
if we focus on the marriages in rural areas: about 36 per cent of Korean
men in rural areas married foreign brides. The purpose of the present
paper is to discuss this rather recent phenomenon of inter-ethnic marriage
from historical and socio-political perspectives. In this paper, statistical
trends of inter-ethnic marriage in Korea since the 1990s will be documented.
Then, statistical data will be analyzed so as to delineate the salient
features of the trend. This analysis will be followed by theoretical interpretations.
Some attempts will be made to relate the sudden increase of inter-ethnic
marriage in Korea to the establishment of the world capitalist system
and the consequent inequality among nations. Other factors such as demographic
changes in Korea, especially the demographic imbalance in the rural areas,
economic disparity, patriarchal social structure, and globalization will
be examined as well.
Key Words: Globalization, demographic imbalance, social change
6. Ethnic Identity in Acculturation Processes of Immigrant Youth
in Croatia
Lana PETERNEL and Anita Sujoldžić
Institute for Anthropological Research, Croatia
This research is focused on acculturation processes of the adolescents
in Croatia with the experience of refugees, a very sensitive population
faced with double challenge: the integration of past experiences and the
definition of its own identity inside and between two cultures. By their
origin the immigrants belong mostly to the Croatian ethnic corpus, and
a smaller number are Bosniacs or Muslims by religion; the structure, content
and degree of their ethnic identification necessarily are different, as
is the degree of their identification with the host culture. Both immigrant
groups compared to those of the host population in Croatia originate from
different cultural traditions and are marked by a number of specificities
in the way of living, customs, and especially in language (dialect), characterized
mostly by dialectal differences. Depending on how these small cultural
differences are perceived by the majority community members, the issue
of ethnical identity of the immigrants may be problematic as their ethnic
identification, in whole or in part, with the host community culture does
not have to coincide with the majority community views. The theoretical
framework of this work is the Barth’s anthropological model of ethnicity
as a form of social organization that finds its confirmation in the interaction
of the socially differentiated signs, while the interactive model of acculturation
as the adaptation to the dominant culture will be used, in which four
acculturation strategies including assimilation, integration, separation
or marginalization are possible outcomes. The results show that ethnic
identification increases in the cultural communication that makes the
formation of the borders between individual groups possible. Precisely
these borders and not the cultural contents define an ethnic group and
enable its persistence. In that context, language (dialect) becomes the
most significant marker in ethnic identification and its role in the acculturation
process is dichotomous. It is both the very common cause of ethnic discrimination,
and the most important element in the formation of multi-structured ethnic
identity of immigrant adolescents.
Key words: ethnic identity, acculturation, adolescents
7. Cultural Representation and Ethnic Identity: A Critical Study
of the She People
Chunxiang Wen
Xiamen University, China
It has been held by traditional ethnologists that the She people formed
in the Tang-Song period. However, this article reviews the representational
history of the She people according to modern ethnicity theory and argues
that the She people actually emerged as a different ethnic group as a
result of the dominant Han ideology, applied from the Song to the Ming
period. Based on the conventional "Hua Yi ideology", the She
people were estranged by the Han people as a race of different origin
and customs. As a result, and up to the Qing dynasty, the She people slowly
acquired a separate ethnic consciousness. They began to identify themselves
as different by calling the Han people "Helao"or "Baixing",
and then they represented themselves as a people believing in Panhu and
derived from four clans—Pan, Lei, Lan, and Zhong. Through oral tradition
and genealogy compilation, their ethnic consciousness stabilized in the
late Qing period. Not only had Zhong Liangbi case formed a collective
memory but it also was recorded in story songs and passed on to subsequent
generations. Moreover, the definition of Panhu belief and the use of the
term "She"in genealogies greatly expanded their ethnic consciousness.
Finally, the impact of modern nationalism accelerated the division between
She and Han by turning the She people from the "primitive" category
during the federal dynasties to that of a minority in republican times.
