Constituent Ethnic Groups Research Articles

Rekognicje celne jako źródło do dziejów Ormian kamienieckich w drugiej połowie XVI wieku

CUSTOMS RECOGNITIONS AS A SOURCE FOR STUDYING THE HISTORY OF KAMIENIEC ARMENIANS IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 16TH CENTURY
 Armenians were among the constituent ethnic groups in the society of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Actively participating in trade, they were subject to legal regulations in as much as other urban citizens. Customs recognitions, or testimonies given by merchants enjoying customs freedom, serve as evidence of this process. The article analyzes the overall trade activities of Armenians from Kamieniec Podolski [Kamianets-Podilskyi] at Lublin fairs based on these recognitions. On their basis, it discusses the significance of customs exemptions as one of the privileges of Kamieniec residents, as well as the intensity of trade relations between this city and Lublin, and the range of goods exchanged. Additionally, it addresses the Armenians’ knowledge of legal practices and their ability to use the Polish and Ruthenian languages. An annex includes the edition of customs recognitions, which are an interesting source for studying economic history, diplomatics, and sigillography.

Ethnicity and protective policies in Sikkim: Consolidation and reconfiguration

This article examines how ethnicities in the state of Sikkim have evolved and emerged as fluid but potent instruments that are deployed by the state’s constituent ethnic groups in their efforts to marshal and retain control over its socio-economic and political resources, in conjunction with the policies of the central government. The process of validating ethnic identities that began in the colonial period has now been strengthened and shapes the protective polices of governments at both levels, the central and the state, for Sikkim. The processes of modernisation and development set in motion after Sikkim’s merger with India have resulted in consolidation and reconfiguration of ethnicities across the structural and cultural spheres of Sikkimese society.

Понятие правового обычая в философии, культурологии и юридической антропологии

Despite the ambiguous attitude of legal researchers to the place and role of legal customs in modern legal systems, this topic is of great interest in domestic science. The transitive nature of Russian society is a recognized reason. The goal was set — to conduct a comparative analysis of approaches to this phenomenon in three social sciences and humanities — philosophy, cultural studies and legal anthropology. Based on the analysis of a number of works of the last 5 years, it was concluded that the greatest cognitive potential is contained in legal anthropology — a relatively young science that studies the legal existence of mankind (and its constituent ethnic groups, peoples, nations) at all stages of the development of this existence, from archaic to modern. English version of the article on pp. 184-193 at URL: https://panor.ru/articles/the-concept-of-legal-custom-in-philosophy-cultural-studies-and-legal-anthropology/65909.html

Democratisation Under Diversity: Theory and Evidence from Indonesian Communities

We study the effect of ethnic diversity on local public spending following fiscal decentralisation in a setting where local institutions are salient. Specifically, the latter affects coordination costs and thereby cooperative behaviour across the constituent ethnic groups. Our theory highlights the role of the local elite in lobbying for policies which favour them in a decentralised setting. The differences in preferences over public good allocations along with the salience of coordination costs across ethnic groups are relevant in determining the equilibrium lobbying behaviour. This results in ethnic diversity having a detrimental effect on local developmental spending which is aggravated by increased levels of coordination costs. We test these predictions using Indonesian community-level data. Utilising the 1997 and 2007 Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) rounds, we are able to construct various measures of ethnic diversity. We exploit an institutional feature of Indonesian communities - namely, the observance of traditional laws to proxy coordination costs across ethnic groups. Overall, we find that ethnic diversity depresses local development spending post-decentralisation at the community level particularly where Adat laws (which promote an ethic of mutual co-operation) are not followed. The opposite obtains for spending on non-developmental items, all of which is consistent with our theory.

Establishment, Breakup, and Amalgamation of Ethnic Local Governments in Ethiopia: Towards Understanding the Legal And Political Matrix

Abstract Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism manages the diversity problem by giving ethnic territorial homelands to the constituent ethnic groups. This, in ethnically diverse regions, has meant the establishment of ethnically defined local governments. However, as the clear mismatch between available local governments and the number of constituent ethnic communities demonstrate, many are left without a local government of their own – resulting in rife inter-communal tensions. This has also proved to be a fertile ground for competing ethnic nationalisms to flourish and proliferate at sub-regional levels. As a result, some local governments were broken apart after their establishment to arrest ethnic conflicts that followed while others were amalgamated to maintain regional territorial integrity. By using the snnp region as a case study, this article argues that the political atmosphere, propelled by political exigencies, dictates the establishment, breakup, and amalgamation of ethnically defined local governments, while constitutional principles are side-lined.

