Enacting Ethnicity of “Japanese Canadian” in Oral History: A Comparison Between the Japanese Canadian Sansei and the Ijusha Nisei

This paper presents the non-essentializing analysis of ethnic identity formation in comparative research between two groups in the Japanese Canadian community: the Japanese Canadian Sansei and the Ijusha Nisei. Using an oral history approach to understand the development of ethnic identity, I discuss how the social assignment of “otherness” based on the corporeal difference has negatively influenced identity formation in both groups. My comparative analysis further uncovers some of the different strategies that each group takes against the racializing process. Whereas the Japanese Canadian Sansei claim their cultural citizenship in the history of Japanese Canadians by aligning their own personal past with the collective memory of Japanese Canadians, the Ijusha Nisei negotiate it by entitling themselves as a contemporary representative of the ideology of multiculturalism. Finally, understanding the different processes of ethnic identity formation and strategies of negotiation for social inclusion, I discuss the effects of the ideology of multiculturalism on cultural citizenship among Japanese Canadians.

Enacting Ethnicity of “Japanese Canadian” in Oral History: A Comparison Between the Japanese Canadian Sansei and the Ijusha Nisei

This paper presents the non-essentializing analysis of ethnic identity formation in comparative research between two groups in the Japanese Canadian community: the Japanese Canadian Sansei and the Ijusha Nisei. Using an oral history approach to understand the development of ethnic identity, I discuss how the social assignment of “otherness” based on the corporeal difference has negatively influenced identity formation in both groups. My comparative analysis further uncovers some of the different strategies that each group takes against the racializing process. Whereas the Japanese Canadian Sansei claim their cultural citizenship in the history of Japanese Canadians by aligning their own personal past with the collective memory of Japanese Canadians, the Ijusha Nisei negotiate it by entitling themselves as a contemporary representative of the ideology of multiculturalism. Finally, understanding the different processes of ethnic identity formation and strategies of negotiation for social inclusion, I discuss the effects of the ideology of multiculturalism on cultural citizenship among Japanese Canadians.

Ethnic identity formation among post-high-school religious mechina gap-year programs in Israel

The aim of this study is to test changes in ethnic identity from two points of view: Marcia's identity status model and ethnic identity literature. Based on 135 participants who completed the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) questionnaires at two times intervals, stability was found at the mean level, while stability, progression and regression were found at the individual level. Transitions from moratorium into achievement were found more than into diffusion. Status changes derived mainly following changes in the commitment component. In line with Erikson's theory, the results highlight the effect of the sociocultural context on the identity formation process, and the need to examine changes in identity formation processes over time, both at the mean level and the individual level. These findings could be relevant to other countries, which are going through similar processes of demographic changes in which the minority challenges the hegemony of the majority.

SOCIAL DISTANCE AS A FACTOR OF INTER-ETHNIC ATTITUDES FORMATION AMONG THE YOUTH FROM THE ALTAY REGION

Social distance is closely interlinked with inter-ethnic attitudes, and there is a need in a sociological analysis of these phenomena, especially among young people, more vulnerable to the risks of ethnic intolerance and xenophobia. In 2020 in the Altay region a sociological survey was conducted among the young people from 14 to 35 years old (n=507). The article presents its results, revealing the interrelation between inter-ethnic attitudes and social distance with different ethnic groups. It was found that a little distance forms positive context of inter-ethnic relations but can lead to erosion and confusion of ethnic identity among youth. The results obtained can be used as a basis for elaboration of strategies guiding positive ethnic identity formation and grounds for measures of youth policy in the Russian Federation.

Ethnic Identity, Memory, and Sites of Violence

The Arab uprisings may have contributed to a newly “sectarianized” Middle East, yet more broadly this must be recognized as part of resurgent identity politics in which state exclusion, repression, and violence occur across ethnic, religious, and political divides. The mobilization of ethnic identities—the creation of distinct collectivities based on narratives of common descent—is as evident in nationalist diatribes throughout the region as it is in minority rights campaigns for equality or cultural autonomy. Ethnic identity formation requires both mnemonic discourses and specific sites in which social memories, imaginaries, and practices can be embedded and collectively performed. This chapter examines how geographies of violence—sites of historic trauma, loss, and displacement—are reappropriated through commemorative practice and martyr memorialization, which help shape contemporary ethnic narratives of identity and resistance. From Kurds in Irbil to Copts in Egypt to Palestinians inside Israel, each community attests to spatial exclusion and violence and finds ways of inhabiting and reimaging past trauma, to shape historical narratives and contemporary political expediencies. This chapter explores some of the key scholarship around this theme before examining the growing proliferation of martyr museums in the region.