Key Words: Representational history, state ideology, ethnic consciousness
8. Ethnicity in the Museum
E. L. Cerroni-Long
Eastern Michigan University, USA
The establishment of museums is a phenomenon closely related to particular
historical developments affecting Western societies engaged in colonial
expansion. In a post-colonial, globalizing world it becomes particularly
important to critically analyze the “traffic of culture” (Marcus
& Myers 1995) in terms of production, circulation, and institutional
representation in museum settings. Museum representations rely on the
concept of cultural heritage, which, however, is far from being fully
elucidated theoretically. Indeed, cultural heritage is difficult to define
even in reference to long-established, ethnically homogeneous nation-states;
when it is applied to ethnic groups this concept raises a number of unresolved
issues. Through a comparative analysis of museum representations of ethnicity
in four settings: the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Peru, I have
attempted to clarify, and cross-culturally assess, the definitions of
ethnic heritage being applied to their design. The results of my research
indicate that definitions of cultural heritage interweave with definitions
of ethnicity in ways that appear to be profoundly affected by the intellectual
tradition in which they emerge. Thus, there is a profound distinction
between North-American and South-American views of the way indigenous
heritage is--or is not--perceived as distinct from that of the hegemonic
culture, whether the latter is expressed at the folk, popular, or elite
levels. Thus, while in South America one finds representational matrices
which emphasize the incorporation of the indigenous heritage into historical
processes of national development, in North America the ethnic heritage
of any group is represented instead in ways that highlight its contrast
with hegemonic cultural patterns. As a result, there exists a striking
North-South divide in the way ethnicity gets defined and ethnic heritage
gets expressed in the museum. Furthermore, the very concept of the museum
as representational site differs dramatically across such a divide, and
this difference points to the need to review universalistic concepts of
cultural heritage in view of the culture-specific ideological components
they may in fact incorporate.
Key Words: Cultural heritage, national development, representation
Abstracts
Panel B. Ethnic Interactions (Chair: E. L. Cerroni-Long)
1. Ethnic Conflict and Feud: Models of Violence
Stanley R. Barrett
University of Guelph, Canada
In the year 2005 residents of Canada’s largest city, Toronto, were
traumatized by a near-record level of homicides, most of the victims young
black men killed by handguns. As I followed the public debate about causes,
which alternated between external factors (racism) and internal factors
(dysfunctional culture), what struck me was the remarkable similarity
between the violence in the beleaguered black community and that associated
with feud in its classic sense such as in Corsica. Indeed, the basic elements
behind feud--honour, respect, justice, freedom, revenge and omertà
(code of silence)--seemed to be equally relevant to Toronto’s black
community, as well as to ghettos in the U.S.A. Drawing heavily on Anderson’s
(1999) splendid ethnography on inner-city violence in Philadelphia, this
paper explores the overlap between vengeance-oriented societies and the
urban ghetto, and then entertains the possibility that the basic elements
of feud are embedded in a wide range of ethnic confrontations, and perhaps
even in violence in general. To test these ideas, models of violence profiling
the key elements of feud and subsuming ethnic conflict are erected, and
assessed in terms of current theory in the burgeoning literature on the
anthropology of violence.
