scholarly journals Language, Ethnicity, and Separatism: Survey Results from Two Post-Soviet Regions

Author(s):  
Kyle L. Marquardt

Abstract Scholars often use language to proxy ethnic identity in studies of conflict and separatism. This conflation of language and ethnicity is misleading: language can cut across ethnic divides and itself has a strong link to identity and social mobility. Language can therefore influence political preferences independently of ethnicity. Results from an original survey of two post-Soviet regions support these claims. Statistical analyses demonstrate that individuals fluent in a peripheral lingua franca are more likely to support separatism than those who are not, while individuals fluent in the language of the central state are less likely to support separatist outcomes. Moreover, linguistic fluency shows a stronger relationship with support for separatism than ethnic identification. These results provide strong evidence that scholars should disaggregate language and ethnic identity in their analyses: language can be more salient for political preferences than ethnicity, and the most salient languages may not even be ethnic.

2019 ◽  
pp. 53-60

Redes transnacionales y etnicidad: análisis sociometrico de las redes personales de latinoamericanos y africanos en Barcelona, España Transnational Networks and Ethnicity: sociometric analysis of personal networks of Latin America and Africa in Barcelona, Spain Javier Ávila Molero Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, España Egolab – Laboratorio de Redes Personales y Comunidades DOI: https://doi.org/10.33017/RevECIPeru2012.0021/ Resumen Las redes de los inmigrantes son cada vez más complejas. Hoy día se han vuelto multiétnicas y transnacionales. Estas redes constituyen la estructura sobre la cual los inmigrantes desarrollan sus procesos de sociabilidad e identificación étnica. Esta nueva complejidad exige el desarrollo de nuevas metodologías y conceptos para su análisis, que vaya más allá de los datos cualitativos y las metáforas, hacia datos más objetivos y sociometricos. ¿Cómo estudiar las redes de los inmigrantes en esta nueva complejidad? ¿Cómo identificar sus procesos y dinámicas de cambio? En el presente artículo proponemos usar las redes como instrumento de análisis sociometrico, más allá de los usos hermenéuticos predominantes, y desarrollar nuevas variables para el estudio de la “etnicidad práctica” que desarrollan los inmigrantes, en el espacio transnacional. Los resultados del estudio se basan en dos proyectos de investigación desarrollados con colectivos inmigrantes de latinoamericanos y africanos en Barcelona, España, por parte del Laboratorio de Redes Personales y Comunidades del departamento de Antropología de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona – UAB. Descriptores: etnicidad, transnacionalismo, redes, inmigración. Abstract Immigrant networks are increasingly complex. Today they have become multiethnic and transnational. These networks provide the framework on which immigrants develop their socialization processes and ethnic identification. This new complexity requires the development of new methodologies and concepts for analysis beyond qualitative data and metaphors, to more objective and sociometric data. How to study networks of immigrants in this new complexity? How to identify the processes and dynamics of change? In this paper we propose to use the networks as sociometric analysis tool beyond prevailing hermeneutic uses, and develop new variables for the study of "ethnicity practice" developed by immigrants in transnational space. The survey results are based on two research projects developed with groups of American and African immigrants in Barcelona, Spain, by the Laboratory of Personal Networks and Communities Department of Anthropology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona - UAB. Keywords: ethnicity, transnationalism, networks, immigration.


Antiquity ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (285) ◽  
pp. 671-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian E. Hemphill ◽  
John R. Lukacs ◽  
Subhash R. Walimbe

The idea of indigenous people in South Asia is more complex than elsewhere, in part because it involves longstanding and intimate contact between ‘tribal’ and non-tribal peoples (Béteille 1998; Gardner 1985; Lukacs in press). Additional complications arise from the hierarchal and endogamous structure of Hindu social and ritual organization, including the plight of people who occupy the lowest stratum of the hierarchy — ‘untouchables’ (Charsley 1996; Delikge 1992; 1993). Because the system of socioreligious stratification known as caste does not encourage social mobility, new ethnic identity is often sought by groups whose position in the hierarchy is low (Dumont 1980; Klass 1980; Kolinda 1978). Biological anthropologists are interested in the caste system for the opportunities it offers to understand the interaction of cultural behaviour with the biological patterning of human genetic and phenotypic diversity (Majumder 1998; Majumder et al. 1990; Malhotra 1974). Although most Westerners perceive caste as an immutable category, in which membership is ascribed, and hierarchal rank is forever fixed, many accounts of castes changing their occupational and ritual status have been documented (Silverberg 1968). Some castes seek to elevate their ritual or economic position by claiming higher status and adopting an appropriate new caste name, while others lay claim to indigenous origins seeking to benefit from rights and privileges that accompany autochthonous status. Such claims often involve adopting new or different patterns of behaviour commonly associated with the new social, religious, indigenous or occupational position claimed. This process is sufficiently common in India to be labelled ‘Sanskritization’ when a Hindu caste emulates higher castes (Srinivas 1968), ‘Hinduization’ when tribal or non-caste groups emulate Hindu castes, or more generally, ‘elite-emulation’ (Lynch 1969).


