Hidden Clusters Beyond Ethnic Boundaries

Hidden cluster problems can manifest when broad ethnic categories are used as proxies for cultural traits, especially when traits are assumed to encode cultural distances between groups. We suggest a granular understanding of cultural trait distributions within and between ethnic categories is fundamental to the interpretation of heritability estimates as well as general behavioral outcomes.

Purity, Pottery, and Judaean Ethnicity in the Hasmonean Period

Three distinct cultural phenomena emerged in the Hasmonean period (152–37 BCE): the concept of Gentile impurity, full body immersion in a ritual bath, and (relative) abstinence from the use of imported foreign pottery. This article examines the historical and archaeological evidence for these three traits: their chronology, geographical distribution, and interrelationship. All three relate to the contact between Judaeans and non-Judaeans. They symbolize social boundaries that were created to foster the ethnic identity of the Judaeans vis-à-vis local Gentiles. The creation of these ethnic boundaries was encouraged by the Hasmonean state both because they corresponded to the Hasmonean ideology and political aims, and because state formation usually contributes to the development of ethnic identity.

Sounds, Signs, and Boundaries

This chapter develops further an earlier argument that the differences between the local scripts of Greece cannot be accidental. It connects them with the emergence of ethnic boundaries within the Greeks. It considers the adaptation of the Phoenician alphabet to the Greek language, and then the process of creating the local scripts, largely by assigning different sound values to the same letters. It then correlates the different local 'written languages' (i.e. local combinations of scripts and dialects) with differences in material and symbolic culture. Written language turns out to have been understood as a component of regional ethnic identities.

Crossing ethnic boundaries? A social network investigation of defending relationships in schools

Prosocial peer relationships, such as defending against victimization, are beneficial for integration. Using the concept of multiple categorization, this study considers the extent to which similarity in gender, being in the same classroom, and similarity in network position regarding bullying or victimization contributes to the formation of cross-ethnic defending relationships among children. Longitudinal social network models were applied to complete school-level networks of 1,325 children in eight multi-ethnic elementary schools. Although same-ethnic peers were more likely to defend each other than cross-ethnic peers, similarity in gender, being in the same classroom, and similarity in network position in bullying fostered cross-ethnic defending. Moreover, being in the same classroom increased the likelihood of cross-ethnic defending even more than it did same-ethnic defending. A better understanding of how multiple categorization contributes to positive relationships between peers of different ethnic backgrounds may help to promote interethnic integration in multi-ethnic classrooms.

The stratified middle class and the formation of ethnic identities

This article analyzes the relationship between middle-class belonging and minority ethnic identification through the narratives of Israeli adolescents in contrasting middle-class spaces. While current literature suggests that middle-class belonging will either weaken or strengthen ethnic identification, this paper demonstrates that the effect of class on ethnic identity varies between different spaces. Analyzing the narratives of 52 middle-class minority adolescents shows that spatial ethnic boundaries operating in the rural middle class lead these adolescents to construct a salient ethnic identity that can produce feelings of incongruence and subordination. However, in the urban middle-class, where spatial ethnic boundaries are less significant, adolescents develop a thin, interchangeable ethnic identity in accordance with shallow and superficial public classifications. These findings demonstrate that the middle classes are not monolithic but diverse within themselves, and point to the need to study the variety of ways diverse middle classes can affect the shaping of minority ethnic identification.

How Often Have You Felt Disadvantaged? Explaining Perceived Discrimination

Based on longitudinal data from Germany, we analyze how perceptions of discrimination change once migrants’ integration evolves. Individuals who identify more strongly with the host country, speak the language, have native friends, and are adequately employed report less discrimination overall. However, group-specific analyses reveal that German-born Turks feel more rather than less discriminated against after their language skills and their identification increase. For this group, we find evidence for the “integration paradox”, i.e., the finding that better educated migrants have more rather than less negative attitudes about the host society. Results suggest that attributional processes rather than rising exposure to discrimination might be the main mechanism linking integration to higher levels of perceived discrimination. Obviously, discrimination does not disappear for groups facing salient ethnic boundaries and is met with growing awareness and sensitivity among individuals that have become more similar to the majority of members. This, in turn, by no means implies that perceived discrimination is detached from reality.