Maintaining Ethnic Boundary: The Ethnogenesis of Madhesi Identity in Nepal Tarai

This article attempts to illuminate on the processes wherein diverse groups of Madhesi people of the central Tarai have been ethnicized to form a shared identity in the specific historical and socio-political context of Nepal. Drawing on the perceptions and subjective experiences of Madhesi individuals in terms of their identity, it is argued that Madhesi identity has come into being and maintained through the practices of boundary maintenance that encompasses relational processes of inclusion and exclusion. Madhesi people have re(asserted) their cultural contrast to the Pahadis and claim political autonomy of the Tarai territory where they belong for making ethnic distinction and maintaining group boundary.

Ethnic categorization practices and boundary (re)making in a multiethnic borderland of Ukraine

Multiethnic borderlands, like Transcarpathia in Western Ukraine, are characterized by ethnic-linguistic-confessional complexity where ethnic boundary-making and ethnic categorization are constructed and rooted in politics. The present study aims to analyze how the mechanisms of ethnic categorization and boundary-making play out on a local level. Based on data analysis and fieldwork conducted in Hudya/Gődényháza in Transcarpathia, a village with ethnically, linguistically, and denominationally diverse population, we describe how “ethnicity” is getting blurred and reconstructed in the narrative strategies of residents. We examine the characteristics of the various classification systems (external classification, self-reporting) and their relation to each other. It is found that the ethnic, linguistic, and denominational affiliations in the village (and its wider region) are often divergent, which is reflected in the significant discrepancy between the data gathered in various ethnic classification systems. We argue that denomination is the prime factor of both self-identification and external classification, obscuring the boundaries between religious and standard ethnic terms. We further point to the formation of new boundaries between autochthonous and allochthonous populations. Although this cleavage emerged a few decades ago and has been transgressed by dozens of marriages among autochthonous and newcomers, it can easily get ethnicized, thus it adds an extra layer to the existing distinctions.

Implications of new AMS dates for the Khami Period in the Mapungubwe Landscape

After the abandonment of Mapungubwe, the Limpopo Valley was reoccupied first by Sotho people, making Icon pottery, and then by Kalanga speakers making Khami pottery. The senior Kalanga chief, in this case Twamamba, was based at Machemma about 60 km to the south, while several petty chiefs administered various portions of the valley itself. Because of fluctuating rainfall, the occupations of both Sotho and Kalanga people occurred in pulses during higher rainfall periods. New AMS dates place one site in the Icon Period, eight sites in Pulse 1 (AD 1400–1480) and eight sites or components in Pulse 2 (AD 1520–1590). Kalanga people occupied the best agricultural land near the Limpopo floodplains and Sotho people lived on the plateau to the south. The two groups thus shared the landscape, but not the resources equally. The ceramic record documents this unequal interaction. This interaction, facilitated by male and female initiation schools on the ethnic boundary, helped to create Venda as a language and macro-cultural entity.

The Future of American Blackness: On Colorism and Racial Reorganization

This manuscript leverages the plethora of research on colorism and skin tone stratification among Black Americans to consider how the “Black” racial category may change going forward. I build on ideas about path dependence, racial and ethnic boundary formations, racial reorganization, and a case study on race and body size to explore how extant group-level differences in social outcomes and emerging differences in political attitudes between lighter skinned and darker skinned Black Americans may lead to a schism between the two groups that forces us to question what it means to identify or be identified as “Black.” The idea that “Black is Black” has become thoroughly engrained in the American imagination, facilitated by the history of “one-drop rules” and encouraged by racial segregation. This drives our racial categorization and fuels resistance to many public discussions of colorism. However, we may have reached an even more important crossroads in our examination of colorism that forces us to reckon with the question “what is a racial group?”

THE RESTRICTED CODE OF HOUSE MADE OF DAWN

Ethnosemantic fields appealing to the semiotics of local knowledge by circumventing translations and explanations obvious to cultural insiders created a restricted code and an ethnic boundary in N. Scott Momaday’s novel House Made of Dawn. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0747/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Migration and the plurality of ethnic boundary work: A qualitative interview study of naming practices of migrants from former Yugoslavia in Germany

Most research on migration and ethnic boundaries is concerned with boundaries between a specific migrant minority and the ‘majority society’ in the destination country. However, migrant groups are not homogenous; within-group boundaries that are relevant in their context of origin may also play a role in the host context. Focusing on migrants from former Yugoslavia, we analyse the relevance of ethnic boundaries between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats in Germany. We do so by interpreting migrant parents’ practices of first-name giving as instances of ethnic boundary work. In the case of migrants from former Yugoslavia, first names are a salient marker of ethnic affiliation. Based on 22 semi-structured interviews, we distinguish between three types of ethnic boundary work based on first-name giving. ‘Particularists ’ wish to express their ethnic affiliation via first names, and they maintain ethnic boundaries both towards the German majority society as well as other ethnic groups from former Yugoslavia. In contrast, ‘cosmopolitans’ reject names with specific ethnic references and base their choice on personal taste, often opting for international names, thereby rejecting ethnic boundaries towards other former Yugoslav groups. Finally, ‘negotiators’ stand in between. They blur boundaries towards the German majority society, but maintain boundaries towards other ex-Yugoslav ethnic groups. Overall, we find that ex-Yugoslav migrants’ strategies of ethnic boundary work are shaped by a multiplicity of reference groups, not just the relationship with the German majority society.

Ethnicity and “Muslim fraternity”

The chapter begins by introducing the case with the help of vignettes from the field. After setting the stage for the empirical puzzle, it goes on to the theoretical framework and situates the research question in the broader debates on religion and conflict, paying specific attention to religion’s role as a conflict resolution tool. It then ties these debates to the sociological literature on identity formation and ethnic boundary making and introduces the fourfold typology of religious and ethnic identities in the Kurdish conflict. To elaborate on the structural changes that have brought about these identity categories it turns to Bourdieusian field theory, discusses briefly the emergence of an autonomous religious field under the AKP, and familiarizes the reader with the actors in the political and religious fields in Turkey.