Ethnicity and Aboriginality: Case Studies in Ethnonationalism

Abstract

Ethnicity and Aboriginality: Case Studies in Ethnonationalism Michael Levin, ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993. xiii + 179 pp. $50.00 (cloth), $19.95 (paper) Reviewer: Deirdre Meintel Universite de MontrealThis collection is based on a conference, held in late 1990, that took as its point of departure the propositions about ethnicity and nationalism made in a 1973 article by Walker Conner. The articles focus on groups having some claim to aboriginal status, by virtue of a historical tie to a given territory and, in most cases, a cultural distinctiveness from surrounding groups. A wide range of cases are presented from Canada, Malaysia, Kenya, Nigeria and Australia.One interesting issue that emerges from several articles is the international dimension of ethnonationalism in the present day. Audiences and reference groups beyond the border of the nation-state are likely to affect how identity and nationalist claims are played out, as Tanner notes in his article on the Inuit of Labrador. This theme is central to Nagata's article on Malays, whose aboriginal status (so unlike that of other groups described in the book) is privileged in the national context but irrelevant to their identification with Muslims from the central Islamic states of the Middle East.This collection also shows that the process of naturalizing language and culture, in order to assert self-evident claims to ethnic jurisdiction (to paraphrase Levin, p. 164), is fraught with political risks and contradictions, whether these claims be based on historical priority or on sheer numbers. For example, an ethnonationalist claim based on historical depth may be challenged by another group with still older roots. As Nagata shows, some Chinese and Indian families have been present on the Malay peninsula longer than some who claim Malay identity. One is reminded of Native Peoples' responses to certain historical justifications for sovereignty invoked by Quebec nationalists. Moreover, as Nagata notes, privileging one group on the basis of aboriginal status means discriminating against immigrants, not always a feasible or acceptable alternative.Furthermore, as Levin points out in his study of the Bette (Nigeria), ethnonationalism in one group can intensify the group identities of others in the same nation or region. This was the case for the Bette, a small group in relation to their Igbo neighbours, whose efforts to secede led to the short-lived state of Biafra. …