Construction Of Ethnic Identity Research Articles

TOPICS ABOUT CHINESE ORIGIN OF KARATE-DO

For the construction of this writing, I thought of resorting to a hybrid format, combining some scientific rigor referenced to the bias rehearsal unpretentious. Furthermore, I realized theories are reaffirmed to our eyes and fixed in the mind through the medium of image we see or want to see in our mental and emotional mirror: In the construction of ethnic identity, the factor of collective memory has a totalizing role. It is characterized by the set of unofficial memories, on which it relies to justify its present and future existence. She is kind of unifying imaginary confederation, which is embedded in the articulations of its ideology, enhancing its founding myths.

Historicizing Race, Ethnicity, and the Crisis of Citizenship in Sudan and South Sudan

This article critically outlines the discursive construction of racial and ethnic identities in Sudan and South Sudan, arguing its legacy is essential to understand the entanglement of state-formation, nationalism, citizenship, and political violence in both countries. Race and ethnicity were central to the colonial, nationalist, and postcolonial projects of inventing the "North" and the "South" as self-contained entities, and the politicization of race and ethnicity after independence is largely a product of "Orientalizing" cultural differences through colonial administrative rules and postcolonial policies.

“Kryashen Language” As One of the Symbols of Kryashen's Front

The present article analyzes the influence of the symbol “Kryashen language” on the ethnic mobilization of the Kryashens during all stages of development of Kryashens’ sub-ethnic national movement. The author uses an ethno-symbolic approach to the study of nationalism, focusing his attention on the role of symbols in the construction of ethnic identity. Special emphasis is put on the missionary activities of N. Ilminsky and V. Timofeyev as the first stage of Kryashens’ sub-ethnic national movement. The paper points to the fact that the Kryashen alphabet created by N. Ilminsky is based on the Cyrillic alphabet, and this has contributed to the formation of the Kryashen ethnic identity. Particular reference to “Kryashen language” as the historical symbol of the Kryashen sub-ethnic nationalism is according to the author’s classification of the symbols of Kryashens’ sub-ethnic national movement. Historical symbols are necessary first of all for the formation of the internal identity of an ethnic group, and they can be traced throughout all stages of the development of Kryashens’ sub-ethnic national movement. In conclusion, a special function of the symbolic identification of the “Kryashen language” for the modern Kryashen sub-ethnic national movement is singled out.

Rather be known as Haitian: identity construction of the ethnically-identified second generation

ABSTRACT In this article, I examine how city context influences ethnic identity development and construction of the mainstream. Based on forty-one in-depth interviews and ten months of ethnographic fieldwork, I demonstrate how the children of Haitian immigrants reject the American identity on two fronts – race and ethnicity – in Miami, Florida, a majority-minority city. Specifically, when Haitian Americans speak of “Americans,” they are usually referring to African Americans. American is also used to describe Haitian Americans who are seen as having Americanized or adopted U.S. attitudes and behaviours to the point that they have a stronger connection to the United States than to Haiti. More than a peculiar word association, I argue that Haitian Americans’ relationship with African Americans and the role of ethnicity in Miami propels Haitian Americans to strive to remain ethnically distinct from both African Americans and American whites.

Telling stories: analysing Māori and Pākehā workplace narratives

ABSTRACTThe concept of encounter between Māori and Pākehā which has been the focus of so much historical and anthropological research also provides a rich source of insight for sociolinguists interested in the details of everyday workplace talk. Exploring the concept of ‘the culture order’ we discuss ways in which workplace narratives may provide evidence of subtle differences in Māori and Pākehā ways of telling stories at work. More than twenty years ago, examining Māori and Pākehā narratives in conversational contexts, features were identified in the narrative structure, as well as in the preoccupations of the different ethnic groups, which could be interpreted as contributing to the construction of distinctive ethnic identities. More recently, the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project (LWP) team has turned attention to workplace narratives, noting nuanced construction of identity in this discourse activity. We offer evidence of hybridised identities which allow for positive orientation to Te Ao Māori while navigating a Pākehā-dominant corporate world.

