From Claims to Violence: Signaling, Outbidding, and Escalation in Ethnic Conflict

Do radical political demands increase the risk of ethnic civil conflict? And why do ethnic movements make radical demands in the first place? We contend that when movements are fragmented, individual organizations use far-reaching claims relative to the status quo to attract attention from the government, boost intra-organizational discipline, and outbid rivals. Yet, such radical claims also increase the risk of conflict escalation. We test our arguments at both the ethnic group and organizational levels, using a new dataset on ethno-political organizations and their political demands. Our results show that the scope of demands increases the more organizations exist within an ethnic movement and that radical demands increase the risk of civil conflict onset. This effect is specific to the dyadic government-movement interaction, irrespective of other ethnic groups in the country. Moreover, at the organizational level, radicalization in demands increases the likelihood that an organization becomes engaged in civil conflict.

Gendered Frames of Mobilization: Differential Participation of Women in Ethno-politics of Darjeeling

While issues related to collective mobilizations have recently attracted considerable attention, little has been done to explore and explain the differential rate of participation of women in different forms of mobilization. While addressing the issues of gender within the charred ethno-politics of Darjeeling, this article will analyse women’s participation in two successive waves of Gorkhaland movements, followed by the recent mobilization for recognition as scheduled tribes. In this regard, the article will highlight how the overt use of violence, followed by the response of the state, contributes significantly towards differential participation in ethnic movements. Looking at the changing ethno-politics of the Darjeeling hills, the article argues that the gender difference within social movements is produced through anchoring frames which use cultural cues to structure the repertoire of the movement.

Onomastic heritage in diachrony: On the material of oikonyms in the Kyiv region

This article is devoted to the issues of historical oikonyms, whose general background is illustrated by etymological comments on specific examples from the oikonymicon of the Kyiv region. The etymology of an oikonym is not limited to the analysis of the etymon but also refers to the development of a particular word in general. Conceivably, reconstruction of the original oiko- nymicon is hardly possible, but a new discovery, even the attestation of a hitherto unknown renaming contributes to furthering our knowledge about the onomastic heritage. The article presents fragments of word-formation and etymological research relatable to the Kyiv region. The author reconstructs some Proto-Slavic forms, fills gaps in practically destroyed lexical nests, and looks in the lost appellatives and anthroponyms. Since the disappearance of words from the historical vocabulary is natural, the lexical basis of the onym, e.g., Berezan, Deremezna, Shkneva, largely remains almost the only evidence of plausible East Slavic features. The author uses the comparative-historical (etymological) method and the method of internal reconstruction. This is a reliable way not only to reconstruct the lost lexical structure of the language and local dialect rarities tending to enrich the lexicon but also to discover ethnic movements and migration processes of the population on both the right and left banks of the Dnieper River. Keywords: oikonym, etymology, word-forming model, anthroponym, appellative.

YOUTH CHALLENGE IN THE RUSSIAN PERIPHERY: THE SITUATION OF YOUTH IN KARELIA, KOMI, UDMURTIA, MARI EL AND MORDOVIA

The article analyzes the views developed and positions taken by young people from the so-called "Finno-Ugric republics" of the Russian Federation. This analysis is based on a series of surveys conducted in the five republics in 2020, as well as on official statistics and other materials. It is shown that the multilateral crisis that takes place in these republics has a serious impact on the positions and orientations of the young people and it results in an increase of their protest sentiments, a decrease of their trust in regional and federal political institutions as well as other negative phenomena. The mass migration of young people away from their republics represents the main form of their protest. At the same time, a rather high degree of the young people’s readiness for active protest actions has been recorded. The significance of ethnicity for the social and cultural positioning of the young people is minimal. Ethnic conflicts do occur, but they are mostly of a routine and latent nature. Generally, young people support the idea of equality of representatives of all ethnic groups in the political and social life of the republics. The few ethnic prejudices present among the youth are more likely to be a consequence of the lack of an active integration policy in the regions rather than a result of an ethnic nationalist ideology or propaganda spread by ideologists and activists of ethnic movements. The majority of young people are not interested in ethnic organizations, and the influence of the older generation and its values (including the values of traditional culture) is limited, because the cultural environment of young people is formed primarily under the influence of information communication networks and Internet resources. Ethnic ideals and values do not fit into this space, which explains why the ethnic movements of the Finno-Ugric peoples lack a youth audience.

Book review: Amit Ahuja, Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements

Amit Ahuja, Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements. Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2019. 238 pp. ₹550. ISBN: 9780190916435

The Dissemination of the Cult of Saint Vincent in Slovakia and Austria as a Result of 18th Century Migration of Alpine Woodcutters

Saint Vincent is one of the saints the worshipping of which occupies an important place both in the official church cult and in folk religiousness. He is currently regarded as the patron of wine growers, wine producers and woodcutters. Folk respect was particularly manifested in Saint Vincent’s native Spain and France, and this cult gradually expanded to Germany and Austria in the 14th century. Thanks to migration, it spread from these regions to southern Austria and Slovakia with relatively successful establishment. The study analyses the materials from different periods of the 19th and 20th centuries, obtained by field and archive research on the religiousness of Alpine woodcutters, as well as older historical materials and contemporary records of this cult. By means of a comparative analysis of the obtained data, the study attempts to explore the movements by which the cult of Saint Vincent could have spread to Lower Austria and Western Slovakia. It also points out the importance of interdisciplinary research in indicating the origin of Alpine woodcutters, designated by the exoethnonym Huncokars in Slovakia. The previous research and publications about this group were based on relatively poor and limited sources of information, many of which were not always correctly interpreted. The study has the ambition to add and correct the information on the origin of Alpine woodcutters in the light of the newest research and findings. The research of the cult of Saint Vincent is one of the paths that indicate the origin of the group as well as the possible ways of the dissemination of the cult thanks to the migration of its supporters. Through the example of this cult, we also aim to highlight cultural transfers as a result of ethnic movements in Central Europe.