Democratisation under Diversity: Theory and Evidence from Indonesian Communities

We study the effect of ethnic diversity on local public spending following fiscal decentralisation in a setting where local institutions are salient. Specifically, the latter affects coordination costs and thereby cooperative behaviour across the constituent ethnic groups. Our theory highlights the role of the local elite in lobbying for policies which favour them in a decentralised setting. The differences in preferences over public good allocations along with the salience of coordination costs across ethnic groups are relevant in determining the equilibrium lobbying behaviour. This results in ethnic diversity having a detrimental effect on local developmental spending which is aggravated by increased levels of coordination costs. We test these predictions using Indonesian community-level data. Utilising the 1997 and 2007 Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) rounds, we are able to construct various measures of ethnic diversity. We exploit an institutional feature of Indonesian communities - namely, the observance of traditional laws to proxy coordination costs across ethnic groups. Overall, we find that ethnic diversity depresses local development spending post-decentralisation at the community level particularly where Adat laws (which promote an ethic of mutual co-operation) are not followed. The opposite obtains for spending on non-developmental items, all of which is consistent with our theory.

The right to intercultural education: students’ perspectives on schooling and opportunities for reconciliation through multicultural engagement in Bosnia and Herzegovina

ABSTRACTIn post-conflict societies, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, education is recognised as a key factor in reconciliation. Yet the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement set in process arrangements that mean that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s three constituent ethnic groups (Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs) are educated separately. This paper examines students’ right to integrated schooling and an intercultural education, in keeping with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It reports on small-scale empirical research on the impact of integrated and segregated education on students, focusing on the experiences of students who have had access to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s only fully integrated school. There are tensions between the competing educational rights of students and the cultural rights of ethno-cultural communities. Since entrenched political problems hinder the reestablishment of integrated public schooling, the paper considers the potential of service-learning and multicultural community engagement to challenge ethno-nationalist ideas promoted through segregated schools and enable peace and reconciliation.

New patterns of ethnic diversity: exploring the residential geographies of mixed-ethnicity individuals in Sydney, Australia

ABSTRACTIn multi-ethnic societies, the rise in mixed-ethnicity partnerships has contributed to strong growth in populations of mixed-ethnicity individuals. Yet scholarship on ethnic residential geographies has predominantly focused on individuals with singular ethnic identities. Using 2011 Australian census data, this paper explores the residential patterns of mixed-ethnicity populations in Sydney, Australia’s most populous city. I deploy a mapping analysis to show that mixed-ethnicity populations’ residential geographies are unique and do not match those of their constituent ethnic groups. In many cases, mixed-ethnicity individuals concentrate in inner-city areas, in contrast to the suburban hubs of their respective ethnic minority groups. They are also more likely to reside outside neighbourhoods with high proportions of their constituent ethnic groups, and instead gravitate towards moderately diverse neighbourhoods. The paper demonstrates the in-between nature of the geographies of mixed-ethnicity individuals, echoing established findings for mixed-race/ethnicity couples. Further, these geographies are powerfully differentiated according to birthplace and educational attainment. Australia-born mixed-ethnicity individuals and those with Bachelor degrees exhibit particularly extensive deviation from Sydney’s established ethnic landscape. The growing number of mixed-ethnicity individuals has implications for ethnic residential geographies both in this city, and in other diverse contexts.

Mapping the multiple geographies of mixed-ethnicity couples in Australia

ABSTRACTMixed-ethnicity partnerships are becoming increasingly common in Australia and other countries of high immigration. Formal and de facto marriages involving partners from different ethnic backgrounds are key indicators of decreasing social distance between groups. Yet mixed-ethnicity couples have received scant attention from Australian geographers. We use customised data from the 2011 Australian census to analyse the nation-wide distribution of several types of mixed-ethnicity couples. We focus on couples comprised of an Anglo-European (ethnic majority) partner, and a partner from a ‘visible’ ethnic minority group. Our analyses explore the residential geographies of mixed-ethnicity couples vis-à-vis ‘co-ethnic couples’ (where partners share the same ethnicity). We find that mixed-ethnicity couples are more widely dispersed across Australian cities and regions than comparative co-ethnic couples. However, each type of mixed-ethnicity couple has its own unique residential pattern: there are multiple geographies of mixed-ethnicity couples in Australia. These distinctive patterns reflect the migration and settlement histories of the couples’ constituent ethnic groups, but also hold great potential to shift seemingly entrenched ethnic residential geographies in the present and future.

