scholarly journals Long-Term “Ethnicized Silences”, Family Secrets and Nation-Building

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Soler
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Family Secrets ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Analytical Category

This article demonstrates the dynamic relationship between long-term ethnicized silences, family secrets and nation-building in Central and Eastern Europe. How have modern nation-states been imagined and formed on the basis of these long-term silences? In order to illustrate what we believe could be the contribution to anthropology (principally to nationalism studies) enabled by introducing this analytical category of silences, in this research we will focus on a close analysis of the life story and identity journey of a self-identified “Slovak woman with Hungarian-Roma roots” who settled in the Czech Republic in 2009. Through this ethnographic example, and in an attempt to go beyond particularities, some of the themes covered are: what meanings, uses and processes of silences can we find in Slovakia, and what is their relationship to the construction of minorities and to an ethno-cultural model of nation-building (an imagined community)? In which domains and under which power relationships have long-term silences and hidden family secrets prevailed in everyday life? To what extent have those silence frameworks been negotiated and used as intergenerational strategies of family unity and protection? And finally, within the context of migration and the complex processes of Europeanization and globalization, how have those long-term, in this case “shamed”, ethnicized Roma silences been contested and broken, and what is the meaning of this development (at micro and macro levels)? In other words, for nation-states that have long been imagined on the principle of ethno-cultural homogeneity, I ask what can long-term ethnicized silences tell us about the process of nation-building (from the bottom up) and the quality of our EU democracies? Where do we come from, where are we now and, at least in terms of a warning (due to the rise of xenophobic forms of populism and radical nationalism), where are we going?

Anthropology of Language Contact and its Sociocultural Contexts

Anthropology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miki Makihara ◽  
Juan L. Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Nation States

Language contact is not just about language. It extends to a whole complex set of sociocultural and historical formations that characterize life in intersecting communities of language users. It is a space of linguistic as well as sociocultural reproduction and transformation. Early anthropologists and linguists focused narrowly on how languages, understood here as structural codes, influence each other, producing lexical, phonological, and morphosyntactic changes. The discipline of linguistics has largely continued this line of inquiry and focused on issues of variation and structural change. In conducting empirical ethnographic studies, sociolinguists and linguistic anthropologists have exposed the constructedness of the static, bounded notions of “languages” and “communities” of monolingual speakers. They have also increasingly emphasized the embeddedness of language in its sociocultural and historical context (see Foundational Texts). Anthropology of language contact, accordingly, investigates changing practices of language use, unequal acquisition, socialization, and development of linguistic norms. This article highlights the dynamic relationship between the use and conceptualization of language. It includes works on multilingual and dialectal practices (see Multilingual Practices and Discursive Construction of Identity), and how linguistic differences function, produce, and perpetuate forms of social inequality (see Linguistic Differences and Social Inequality). It also addresses the historical, sociocultural, and interactional contexts of encounters and power dynamics. As such, we examine the context of colonialism and missionization (see Language and Colonialism) and the rise of nation-states in which standard language has been taken to be coterminous with the polity (see Language Contact and Nation-Building). Nationalism based on an association between nation and language is important in understanding the processes of language endangerment and revitalization (see Language Endangerment, Documentation, and Revitalization). This article also covers the flow of people and commodities, as well as industrialization, urbanization, and the introduction of new technologies (see Language Contact, Migration, and Globalization). Such flows and movements occur at different scales, from face-to-face interaction to global trade, and transform boundaries between languages (or what counts as such) and the communities that use them. Notwithstanding the fluidity of global communication, the school has been the most important site of the reproduction of standard and monolingual ideologies, closely connected to the process of nation-building, colonization, and the reproduction of privilege and inequality (see Education and Social (Re)production). The final section gathers works that highlight the poetic function of language and individual creative choice in multilingual verbal arts (see Verbal Play and Aesthetics of Contact).

scholarly journals Lost in Transition to Adulthood? Illegalized Male Migrants Navigating Temporal Dispossession

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 250
Author(s):  
Louis Vuilleumier
Keyword(s):  
Transition To Adulthood ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Asymmetrical Power ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Social Markers ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