Ethnic Traditions in the North Caucasus Sociocultural Context

Theoretical understanding of the role of ethnic tradi-tions in the ethnic identity formation, the organiza-tion of cultural space, the development of a meth-odology for their study in various socio-cultural conditions are of particular relevance in modern society. The processes of glocalization, regionaliza-tion of cultural space are aimed at preserving the uniqueness of ethnic cultures through the study and promotion of the best national traditions in ma-terial and spiritual culture. The purpose of this study is to determine the role of ethnic traditions in the cultural genesis of the peoples of the North Cauca-sus. The following tasks are being solved: the study of ethnic traditions as a mechanism for transferring socio-cultural experience in various historical and cultural conditions, as well as the study of the re-gional cultural space in the context of the communi-cative functions of ethnic culture. The scientific novelty of the study is provided due to the method-ology of historical cultural studies, which explores both macrodynamic historical and cultural process-es and core microdynamic stages of cultural for-mation.

‘In Russia We are Muslims, In Turkey We are Gyavurs’: Fluid Identities of the Armenian-Speaking Muslim Hemshils

The study examines the process of re/formation of social, ethnic, and religious identities in the Caucasian Black Sea frontier. It resulted in empirical validation of constructivist paradigm. The author tries to elucidate the creative process of ethnic identity formation, which is, according to the presented empirical data, directly linked to socio-economic surrounding of the group. Admittedly, the Hemshils serve as a vivid example of fluidity and flexibility of social identity. The study tries to show how Hemshils’ ethnicity has been shaped by their historical destinies and how they represent it in their everyday life. Living in the borderlands, subsequent bitter experience of deportation, legal disabilities and social deprivation in the receiving societies have predetermined unstable and situational quality of Hemshils’ ethnic identity. The last few decades have been crucial for survival of Hemshils’ communities. New social conditions set the stage for the re-articulation of their ethnic self-identification. Actually, each member of the group may virtually choose between the habitual Turkish option, ‘domestic’ Hemshil or ‘lost’ one, as they have suddenly realized, and some of them regained their Christian-Armenian identity. The versatile dramatic experience tends to foster fluid type of identities redefining and reiterating them repetitively. The aim of the research is the ethnographic description of the discoursive contexts of those unstable changes. The research addresses social scientists and students as well as anybody who cares of how social identity is molded.

“Why Don’t You Go to the Mosque?” Epistemic Deference and Everyday Religious Practices in Hui Muslim Communities

The study of everyday ethnicity emphasizes the importance of seeking the perspectives of the masses regarding processes of ethnic identity formation and ethnic boundary maintenance. In contrast to elite-centered approaches, everyday ethnicity attempts to understand how ethnicity is constructed from the bottom-up. However, seeking the everyday presents researchers with a number of distinct challenges. Prevalent among these obstacles is a tendency of non-elite respondents to direct scholars to elite authorities when responding to questions about ethnic identity, claiming they lack expertise or qualifications to speak on the subject. This epistemic deference toward elite sources may be particularly acute in ethno-religious communities, where the hierarchies of religious orders may reinforce the gulf of “knowledge” between clergy and lay believers. This article examines the problem of epistemic deference through a case study of everyday ethnicity in urban Hui Muslim communities in China. Drawing on data collected over the course of 152 interviews and numerous ethnographic observations conducted in four cities in China (Beijing, Jinan, Yinchuan, and Xining) between July 2015 and July 2016, the article illustrates the challenges posed by epistemic deference to field researchers in religious communities.

Language Dispersal, Diversification, and Contact

How did languages spread across the globe? Why do we sometimes find large language families, distributed over a wider area, and sometimes clusters of very small families or language isolates (i.e. languages without known relatives)? What was the role of agriculture in language spread? What do different language ideologies and patterns of ethnic identity formation contribute? What influence do geography and climate have?The availability of increasingly large databases and new analytical research techniques make it possible to provide new answers to these long standing questions. This book focuses on patterns of language dispersal, diversification, and contact in a global perspective by comparing the complex language and population histories of Island Southeast Asia/Oceania, Africa, and South America in terms of history and patterns of settlement, conceptions of ethnicity, and communication strategies. These three regions were selected because they show interesting contrasts in the distribution of languages and language families.