The Structuring of Identities

Abstract

In the cases discussed in Chapter 3, the actors or adversaries are clearly identified by all parties according to one or several ethnic criteria. In some cases, these are objective attributes that pertain to all members of the group or that characterize the group as a whole: language, race, religion or territorial concentration. Such criteria, however, are never sufficient to account fully for the identification of the individuals and collectivities involved in ethnic conflict. It is only when subjective (that is, individually held) beliefs, feelings and motivations concerning the significance of the objective attributes are present that ethnicity becomes mobilized and feeds into collective action. Such beliefs, feelings and motivations may be diffuse, loosely held sentiments, or again they may become ingrained values, shared by the community and structured in the form of systematic propositions, that is, they may be thought of as ‘ethnic ideologies’. Frequently, such ideologies are handed down from generation to generation, they thrive on myth and legend, they are sometimes codified in books and laws and party platforms (‘charters’), and they provide guidance, justification and legitimacy for the group’s avowed purposes in the struggle in which it finds itself engaged. In general, these subjective elements are referred to as the ‘identity’ factors in the conflict and the struggles as ‘identity conflicts’.