The so-called ‘refugee crisis’ has been portrayed as an invasion that threatens Europe and calls its sovereignty into question, prompting exceptional emergency responses. These (re)bordering processes highlight Europe’s uneven, discriminatory, and racialized filtering system. European nation-states sort desired and undesired migrants through sets of precarious administrative statuses that translate into limited access to resources, most notably the formal labor market. European border regimes impose specific spatialities and temporalities on migrants through long-term physical and social deceleration: territorial assignation, enduring unemployment, forced idleness, and protracted periods of waiting. These temporal ruptures interrupt individual biographies and hinder the hopes of a young population seeking a better future. However, some find ways to navigate the socio-spatial deceleration they face. In this paper, I explore how European border regimes affect the trajectory of Sub-Saharan male migrants and how they appropriate such temporal dispossession. I use biographical analysis and participant observations of a squatting organization in a Swiss city to scrutinize the everyday practices and aspirations of a population made illegal and, as a result, denied access to social markers of maturity. I investigate how time intersects with physical, social, and existential im/mobility. I argue that, in navigating spaces of asymmetrical power relationships, impoverished migrants find autonomy in illegality. Neither victimizing nor romanticizing illegalized migrants’ trajectories, this paper offers an ethnographic analysis of the capacities of an impoverished population to challenge European border regimes.

The national question, identity and the crisis in South Sudan

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan Yanano Mangani ◽  
Richard Rachidi Molapo
Keyword(s):  
Political Identity ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Political Control ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Liberation Movement ◽  
Nation States ◽  
National Question ◽  
The Government

The crisis in South Sudan that broke out on the 15th of December 2013 has been the gravest political debacle in the five years of the country’s independence. This crisis typifies the general political and social patterns of post-independence politics of nation-states that are borne out of armed struggles in Africa. Not only does the crisis expose a reluctance by the nationalist leaders to continue with nation-building initiatives, the situation suggests the struggle for political control at the echelons of power within the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement.  This struggle has been marred by the manufacturing of political identity and political demonization that seem to illuminate the current political landscape in South Sudan. Be that as it may, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) hurriedly intervened to find a lasting solution however supportive of the government of President Salva Kirr and this has suggested interest based motives on the part of the regional body and has since exacerbated an already fragile situation. As such, this article uses the Fanonian discourse of post-independence politics in Africa to expose the fact that the SPLM has degenerated into lethargy and this is at the heart of the crisis.

Economic Institutions and Growth Nexus: The Role of Governance and Democratic Institutions—Evidence from Time Varying Parameters’ (TVPs) Models

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (4I-II) ◽  
pp. 675-688
Author(s):  
Ghulam Murtaza ◽  
Muhammad Zahir Faridi
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Economic Institutions ◽  
Time Varying ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Rolling Window

The present study has investigated the channels through which the linkage between economic institutions and growth is gauged, by addressing the main hypothesis of the study that whether quality of governance and democratic institutions set a stage for economic institutions to promote the long-term growth process in Pakistan. To test the hypothesis empirically, our study models the dynamic relationship between growth and economic institutions in a time varying framework in order to capture institutional developments and structural changes occurred in the economy of Pakistan over the years. Study articulates that, along with some customary specifics, the quality of government and democracy are the substantial factors that affect institutional quality and ultimately cause to promote growth in Pakistan. JEL Classification: O40; P16; C14; H10 Keywords: Economic Institutions, Growth, Governance and Democracy, Rolling Window Two-stage Least Squares, Pakistan

Study on Dynamic Relationship between Economic Growth and Energy Consumption in Chongqing - Based on 1980-2011 Data

2013 ◽  
Vol 448-453 ◽  
pp. 4319-4324
Author(s):  
Sheng Wang ◽  
Chun Yan Dai ◽  
En Chuang Wang ◽  
Chun Yan Li
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Impulse Response Function ◽  
Improve Energy Efficiency ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Equilibrium Relationship

Analyzed the dynamic interaction characteristics of Chongqing Economic growth and energy consumption between 1980-2011 based on vector auto regression model, impulse response function. The results showed that: 1 Between the Chongqing's economic growth and energy consumption exist the positive long-term stable equilibrium relationship, Chongqing's economic development depending on energy consumption is too high, to keep the economy in Chongqing's rapid economic development, energy relatively insufficient supply sustainable development must rely on the energy market, which will restrict the development of Chongqing's economy. 2At this stage, Chongqing continuing emphasis on optimizing the industrial structure to improve energy efficiency at the same time, the key is to establish and improve the energy consumption intensity and total energy demand "dual control" under the security system, weakening the energy bottleneck effect on economic growth.