2021 ◽  
pp. 003022282110470
Author(s):  
Amy Dellinger Page ◽  
Jonelle H. Husain

This is an exploratory study to document the demographic characteristics, backgrounds, and services provided by trained and certified INELDA end-of-life doulas. Like birth doulas, end-of-life doulas represent a divergent, yet complementary form of care for dying persons. The purpose of end-of-life care is to facilitate comfort of the dying person and their closest family members. Surveys were completed by 618 end-of-life doulas regarding their demographic characteristics, employment backgrounds, services, and their experiences providing end of life care to dying persons and their closest family members. Follow-up qualitative interviews were also conducted with a subset of 39 respondents who completed the original survey. Results show that trained doulas are largely white (91.4%), female (90.4%), hold a Bachelor’s (32.3%) or Masters (32.4%) degree, and are employed outside of their EOLD work (70.1%). Qualitative data details services provided to dying persons and family members in addition to the benefits and challenges of working with traditional healthcare settings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-168
Author(s):  
Rafael Pérez-Torres

Abstract Three recent studies meditate on the significance of narratives by and about racial subjects and exiled radicals in an age of increased social surveillance and control. Elda María Román in Race and Upward Mobility (2017) analyzes popular stories about racially or ethnically identified characters who, seeking upward social mobility, face a quandary. They try to sustain an empowering sense of racial affiliation while seeking to gain upward social and class mobility. Permissible Narratives (2017) by Christopher González analyzes how the form taken by narratives about racial and class affiliation serves to mark ethnic identification. Latinx literary texts that do not follow prescribed forms deliberately undo aesthetic norms and thus enact a kind of transgressive Latinidad. Where the US forms the sociocultural parameters of these two books, Teresa V. Longo’s Visible Dissent (2018) considers the sociocultural interchanges between the US and Latin American writers who articulate a literature of opposition, resistance, and dissent against repressive forms of social and political control. Each study weighs a hope for transformative social change against the power of the efficient, impersonal, even brutal management that comprises modernity.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Katherine Krimmel ◽  
Kelly Rader

We examine the substantive meaning of public opinion on government spending using open-ended data from an original survey. Belying the conventional wisdom on this subject, we find that public opinion on government spending is not reducible to views on social welfare programs. While most people do have specific associations with spending, in the aggregate, public associations span a wide range of government functions. Balance does not necessarily mean harmony, however. We find strong evidence of what we call substantive divergence along party lines in this area—when they think about spending, Republicans and Democrats envision different bundles of goods and services, on average. This is true even for opposing partisans with the same overall assessment of spending (e.g., those who say government spends too much). These findings bring fiscal conflict into sharper relief and also have broader implications for the conceptualization and measurement of differences across parties, as well as other political cleavages.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-280
Author(s):  
Yanwar Pribadi

