scholarly journals The Cultural Politics of Ethnic Identity in Xishuangbanna, China: Tea and Rubber as “Cash Crops” and “Commodities”

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 109-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet C. Sturgeon

In 2003, the poverty alleviation bureau in Xishuangbanna, China, introduced tea and rubber as cash crops to raise the incomes of ethnic-minority farmers who were thought to be backward and unfamiliar with markets. Using Marx's commodity fetish and Polly Hill's critique of “cash crops”, this paper analyses the cultural politics of ethnicity for Akha and Dai farmers in relation to tea and rubber. When the prefecture government introduces “cash crops”, the state retains its authority as the dispenser of knowledge, crops and modernity. When tea and rubber become commodities, however, some of the symbolic value of the commodity seems to stick to farmers, making rubber farmers “modern” and tea farmers “ethnic” in new ways. Through rising incomes and enhanced identities, Akha and Dai farmers unsettle stereotypes of themselves as “backward”. As a result of income levels matching those of urban middle-class residents, rubber farmers even challenge the prevalent social hierarchy.

1982 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Katzir

This essay examines the sociocultural mechanisms which preserved the Jewish ethnic identity in Yemen over the centuries. The Jewish community of Yemen existed continuously as an ethnic minority for over 1,500 years, dating back to the mid-fifth century and ending with the establishment of the state of Israel, when the Jews were declared persona non grata by the Yemeni government and were forced to leave en masse in 1948 (Ratzaby 1978).


2018 ◽  
pp. 126-146
Author(s):  
Roza Ismagilova

The article pioneers the analyses of the results of ethnic federalism introduced in Ethiopia in 1991 – and its influence on Afar. Ethnicity was proclaimed the fundamental principle of the state structure. The idea of ethnicity has become the basis of official ideology. The ethnic groups and ethnic identity have acquired fundamentally importance on the political and social levels . The country has been divided into nine ethnically-based regions. The article exposes the complex ethno-political and economic situation in the Afar State, roots and causes of inter- and intra-ethnic relations and conflicts with Amhara, Oromo, Tigray and Somali-Issa, competition of ethnic elites for power and recourses. Alive is the idea of “The Greater Afar”which would unite all Afar of the Horn of Africa. The protests in Oromia and Amhara Regions in 2015–2017 influenced the Afar state as welll. The situation in Ethiopia nowadays is extremely tense. Ethiopia is plunging into serious political crisis. Some observers call it “the beginning of Ethiopian spring”, the others – “Color revolution”


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
Elena Yu. Guskova

The article is devoted to the analysis of interethnic relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in the 1940s and 1960s. The article is based on materials from the archives of BiH, Croatia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia. The documents show the state of affairs in the Republic – both in the economy and in ideology. In one or another way, all of them reflect the level of tension in the interethnic relations. For the first time, the article presents the discussion on interethnic relations, on the new phenomenon in multinational Yugoslavia – the emergence of a new people in BiH under the name of “Muslim”. The term “Muslims” is used to define the ethnic identity of Bosniaks in the territory of BiH starting from the 1961 census.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yudi Triyanto

Study the effectivity analysis of Program Usaha Agribisnis Perdesaan (PUAP) and its impact on farmer income levels (case study of the Teluk Jaya Farmers Group Association) aims to 1. knowing how large the effectivity of PUAP funds is for income levels in poverty alleviation in Teluk Desa Sentosa Panai Hulu Subdistrict, 2. to analyze and determine the level of income of Gapoktan Teluk Jaya Farming Business in Teluk Sentosa, Panai Hulu Subdistrict before and after receiving PUAP assistance. The results showed that the effectivity of PUAP program funding is very effective and good, it can be seen from the results of the F test of 12.406 with a significant level of 0.000 while the F value of the table is 2.051. When compared to the value of F test (12.406) > Ftable (2.051) at α 5%, it was concluded that simultaneously the effectivity variable and the PUAP program had a positive effect. The increase in income of the Teluk Jaya Farmers Group in Teluk Sentosa after receiving PUAP funds can be known from the t table for the effectivity variable of 2.663 and the PUAP program for 1.270 with a significant value for each independent variable (2.051); (0.073). Whereas for the t table value in the distribution statistics t table with the level of test α = 5% and df1 = 27 of 2,051. Based on the criteria that if the value is t count> t table); namely (2.663> 2,051) (1,270> 2,051) so that it can be concluded that the effectivity variable partially has a positive and significant effect on the income level.Keywords : effectivity variable,  income level, PUAP program


Author(s):  
Shuang Chen

The book explores the social economic processes of inequality produced by differential state entitlements. Drawing on uniquely rich source materials from central and local archives, the book provides an unprecedented, comprehensive view of the creation of a socio-economic and political hierarchy under the Eight Banners in the Qing dynasty in what is now Shuangcheng County, Heilongjiang province. Shuangcheng was settled by bannermen from urban Beijing and elsewhere in rural Manchuria in the nineteenth century. The state classified the immigrants into distinct categories, each associated with differentiated land entitlements. By reconstructing the history of settlement and land distribution in this county, the book shows that patterns of wealth stratification and the underlying social hierarchy were not merely imposed by the state from the top-down but created and reinforced by local people through practices on the ground. In the course of pursuing their own interests, settlers internalized the distinctions created by the state through its system of unequal land entitlements. The tensions built into the unequal land entitlements therefore shaped the identities of immigrant groups, and this social hierarchy persisted after the fall of the Qing in 1911. The book offers an in-depth understanding of the key factors that contributed to social stratification in agrarian societies in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century China. Moreover, it also sheds light on the many parallels between the stratification system in Qing-dynasty Shuangcheng and the structural inequality in contemporary China.


Author(s):  
Meenaxi Barkataki-Ruscheweyh

In the concluding chapter, I discuss the various strategies that the Tangsa use in Assam to survive as a small ethnic minority group and how performing identity and ethnicity at festivals can be considered to be yet one more such strategy. This leads to a discussion of Tangsa identity, ethnicity, and culture as well as the role of the state and the Assamese ‘other’ in defining what it means to be Tangsa. In a ‘Taking Stock’ section, I list all my shortcomings, and also all that that still needs to be done before some amount of clarity can be achieved in understanding the complex Tangsa picture. The concluding section summarizes my findings to make clear the underlying and undeniable connection between performing ethnicity and negotiating marginalization.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document