Cultural Memory and Ethnic Identity Construction in Toni Morrison’sA Mercy

Through the lens of cultural memory, this article explores the relationships between the representation of cultural memory and the construction of ethnic cultural identity in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. I argue that in the novel, Morrison highlights and manipulates three media of cultural memory: the architecture, the inscription, and the body, to interrogate and challenge the validity of numerous historical monuments and museums in America that are eviscerated of their complicity and function as tools in the atrocity of instituting slavery. To externalize his values, White colonizer Jacob builds a superfluous mansion, which, with the slave trade involved, actually serves as a profane monument to the slavery culture. To highlight the invalidity of the White cultural memory, Morrison crafts Florens who inscribes in the mansion the collective traumatic memory of the African female slaves, deforming the secular memorial from within. In the same fashion, culturally traumatized, Native American Lina adulterates the White culture by insinuating into it the Indigenous Indian cultural fragments and by performing the remolded Indigenous Indian culture, she sediments it into her body. By historicizing the issue of cultural memory in A Mercy, Morrison invites the reader to reconsider what makes a true American cultural memory.

Neologisms and nonce expressions of ethnic politics in Nigeria’s “change” regime

The paper discusses the influx of ethnically skewed neologisms and nonce expressions in the Nigerian print and online media especially in the present political “Change” dispensation. Language has, as one of its primary characteristics, productivity of new lexemes especially in the content words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, which it does through the many word formation processes among which are affixation, coinages, acronyms and compounding, reduplication, conversion, clipping, blending, and others. Using the first four processes of word formation, the paper analyses some new lexical entries into political vocabulary especially in the language use of apex ethnic political leadership in Nigeria as found in purposively sampled print and online media reports and interrogates the underlying power struggles and ideological contestations in these new lexical derivations and formations through critical discourse analysis (CDA). Findings show that these neologisms foreground ethnic identity construction along lines of division and exclusionism with the potential threat to peaceful national dialogue in Nigeria. It is also obvious from the analysis that these new lexical formations are attempts at contesting and subverting the nepotism tendencies allegedly more pronounced among the present leaders. The paper concludes that instead of fanning these divisive propagandist neologisms, political actors and Nigerians as a whole should address fundamental issues of equality, equity, justice and fair play in governance in order to achieve lasting peace in a united de-ethnicized Nigeria as a way of stemming the tide of the proliferation of negative ethnic lexical production.

The interplay between ethnic and academic identity construction among South Asian students in Hong Kong tertiary education

This qualitative study investigates the interplay between the ethnic and academic identity construction of a group of university students with South Asian backgrounds in Hong Kong. The findings indicate that ethnic identity and ethnic socialization have protective and facilitative effects on learning motivation and academic achievement. It is found that these ethnic minority students receiving tertiary education, holding congruent views of ethnic and academic identity, display a sense of agency and critical reflectivity of both the host society and their heritage communities and see facilitating community uplift and developing a more positive social image of ethnic minorities as their generation’s responsibility. Reconstructing an ethnic identity and developing new social images therefore motivate them to pursue academic success. The findings indicate that the South Asian students figured out ways in which to interact with the outer world and set up new roles and spaces (i.e., a heritage community with more positive social image). The findings shed light on how to provide better opportunities for and assistance to ethnic minority students when they pursue higher education.

“Who are we without the war?”: The evolution of the Tamil ethnic identity in post-conflict Sri Lanka

Studies of post-conflict societies have often focused on inter-ethnic group dynamics following the end of conflict, specifically the process of reconciliation between groups, or resurgence of violence across groups. This paper focuses on intra-ethnic differences with respect to defining ethnic identity. This paper will examine how the end of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict created cleavages amongst Sri Lankan Tamils with respect to how they define their ethnic identity and their ethnic group. Drawing upon 66 semi-structured interviews conducted in three regions of Sri Lanka, this paper presents three perspectives that were held among Tamils in post-conflict Sri Lanka. The first perspective was that the end of the ethnic conflict led to a loss in the fundamental tenets of the Tamil ethnic identity. The second perspective considered the promotion of a distinct Tamil ethnic identity to be a gateway to conflict. The third perspective articulated that the end of the ethnic conflict meant that the Tamil ethnic identity could move forward in a more cosmopolitan direction. The findings of this study demonstrate the importance of considering the social construction of ethnic identities, and their implications on post-conflict reconstruction.