No future? Narrating the past in Bosnian history museums

Recent unrest and the 2014 elections have corroborated the impression of Bosnia as a failing state, one that is constantly being undermined by the three-way impasse between constituent ethnic groups of Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs. Major history museums in Bosnia, however, provide a more complex picture. This paper analyzes museums and exhibitions on twentieth-century history in Sarajevo, Banja Luka, and Jajce, with regard to their narrative strategies, their aesthetic appearance, and the commemorative practices in their respective locations. From this perspective, the use of history in building group identity in Bosnia is far from coherent. Although museums are one means to assert firmly entrenched national identities both old and new, they compete at the same time with nostalgic commemorations of socialist Yugoslavia and with equally nostalgic references to the Austrian occupation. Various civic groups struggle to assert their visions of belonging, mostly with rather modest financial means. Based on these findings, this paper will explore not only the underlying assumptions of what history and, in particular, museums are all about, but also how visions of the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina are inscribed in these uses of history – if indeed they are.

Tocqueville Reinvented or ‘Democracy in Brazil’

AbstractThis paper compares Tocqueville's concept of democracy to the social and political evolution of Brazil. It draws attention to the different points of departure which marked the establishment of American and Brazilian societies, through the works of authors such as Laura de Mello e Souza, Gilberto Freyre, Florestan Fernandes, Celso Furtado, and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda. It notes that, despite conditions being more favourable for the formation of a democratic society in the United States than in Brazil, subsequent to the founding periods a certain coming together occurred in the process of formation of the two societies. The ‘similarity of differences' between American and Brazilian societies becomes clear as soon as one brings together the roles played by the three constituent ethnic groups of these societies, which, by their simple existence, link difference to inequality.

Rural community perception of poverty and devleopment strategies for poverty alleviation

Poverty usually conjures terrifying and sometimes confusing images which are imposed mostly form outside. Ideally, images of poverty should be ethnographically constructed within particular cultures by particular people. It is the discovery of these images, the underlying processes and reasons for their creation that pose enormous global challenge to researchers and policy makers. Drawing from an ethnographic research in two plural rural communities inhabited by Efik and Ibibio ethnic groups in Nigeria, the paper reveals that in both communities culture bearers made a distinction between community and individual poverty. Both ethnic groups in each community agreed on common indicators, which if lacking failed to promote general socio-economic well-being or welfare of the inhabitants. Individual poverty was a more personal matter and differently perceived by constituent ethnic groups. While the Efik perceived individual poverty as lack of adequate itie udia (asset(s) easily converted into cash), the Ibibio perceived it as the inability to build a modern house in natal home and to feed one's children. Community poverty was addressed through collective efforts whereas individual poverty was tackled differently by constituent ethnic groups and depended maximally on inheritance pattern of the people. The paper seeks to re-echo and strengthen the usefulness of ethnographic understanding in poverty research and poverty alleviation in rural communities of the developing world. Keywords: ethnography, perception, poverty, rural community, wealth, immigrants, development Global Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 4(1&2) 2005: 9-15

Development, Inequality and Ethnic Accommodation: Clues from Malaysia, Mauritius and Trinidad and Tobago

This article examines the relationship between economic development and ethnopolitical conflict in three developing countries: Malaysia, Mauritius and Trinidad and Tobago. Each of these countries has been relatively successful in achieving rapid economic development and accommodation amongst constituent ethnic groups. The article explores two particular questions that the experience of these three countries raises: does rapid economic development make ethnic accommodation easier and how important is inter-ethnic inequality? It is suggested that economic development alone cannot prevent ethnopolitical conflict. What matter just as much, if not more, are real and perceived inter-ethnic disparities in access to key economic and political resources. Importantly, each of these countries pursued a hegemonic “one nation” strategy in the early decades following independence that involved strategic partnerships between the major constituent ethnic groups and negotiated economic redistribution. As a result, inter-ethnic inequality has been kept in check. However, there are emerging signs of disruptive ethnopolitical mobilization in each country, based in part on ethnic grievances about discrimination in the distribution of resources. The article concludes that, even in these relatively successful and harmonious cases, the management of socio-economic inequality remains important.

Moral Ethnicity and Political Tribalism in Kenya’s “Virtual Democracy”

Kenyan politics have long been among the most “ethnic” in Africa. From the battles over the constitutional formula for independence to the waning days of the one-party regime in the late 1980s, Kenyan politicians sought support from their ethnic or subethnic groups, and citizens perceived most political battles to be about dividing the “national cake” among the constituent ethnic groups. Political liberalization since 1991 has not fundamentally changed this atmosphere. Most obviously, it has allowed ethnic politics to reemerge into open, public debate. Ruling and opposition parties represent primarily all, some, or coalitions of ethnic groups. Ethnically marked electoral violence, largely instigated by the ruling regime, has come to be expected, though not accepted, as part of the campaign season. Leaders are far more prone to make appeals to the state for resources in openly ethnic terms than they dared to do in the one-party era.