Rīgas humānistu motīvs Roalda Dobrovenska romānā „Magnus, dāņu princis”

2021 ◽  
pp. 172-180
Author(s):  
Ausma Cimdiņa
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Human Society ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Russian State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Role

The novel “Magnus, the Danish Prince” by the Russian diaspora in Latvia writer Roald Dobrovensky is seen as a specific example of a biographical and historical genre, which embodies the historical experience of different eras and nations in the confrontation of globalisation and national self-determination. At the heart of the novel are the Livonian War and the historical role and human destiny of Magnus (1540–1683) – the Danish prince of the Oldenburg dynasty, the first and the only king of Livonia. The motif of Riga’s humanists is seen both as one of the main ideological driving forces of the novel and as a marginal reflection in Magnus’s life story. Acknowledged historical sources have been used in the creation of the novel: Baltazar Rusov’s “Livonian Chronicle”; Nikolai Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State”; Alexander Janov’s “Russia: 1462–1584. The Beginning of the Tragedy. Notes of the Nature and Formation of Russian Statehood” etc. In connection with the concept of Riga humanists, another fictitious document created by the writer Dobrovensky himself is especially important, namely, the diary of Johann Birke – Magnus’s interpreter, a person with a double identity, “half-Latvian”, “half-German”. It is a message of an alternative to the well-known historical documents, which allows to turn the Livonian historical narrative in the direction of “letocentrism” and raises the issue of the ethnic identity of Riga’s humanists. Along with the deconstruction of the historically documented image of Livonian King Magnus, the thematic structure of the novel is dominated by identity aspects related to the Livonian historical narrative. Dobrovensky, with his novel, raises an important question – what does the medieval Livonia, Europe’s common intellectual heritage, mean for contemporary Latvia and the human society at large? Dobrovensky’s work is also a significant challenge in strengthening emotional ties with Livonia (which were weakened in the early stages of national historiography due to conflicts over the founding of nation-states).

Conclusion: “It Sends Its Bloodhounds Everywhere”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Fuller
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
National Security Policy ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
The U.S

This concluding chapter examines the legacy of the CIA's drone war on U.S. counterterrorism, wider U.S. national security policy, and the conduct of America's rivals—both nation-states and terrorist groups. It contemplates the nature of technological progress, judging that innovations always introduce potential threats and opportunities in equal measure. Furthermore, while it is almost inevitable that terrorist groups will exploit drone technology for heinous ends, the technology also offers wider commercial and civilian society opportunities, just as previous transformative technologies, first developed for the purpose of taking lives, eventually came to transform them in positive ways. The use of drones to neutralize terrorists is best understood as the embodiment of America's long-term counterterrorism goal made possible by advancements in both technology and the willingness of the U.S. government to authorize the CIA in undertaking lethal counterterrorist actions.

scholarly journals Esoteric Theravada Buddhism in Burma/Myanmar

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 55-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Foxeus
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
World War ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Asian Nation ◽  
Insight Meditation ◽  
The Government

The achievement of independence in 1948 was in many ways a watershed in Burma’s history. At this time, a variety of Buddhist movements emerged that were part not only of a ‘Burmese Buddhist revival’, in which even the government was involved, but also a general re-enchantment of Asia. In the period following World War II, projects of nation-building and further modernization were implemented in many newly independent Asian nation states. The theories of modernization adopted by the rulers had presupposed that a new, rationalized and secularized order that had set them on the path of ‘progress’ would entail a decline of religion. However, instead there was a widespread resurgence of religion, and a variety of new, eclectic religious movements emerged in Southeast Asia. In the thriving religious field of postcolonial Burma, two lay Buddhist movements associated with two different meditation techniques emerged, viz.; the insight meditation movement and the concentration meditation movement. The latter consisted of a variety of esoteric congregations combining concentration meditation with esoteric lore, and some of these were characterized by fundamentalist trends. At the same time, the supermundane form of Buddhism became increasingly influential in the entire field of religion. The aim of the present article is to discuss how this supermundane dimension has reshaped the complex religious field in Burma, with particular emphasis on the esoteric congregations; to present the Burmese form of esoteric Theravāda Buddhism, and to situate the fundamentalist trends which are present in these contexts.

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