Local-level leaders in contemporary Indonesia have involved in the country’s turbulent politics. The regent of Purwakarta (2008-2018), Dedi Mulyadi, employed, for the most part, culture-based political preferences develop his territory. In doing so, he frequently encountered with various forms of Islamization of politics, hindering his strategies to reach his individual goals, to display his socio-political identity, and to socio-culturally empower cultural resilience. The regent appeared to challenge rampant Islamization of politics by “waging the war” against Islamist groups in the name of Sundanese indigenous culture. This paper seeks to explore recent developments of the relationships between Islam and local culture in Indonesia with the case study of Purwakarta in particular and West Java in general, and how a local-level leader was able to optimize his potentials to empower cultural resilience in the midst of Islamization of politics. This paper also investigates the complex landscape of these relationships in an effort to map out the various forces at play and shows that by investigating the interplay between religion, culture, and other entities, a key driver local level played pivotal roles in his ways of defining ethnic identity, creating authority, and empowering cultural resilience. [Terdapat beberapa pemimpin daerah terlibat dinamika politik nasional dewasa ini. Dedi Mulyadi, Bupati Purwakarta periode 2008-2018, termasuk salah satu tokoh yang membangun daerah dengan berbasis pada budaya lokal. Bersamaan dengan itu, ia sering berhadapan dengan sejumlah gerakan Islam politik dalam menghambat tujuan pertahanan identitas sosio-politik dan memberdayakan ketahanan bentuk budaya lokal. Sang bupati tampil dengan identitas budaya lokal Sunda dalam rangka menghadapi tantangan Islamisasi politik dari kelompok-kelompok Islamis yang ‘mengobarkan perang’ kemana mana. Tulisan ini membahas perkembangan terkini hubungan antara Islam dan budaya lokal di Indonesia dengan studi kasus Purwakarta dan Jawa Barat. Kinerja pemimpin daerah ini mampu mempertahankan budaya lokal di tengah arus Islamisasi politik. Tulisan ini menginvestigasi kompleksitas konteks hubungan-hubungan tersebut dalam usaha pemetakan kekuatan yang bermain pada investigasi tumpang tindih antara agama, budaya, dan entitas-entitas lain. Hal ini berkenaan dengan tokoh penggerak tingkat lokal memainkan peran penting dalam makna identitas etnis, penciptaan otoritas, dan ketahanan budaya lokal.]


Author(s):  
З.В. Канукова ◽  
А. Калирад

Наступившая в середине XIX в. стабилизация российско-иранских отношений в значительной степени была связана с эволюцией российской дипломатии и появлением персидских консульств в городах Северного Кавказа. В статье исследована роль консульских служб в диаспорных процессах на примере персидской общины Владикавказа. Кроме своих непосредственных функций, связанных с опекой мигрантов, выдачей паспортов и других разрешительных документов, содействия развитию торговых контактов с Ираном, консульство содействовало формированию общины, облегчало процессы адаптации иранцев к принимающему обществу. Отмечена роль консула Давуд-хана Назарэ, его инициатив, направленных на реализацию основных регулятивных и коммуникационных функций в персидской общине, благодаря которым именно консульство, а не храм, в отличие от других национальных общин, стало центром диаспорной жизни. На основе сравнительного анализа материалов Центрального государственного архива РСО-Алания и Центра документов и истории иранской дипломатии Тегерана выявлены особенности адаптации персидской общины к местной среде. Исследована роль консульства в сохранении этнической идентичности, языка, религии, духовной культуры определены механизмы трансмиссии традиционных иранских ценностей молодому поколению, к числу которых отнесено, прежде всего, Владикавказское русско-персидское новометодное училище единственное на Северном Кавказе. Будучи результатом реформирования исламского образования татарским просветителем Исмаил-беем Гаспринским, такое учебное заведение максимально отвечало интересам иранцев, живших в условиях диаспоры, одновременно выполняя две параллельные функции: сохранение этнической идентичности подрастающего поколения иранских мигрантов и воспитание и образование нового российского мусульманина, максимально инкорпорированного в общественно-культурную среду Северного Кавказа и России. Stabilization of Russian-Iranian relations in the middle of the XIXth century was largely associated with the evolution of Russian diplomacy and the emergence of Persian consulates in the cities of the North Caucasus. The article explores the role of consular services in diaspora processes using the Persian community of Vladikavkaz as an example. In addition to its direct functions related to the custody of migrants, issuing passports and other permits, facilitating the development of trade contacts with Iran, the consulate promoted the formation of the community, facilitated the process of adaptation of the Iranians in the host community. The article emphasizes the role of the consul Dawood Khan Nazare, his initiatives aimed at implementing the basic regulatory and communication functions in the Persian community, due to which the consulate, and not the temple, unlike in other national communities, became the center of diaspora life. Based on the comparative analysis of the materials of the Central State Archive of North Ossetia-Alania and the Centre for Documents and the History of Iranian Diplomacy of Tehran, the features of the adaptation of the Persian community to the local environment are revealed. The role of the consulate in preserving ethnic identity, language, religion, and spiritual culture is investigated. The mechanisms of transmitting the traditional Iranian values to the younger generation are identified, which include, in the first place, the Vladikavkaz Russian-Persian new method school, the only one in the North Caucasus. This educational institution resulted from the reform of Islamic education by the Tatar enlightener Ismail Bey Gasprinsky and was in the best interests of the Iranians living in the diaspora, it was fulfilling two parallel functions: preserving the ethnic identity of the younger generation of the Iranian migrants and educating a new Russian Muslim who could be best incorporated into the public cultural environment of the North Caucasus and Russia.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document