Ethnic Origins and Religious Transformations in the Afro-Colombian Muslim Community of Buenaventura

The aim of this article is to analyse the origins and transformations of a Muslim community in western Colombia. The history of this small religious group of Afro-Colombians is presented over a period divided into four phases. This division is based on four dominant interpretations of Islamic doctrines adopted by the majority of the group over a period of time. These changes were not only due to religious motivations but also due to changes in the social milieu and the need for taking advantage of emerging opportunities. The religious conversion of Afro-Colombians to Islam took place within the complex socio-political context of the Colombian conflict which began in mid-1960s and is still ongoing. The adoption of this new religious perspective did not evolve in an isolated manner, rather, it transformed the identity of the community by strengthening the value of ethnic differences in a place of segregation. In this context, this paper analyses the role of religion as an important element in the construction of ethnic identity. It is also important to recognize that this cultural negotiation happens at the margins of the dominant society, which views Afro-Colombian minorities negatively or simply ignores their presence.

Ethnicity, temporality and educational mobilities: comparing the ethnic identity constructions of Mongolian and Tibetan students in China

This article explores the impact of educational mobilities on the ethnic identity construction of minority students in China. Adopting ‘temporality’ as an analytical tool, the article highlights the dynamic temporal multiplicity in ethnic identity construction by comparing longitudinal in-depth interviews of a Mongolian student and a Tibetan student. This multiplicity of temporality is manifested in three aspects: temporality of ethnic othering; temporality of ethnic identity awakening; and temporality of ‘worldly time’ and ‘ethnic time’. Both ‘worldly time’ and ‘ethnic time’ entail distinctive understandings about these students’ pace and priorities in life. Both students defer their ‘permanent’ ethnic identity to an imagined future. Yet, adopting the gaze of the dominant others, both students subconsciously constructed an essentialist view of their ethnic cultures as fixed and stable, and those of the dominant cultures as alive and fluid. This article enriches our understanding of the politics of subjectivation through the lens of ‘temporality’.

Ethnic identity and curriculum construction: critical reflection on school curriculum in Tripura

ABSTRACT The paper aims to understand the role of school textbooks and curriculum in shaping the majority and minority identity in Tripura. Though Tripura is a tribal majority state, the partition of the country led to the influx of Bengali Hindus. Based on the sociological analysis of history and language textbooks in Tripura schools, the paper argues that the state is systematically projecting the Bengali Hindu identity as ideal and marginalising the identity of diverse tribal groups. Dominant language, religion and cultural practices of the Bengalis were celebrated whereas the linguistic diversity and spiritual pathways of the subaltern communities are either ignored or mentioned peripherally. Since the inception of formal education in Tripura, the state failed to develop the tribal languages and script which led to the ideological submission of ethnic groups to the dominant identity. Thus, Tripura witnessed an ideological shift from the multiple identities to monolithic identity works on the principle of Banglanization of the state and civil society.

Screaming “Black” Murder: Crime Fiction and the Construction of Ethnic Identities

ABSTRACTA significant segment of crime fiction is concerned with the representation of ethnic identities and may to some extent be considered paradigmatic of the participation of literary texts in discourses on race and minorities. This article explores constructions of ethnic identities in American, British, and South African crime fiction from the 1920s to the early twenty-first century. In particular, the focus is on such texts in which the ethno-cultural identity of the detective gives special prominence not only to the ethnic particularity of the fictional character itself and of its environs but frequently also to that of its author. Main texts discussed are Rudolph Fisher’s The Conjure Man Dies (1932), Earl Derr Biggers’ The House Without a Key (1925) and The Black Camel (1929), Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) and Little Scarlet (2004) as well as James McClure’s The Gooseberry Fool (1974) and Patrick Neate’s City of Tiny Lights (2005). It is argued that all of these texts have a distinct subversive potential of which the construction of ethnic identities becomes the main vehicle because these identities are the products and the catalysts of the conflicts negotiated in ethnic crime fiction and correlating to “reality”.

“Us” versus “Them” Ethnic Identity Construction in Nigerian Political Discourse

“Us” versus “Them” Ethnic Identity Construction in Nigerian Political Discourse

St. Patrick Meets St. Louis: The Display of the Irish at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair

St. Patrick Meets St. Louis:The Display of the Irish at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair* Jeffrey O'Leary (bio) A short time after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair opened, a controversy erupted within the Irish Industrial Exhibit, Ireland's showcase at this venue. Members of the Dublin-based Irish National Theatre, who crossed the Atlantic to perform the works of Irish writers, claimed that the leadership of the Irish exhibit permitted the use of the stage Irishman persona in order to boost ticket sales. These Irish actors asserted that they received assurances from exhibit organizers before their arrival that only "Irish classics" would grace the stage. When these actors objected to negative portrayals of the Irish and refused to participate in further productions until removal of this caricature occurred, they lost their jobs.1 After a series of reports and editorials in the press, the organizers of the Irish exhibit declared that they were "sufficiently qualified to judge of, and to maintain what is due to the respect and dignity of, the Irish character."2 The paradox [End Page 142] of this response was that the primary individuals with oversight of the Irish exhibit were St. Louis-based American Irish who argued that their agency regarding the display of Irishness on this fairground was supreme and criticism by outside voices, even Irish ones, were mistaken.3 This article investigates the presentation of Irishness at the St. Louis fair as a mechanism of influencing ethnic-identity construction within the transatlantic world and explores how this fairground emerged as a unique site to mediate memory and commodify Ireland's heritage within an expansive American marketplace. I argue that this world's fair permitted the American Irish community to engage in oversight and presentation of Irishness within the public sphere to increase the commercial visibility of Ireland, its people, and goods with the intent of bolstering investment in Ireland to revive a floundering economy. What differentiates the St. Louis fair from other world's fairs regarding an Irish display is that this event was the first in which a coordinated effort by prominent American Irish business and civic leaders through an enterprise based in the United States, known as the Irish Exhibit Company, worked with an entity of the British Parliament called the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland (DATII) to ensure that the Irish exhibit came to fruition. The DATII, created by an act of Parliament in 1899, became the primary British institution that assisted Irish farmers and workers in the resolution of agrarian- and industrial-oriented problems in Ireland. By the start of the twentieth century, the DATII became an important body in representing Ireland at international exhibitions.4 Although Irish workers and performers appeared within the Irish Industrial Exhibit at the St. Louis fair to provide an authentic experience for its visitors, planning and implementation of this project occurred under the auspices of Ireland's descendants in the United States. The Irish, in fact, had [End Page 143] limited agency in how their heritage appeared within the confines of this world's fair. World's fairs are sites that reinforce or contest notions of identity. In particular, these international extravaganzas provided visitors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with myriad outlets to absorb numerous constructs of ethnicity, including Irishness, and became social texts that commodified ideas of self and portrayed a manufactured reality for fairground visitors. This process within the Irish Industrial Exhibit at St. Louis relied on "performing" Irishness for guests who purchased a ticket to "visit" Ireland without leaving the United States. The power to control these performances and determine the environment in which ethnic remembrance occurred in the Irish exhibit afforded the American Irish organizers enhanced agency over their Irish-born brethren. My examination of the display of Irishness at the 1904 St. Louis fair expands Jeffrey Alexander's work on cultural pragmatics, with its emphasis on social performance and power, as a means of analyzing authenticity "as an interpretive category" that allows for greater comprehension of the dissonance that resulted from contested interpretations of Irishness.5 The episode of the Irish actors who expressed extreme displeasure about...

Reflexiones sobre los pueblos originarios del pacífico, centro y norte de Nicaragua

A lo largo y ancho de Nicaragua encontramos diferentes expresiones culturales de los pueblos originarios, quienes arduamente luchan por conservar sus bosques, sus tradiciones, formas de organización social, formas de hacer política y de maniobrar sus asuntos económicos y sociales en plena libertad. Pese a ello, los pueblos indígenas del centro norte de Nicaragua se encuentran en un complejo laberinto étnico, al asumir falsos positivos1 en relación a su origen histórico. Es decir, la construcción del discurso y de la identidad étnica en algunos pueblos del centro y norte, gira alrededor un falso positivo cultural denominada “chorotega2”, dicha aseveración tergiversa gran parte de la historia de los pueblos indígenas de las Segovia. En el presente ensayo, abordaré las tramas étnicas y políticas relacionadas a la identidad cultural de los pueblos indígenas del centro norte de Nicaragua, quienes asumen una identidad cultural que no concuerda con la historia, la lingüística y la antropología de la región. Dicho ensayo, tiene el propósito de reivindicar más allá, de las prácticas y tradiciones los asuntos de la auto identificación étnica, en las comunidades originarias de las Segovia. Para ello, retomé elementos de la antropología cultural y de la arqueología nacional, que permita dilucidar los orígenes y los procesos históricos de los pueblos en cuestión. Asimismo, la hipótesis que ubico en la antropología nacional tiene como base, debatir el discurso de los pueblos denominados “chorotega del centro y norte” a través de los registros primarios, los resultados de la arqueología en los últimos 20 años, en la región centro y norte. También, retomaremos losestudios lingüísticos de Alfonso Cónstenla en la región antes mencionada. Partiendo, de una corriente interdisciplinaria de la antropología del sur, que impulsa el reconocimiento de la identidad originaria de los pueblos, desde su origen étnico, historia en común, prácticas cotidianas y estructura sociocultural posmoderna existente en la región.