Frequency of spinocerebellar ataxia types 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 in Australian patients with spinocerebellar ataxia.

The frequencies of various genetically defined spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) vary in different populations presumably due to founder effects. No data have been published on the Australian population. Although predominantly of Anglo-Celtic extraction, Australia has also received considerable influx from southeastern Europe and more recently eastern and southeastern Asia. We examined the frequency of mutations for SCA types 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 in southeastern Australia. Of 88 pedigrees with multiple-affected members, SCA type 1 (SCA1) accounted for 16%, SCA2 for 6%, SCA3 for 12%, SCA6 for 17%, SCA7 for 2%, and 47% (41 pedigrees) were negative for each of SCA1, 2, 3, and 6. Twenty of the 41 negative pedigrees were also negative for dentatorubralpallidoluysian atrophy, and indeed dentatorubralpallidoluysian atrophy has not been reported in Australia. In addition, no pedigree information was available on a further four patients with SCA1, three patients with SCA2, three patients with SCA3, and three patients with SCA6. One SCA1 and two SCA2 patients had no other known affected family members. In total, of 63 pedigrees or individuals with positive tests, 30% were those with SCA1, 15% with SCA2, 22% with SCA3, 30% with SCA6, and 3% with SCA7. Judging by pedigree names, four of the nine SCA2 positive individuals/pedigrees were of Italian extraction, and four of the 14 SCA3 positive individuals/pedigrees were of Chinese descent, whereas only 1 of the 20 SCA1 positive individuals/pedigrees were non-Anglo-Celtic. These results are in accordance with the known ethnic composition of the Australian population and with gene frequencies in these constituent ethnic groups reported by others. The frequency of large-normal alleles for SCA1 and SCA3 in the population reflects the prevalence of these two diseases, supporting the hypothesis that disease alleles arise by expansion of large-normal alleles.

The new primary school curriculum project: Malaysia, 1982

The major goal of the Malaysian education system is that of promoting national unity among her constituent ethnic groups, namely, Malays and other indigenous groups, Chinese and Indians. This objective has been operationalised nationally in terms of a common school system, common curriculum content, common public examinations and the use of Bahasa Malaysia as the main medium of instruction.

The epidemiology of atherosclerosis among a random sample of clothing workers of different ethnic origins in New York City: I. Prevalence of atherosclerosis and some associated characteristics

The prevalence of manifest atherosclerosis and associated conditions has been studied among a working population who were members of a Union representing the workers in the men's clothing industry in New York City. Of the total Union population of 33,000 men and women, a sample of 683 men and 592 women aged 40 and over was drawn at random; an additional, nonrandom group of family members, including 183 men and 272 women, was also examined. The majority of the participants belonged to two different ethnic groups,, and were first generation immigrants of Italian and Jewish origin; their social and economic status was otherwise comparable. The prevalence of manifest atherosclerosis in this population was established on the basis of well-defined diagnostic criteria. Manifest coronary heart disease was twice as frequent among Jewish than among Italian men but no ethnic difference could be discerned among the women; the sex difference in prevalence was well marked. In contrast, aortic atherosclerosis, diagnosed on the basis of roentgenorgraphic evidence of calcification in the thoracic and abdominal aorta, showed neither an ethnic nor a sex difference. Data on the prevalence of peripheral artery disease and calcifications in the arteries of the leg were also presented. Prevalence rates for hypertensive and rheumatic heart disease were also given. The reported data include information on relative weight, height, and other bodily characteristics, blood pressure and serum lipid levels, the prevalence of diabetes and the general state of health among this representative population sample and in the two main constituent ethnic groups. Jewish men and women were shown to have higher serum cholesterol levels than their Italian counterparts but serum phospholipid levels were similar in the two ethnic groups. Serum uric acid levels were higher in men than in women but similar in Italians and Jews. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels showed a rise with age but no ethnic difference. No ethnic difference was demonstrated in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus. An analysis of certain insurance records pertaining to this population group confirmed the evidence based on examination of the random population sample that coronary heart disease indeed occurred more commonly among Jewish than Italian men. The study provides an example of a comprehensive epidemiologic study of manifest atherosclerosis and should establish a basis for comparison with other much-needed surveys of this kind.