Key Words: Urban ghetto, group confrontation, vengeance orientation
2. Hakka Ethnic Group Identification and Cultural Production:
An Anthropological Study of the World Hakka Conference
Jianxin Zhou, Gannan Normal University, China
Zhijun Liu, Zhejiang University, China
The World Hakka Conference started in 1971 and has been held by rotation
system across the world every two or three years ever since. So far twenty
conferences have been held. As the interest in Hakka culture increases,
the World Hakka Conference has evolved from simply a grand reunion and
association (reporting sessions among various villages) into the cultural
(large-scale entertainment and performance, art and literature, cuisine),
academic (International Conference on Hakka Studies), economic (business
and trade talks), and political (United Front work) spheres. It is not
only an important carrier for the Hakka to maintain bonds of friendship
with other villages and enhance multinational and multiregional interaction,
but also a platform and arena for pluralistic ethnic group identification
and cultural production in the new era. In recent years, in particular,
there has been fierce competition in the bidding to host the World Hakka
Conference, which attracts thousands of attendees and involves elaborate
planning and careful implementation. The trade talks at the conference
are worth tens of billions of dollars. Some state leaders are present
at the conferences and the host provincial and municipal governments always
go all out to make them successful. The conference has experienced increasing
and steady growth in scale, content, and standards. In the eyes of the
Hakka both at home and abroad, the World Hakka Conference is not unlike
the Olympic Games in terms of status and influence. From the perspective
of anthropological theory on ethnic groups, nongovernment (folk) movements
and group events like the World Hakka Conference represent the cultural
consciousness and ethnic group identification of the Hakka people in their
pursuit of survival and development in the context of globalization. The
conference attributes its changes and development to strategic utilization
by various forces and is a creation and reinvention of the traditional
culture. It involves the processes of ethnic group identification and
cultural production on several different levels.
Key Words: Globalization, ethnic identity, folk movements
3. Ethnicity and Social Identity
Galina Ermak
Far Eastern State University, Russia
Following Friedrich Nietzsche’s terminology, Russian scholars call
ethnic identification the "phantom" lurking in the depths of
culture and awakening when circumstances become appropriate. Appropriate
circumstances emerge when different ethnic groups need to deal with each
other; the ethnicity “phantom” arises once natives and immigrants
begin to compete for workplaces and housing. Ethnicity keeps gaining new
importance among ethnic minorities in contemporary Russian society. Minorities
do not conceive of ethnicity as phantomlike, but rather as an important
factor in the establishment of a multicultural community. This paper presents
the results of a study of the ethnic phenomenon as observed in Far Eastern
Russia, where the Russian majority coexists with such ethnic minority
groups as indigenous peoples, locally-born Koreans, immigrants from the
Caucasus Mountains, guest workers from Central Asian states, Moslem communities,
and Chinese migrants. The author has analyzed the processes of formation
of ethnic identity and its interaction with other forms of social identifications,
such as gender, age, religion, education, civil, regional, professional,
family affiliations, etc. The methods of empirical data gathering were
questionnaire and interviewing. To interpret the data, two methodological
approaches were used: the one of classic positivistic sociology and the
one of post-modernism. In the 19th and early 20th centuries sociology
and psychology recognized the phenomenon of social identity as the adaptation
of a person to the values and norms institutionalized by a relatively
stable society. On the other hand, the main characteristics of modern
societies include dynamism, variability, and instability. Contemporary
sociological concepts also advocate the idea of constant social changes,
relating the survivability of a society or individual to their ability
to adapt to changes, both locally and globally. Zygmunt Bauman, when speaking
of the sphere of routine daily chores, pointed out that the "long-term"
mentality of the past century has been replaced by a new "short-term"
mentality. Therefore, today’s instability of social identifications
can be considered the norm, and not the consequence of societal crisis.
Our research has shown that the phenomenon of ethnicity can play an important
role in modern societies, catalyzing either their integration or disintegration.
Key Words: Social identification, normative instability, multicultural
community
4. Crossing Ethnic Boundaries: Islamic Conversion in Europe
Johan Leman, Christiane Stallaert, Iman Lechkar
Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
The paper focuses on (a) the specific character of the internal ambi-vectoral
(supra-)ethnic boundary between secular (Christian) West and Islam in
Europe, and on (b) the meaning of conversions from the secular (Christian)
field into the practising Islamic field. The laicisation of public space
has gone together with processes of desacralisation, de-ritualisation
and individualisation of society. Therefore, dynamics of group formation
and strategies of boundary making/maintaining, and of control/vigilance
based on religious identities are experienced as opposed to the sociocultural
orienting vector that guides the dominant secular society. From the 1950s
and 1960s onwards, a growing Islamic minority is present in European countries,
more specifically concentrating in the larger cities. Because of the social
dynamics catalyzed by recent world events, these minority Muslim communities
are prevented from immersing themselves completely in the dominant orienting
vector of the European societal model , and rather aim at more ritualisation
and collectivisation of public space, with a strong focus on strategies
of boundary making/maintaining and of control/vigilance. A field of tension
has been generated, and the study of conversions into Islam offers an
interesting angle of research for understanding the processes at work.