“Rude Tribes and Wild Frontiers”: Treatment of Ethnicity in Chinese Children’s Literature

This essay investigates the treatment of ethnicity in Chinese children’s literature, focusing on the portrayal of China’s ethnic minority groups. It considers the construction of minority ethnic identity in various historical contexts, the linguistic implications of such constructions, and also examines these representations in the context of recent economic developments. It argues that representations of ethnicity in Chinese children’s literature reflect an overriding sense of the superiority of Han Chinese culture in terms of the latter’s role in creating national unity and harmony, and also in advancing the notion of the exoticism of minority ethnicities. The essay also attempts to demonstrate the reasons for the persistence of traditional stereotypes in representations of ethnicity in China

A New Home for New Immigrants? A Case Study of the Role of Soka Gakkai in the Integration of Japanese and Mainland Chinese Immigrants in Hong Kong

In the discussion of migrant integration into local settings, most scholars agree on the positive linkages between religion and the construction of ethnic identity. However, beyond church and mosque, there appears to be a gap in the research of the roles played by other religions in the process of migrant integration. This paper attempts to fill this gap by studying the role of a new religion Soka Gakkai (SG) in the integration of Japanese and Mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong. I argue that the social and spiritual support and the ideas of a “big family” and individual empowerment (i.e., empowering oneself to overcome challenges) are important resources for immigrants when starting a new life in Hong Kong. However, the controversial image of SG might also have negative effects on SG members’ effort at integration.

Boricua de pura cepa: Ethnic identity, cultural stress and self-concept in Puerto Rican youth.

The available literature on ethnic identity among Puerto Ricans has focused on those living in the United States, with little to no attention placed on examining ethnic identity and psychological constructs among youth living in Puerto Rico. Using a colonial mentality framework, the current study examined the associations between ethnic identity, cultural stress, and self-concept among adolescent boys and girls living in Puerto Rico. The current cross-sectional study surveyed participants (N = 187) recruited from several junior high schools in the metropolitan area in Puerto Rico. Relations between ethnic identity, cultural stress, and self-concept differed by gender. First, cultural stress was associated with self-concept for boys, such that higher cultural stress predicted lower self-concept. Second, among girls, cultural stress moderated the relation between ethnic identity and self-concept. Specifically, for girls experiencing high cultural stress, exploration and resolution of their ethnic identity was associated with higher ratings of self-concept. Although cultural stress has been widely understood as a phenomena associated with immigrants, our study indicated that cultural stress is important in understanding self-concept of youth living in Puerto Rico. For boys, cultural stress, but not ethnic identity, is particularly important to their self-concept. Among girls experiencing high cultural stress, exploration and resolution of ethnic identity was associated with higher self-concept. Results suggested that the cultural stress associated with the colonial context of Puerto Rico is salient in ethnic identity and self-concept development, even though Puerto Rican youth are the ethnic majority in the island. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Language Identity as a Unifying Identity: Linguistic, Ethnopolitical and International Legal Aspects

The article is devoted to the problem of constructing a unifying identity through the commonality of language as an alternative to the concepts and practices most widely spread in the modern world, which are understood as the construction of a single ethnic identity (including the concepts of ethnonation and ethnonationalism), as well as the construction of general identity and civil nation. The primary attention is paid to the methodology of ethnology and social sciences in general, as well as to the scientific grounds and methods of the construction of a unifying identity through language. The evolution of methods of social sciences, changes in paradigms in ethnology, some linguistic theories in the problematic area of interdisciplinary research relevant to the issues of linguistic identity are considered. The international legal aspects of an ethnos are also considered; the inseparable connection between the phenomena of ethnicity, an ethnos and collective rights of an individual, on the one hand, and the phenomenon of native language and collective rights as one of the formats of existence and exercising personal rights and freedoms is postulated. The conclusion is made about the possibility, advantages, and potential social stability of the construction of a unifying identity that harmonises ethnic relationships through language identity.