Converts leave the societal vector that oriented them during their socialisation
and pass into the opposing one. They pass not only a social but, at least
partly, also an ethnic boundary. They profile themselves involuntarily
as bi-ethnics, but risk to be perceived by the surrounding people at both
sides as ethnically ambiguous. First we discuss why we speak of an “ambi-vectoral
internal boundary”. There is a profound ambivalence characterizing
the boundary, varying from an ‘inclusionary exclusive’ reception
culture of the secular West vis-à-vis the Other, to an ‘exclusionary
inclusive’ cultural answer proposed by the hegemonic ideology in
European Islam vis-à-vis the West. We also examine the ethnic meaning(s)
that we give to the communities of Islamic converts in Europe. Our reflections
will be supported by findings from Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.
Fundamentally, the paper will analyze the ethnic strategies of boundary
passing, ethnic self perception, and heteroperception.
Key Words: Social bodies, ethnic ambiguity, boundary passing
5. Nation-States, Identity Politics, and Crises of Governance
in Southwestern Asia
M. Nazif Shahrani
Indiana University, USA
At the dawn of the twenty-first century and after many decades of concerted
efforts at building modern nation-states, Muslim countries of Southwestern
Asia (Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan) are facing serious crises of governance
including state failure. The twentieth century, dubbed by some as the
“century of total war” was also the century of the triumph
of the nationalization of modern states. That is, for the first time in
human history modern nation-states assumed “preeminent roles not
only in structuring the situation in which social relationships take place
but more significantly in determining what differences are significant
for the peoples living under their jurisdiction” (Keyes 2002:1170-71).
Furthermore, the nationalization of state discourses, policies, and practices
created an environment in which identity politics and ethnicity have not
only flourished, but have also given rise to violence and crises of governance,
especially in post-colonial and post-Soviet multi-ethnic societies. In
this paper I will explore the consequences of the role of this powerful
modern institution and its accompanying dominant discourses (secular nationalist,
socialist, and Islamist) in fomenting the crises of governance facing
these three multi-ethnic Muslim countries of Southwestern Asia. By drawing
attention to the need for a transformation of the rule of governance,
I will also suggest possible avenues for overcoming the crises of governance
in this strategic part of the world.
Key Words: Governance crisis, nationalism, multi-ethnic societies
6. Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Westernization of Japan
Yuki Hirano
Simon Fraser University, Canada
The increase in the size of ethnic minorities in Japan has led to new
developments in the discourse of Japanese nationalism. It seems as if
increasing interaction between the Japanese and non-Japanese in different
contexts is affecting Japanese attitudes toward their own cultural identity.
Prime minister Koizumi, past leader of the Republican Party and the first
prime minister to support the legal registration of the Japanese army,
expressed his sympathies toward Westernization by occasionally wearing
cow-boy shirts and Elvis Presley sunglasses. Ishihara, who is serving
his eight-year term as mayor of Tokyo, acquired international notoriety
for writing "Japan That Can Say No," and often uses derogatory
expressions against the Chinese, the French, and the Americans. Japanese
comic books (manga), incorporating Disney animation techniques and often
expressing anti-nationalist feelings, are now used as a tool by Republican
politicians such as Aso, a competitor of the current prime minister, and
Ishihara, both of whom flaunt the world-wide success of this new "Japanese
cultural treasure" to call for a return of the Olympic Games to Tokyo
and to invite more foreign students to Japanese universities. Some hardcore
right-wing activists--who worship the Japanese emperor as a "living
God"--were bitterly disappointed when the emperor's son, Naruhito,
married a Harvard graduate, Masako. And Naruhito himself is not shy about
expressing criticism of the imperial system in support of Masako, setting
a trend defined as "Americanization/Masakonization." Even a
cursory analysis of events and trends recently capturing the attention
of Japanese public opinion, clearly indicates that Japanese identity is
being affected by the dynamics of social change brought about by globalization.
Since Japanese nationalism historically emerged in response to Westernization,
are current trends significantly changing its main characteristics? How
is Japaneseness defined under the impact of globalizing trends, and is
Westernization being incorporated into a new perspective on what it means
to be Japanese? And do these definitions translate into a new type of
nationalism? This paper will address these questions on the basis of an
analysis of nationalist discourse as articulated and expressed in the
Japanese media, with particular reference to journalistic reporting.
Key Words: Nationalist discourse, political positioning, journalistic
reporting
7. Ethnic Conflict and State Intervention: Colonialism in Motion
Magid Shihade
University of California at Davis, USA
My paper is an attempt to help understand communal violence in the Middle
East and contributes to the critical field of ethnic conflict and resolution.
This research is important because communal violence is one of the problems
that continue to threaten states and undermine regional and global stability.
The paper discusses dominant paradigms that explain communal and ethnic
violence and draws on case studies from the Middle East and beyond (Israel,
Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, and India among others), to suggest an alternative
framework to explain this phenomenon based on comparative analysis. The
approach I develop in this project examines inter-group violence, or state
violence against a group, not simply as a historical event but rather
as a structure that has ramifications for the present and the future.
I argue that studying communal and ethnic violence in the context of the
state in which it happens is crucial. My research offers a model for understanding
communal violence in relation to the nature of the state, including its
historical development, how it relates to the different groups under its
authority, and what policies it initiates towards them. It demonstrates
how political, social, and historical developments create structures that
have long-lasting implications for inter-ethnic and inter-religious group
relations, and how these relations in turn can affect the politics of
the state, the region, and the international community. The research brings
to light the agency of the religious and ethnic groups themselves in contributing
to conflict and violence and also to its management and resolution. It
contextualizes the problem of communal and ethnic violence within frameworks
of colonialism and neocolonialism embedded in modernity and in relation
to the racism that plagued colonizer and colonized alike. This research
attempts to widen the frame of analysis in the field of ethnic and religious
conflict, and also adds to the understanding of the phenomenon of violence,
ethnic or religious. This work is crucial not only because of the importance
of the Middle East in international politics, but also because it can
add to greater understanding of inter-group conflict around the world.
Key Words: Communal violence, modernity, state governance
8. Construction and Representation of Ethnicity: Korean Immigrants
in USA, Japan and Russia
Oleg Pakhomov
Kyoto University, Japan
Korean immigrants and probably many other immigrant groups face similar
problem of ethnic representation. How to communicate what is culturally
different to reach understanding and obtain trust of the “other”?
This paper provides an attempt to understand this issue on the basis of
the ideas of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, Slovenian philosopher
Slavoj Zizek and French anthropologist Claude Levis-Strauss, by focusing
on the general principles (codes) and particularities (programming) of
construction and representation of ethnicity of Korean immigrants in the
USA, Japan and Russia. We may say, paraphrasing Niklas Luhmann, that the
basis of all trust is the presentation of ethnic identity as social identity
which builds itself through interaction and which corresponds to its environment.
It means that Korean immigrants in the USA, Japan and Russia represent
their ethnicity basically in the same way as any social identity represented
in the mainstream society. In order to obtain trust they create structural
coupling with dominant narratives of this society. As Slavoj Zizek put
it, I perceive myself as worthy of the other’s desire. In this paper
I try to compare one prominent personality from each community referring
first of all to the context and then to the other narratives belonging
to the same community and to mainstream society respectively. The examples
I selected include Margaret Cho (Korean American stand-up comedian), Daloreum
(a Japanese Korean modern female theater ensemble) and Anatoly Kim (a
Russian Korean writer) and my aim is to highlight the type of representational
structural couplings created in each case.
Key Words: Ethnic representation, immigrant communities, dominant narratives
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