Dominant Ethnic Group Research Articles

Fundraising and Zakat Distribution in Poverty Alleviation in Maruthamunai, Sri Lanka: A Maqashid Sharia Perspective

In Sri Lanka, poverty has been one of the most pressing social issues over the past decade. This research examines zakat fundraising strategies and analyzes zakat distribution patterns in Maruthamunai, Sri Lanka, where Muslims constitute the dominant ethnic group. The current role of zakat in Maruthamunai is crucial in alleviating poverty. Primary data for this study included annual fundraising and distribution reports from the Zakat Fund, covering the years 2019 to 2023. As part of this qualitative research, unstructured interviews were conducted with the president, general secretary, deputy president, assistant secretary, members, and prominent individuals in the region. Data analysis was conducted using coding and is presented descriptively through the maqasid sharia approach. The results of this study indicate that the distribution of zakat funds in Maruthamunai has been less effective due to several factors, including insufficient receipt of zakat funds and inadequately structured internal distribution policies. Policymakers should focus on prioritizing the primary level of welfare needs (mashlahah dharuriyyah). Within this framework, the maqasid sharia perspective emphasizes the development of human resources as a priority over material development. Therefore, despite the relatively high poverty rate, the objectives of preserving religion, safeguarding human life, ensuring generational continuity, protecting intellect, and promoting wealth circulation can still be effectively pursued.

Kin-State Intervention and the Securitization-Minority Policy Nexus: Hungarians and Russian-Speakers in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, launched under the pretext of protecting the rights of Russian kin populations outside of Russia, had a massive impact on security concerns beyond Ukraine. An important consequence was the intensification of insecurities about the presence of large Russian-speaking minorities in Russia’s neighboring states. Scholars have long emphasized that kin-state involvement can lead to the securitization of minority issues, harming the willingness of governments to support collective claims by minorities associated with that kin-state. Yet there is scarce empirical knowledge about whether and under what conditions an assertive kin-state triggers securitization resulting in restrictive minority policy. We assessed this securitization-minority policy nexus comparatively, focusing on the impact of intensifying Hungarian and Russian kin-state activism on policies toward Hungarian and Russophone minorities in five states in Central and Eastern Europe. Our main finding is that intensified kin-state activism does not significantly disrupt previously established paths in minority policy-making, unless a kin-state turns to territorial revisionism. We also found that titular ontological insecurity (faced by actors belonging to a state’s dominant ethnic group) is a helpful heuristic for explaining instances when securitization results in policy restrictions, and we offer conceptual tools for analyzing the salience of both internal and external sources of titular insecurity. Ultimately, our findings highlight the necessity for scholars to distinguish between nonterritorial and territorial types of kin-state intervention in studies about the security dimension of kin-state involvement.

ETHNIC MINORITIES AND THEIR ROLE IN ENSURING ETHNOPOLITICAL SECURITY IN RUSSIA

The presented scientific work is devoted to the consideration of the place and role of ethnic minorities in ensuring ethnopolitical security in Russia. The authors note that at present, neither practitioners nor the scientific community have any doubts that modern society is facing challenges related to ethnic, cultural and religious differences, and all this together underlines the importance of studying the influence of ethnic minorities on the stability of the political and social system. In this paper, a brief analysis of the role of ethnic minorities in ensuring ethnopolitical security in Russia is carried out. For a deeper understanding of the role and place of ethnic minorities in ensuring ethnopolitical security in Russia, it is necessary, first of all, to identify key concepts, and, as far as possible, to review existing points of view on the topic. Even a brief analysis of the points of view of a number of scientists and practitioners gives reason to assert that ethnic minorities are socio-cultural groups that inhabit a certain territory and have common identities that distinguish them from the dominant ethnic group in a given region. Russia is a multinational state, home to many ethnic minorities, each of which has its own history, culture and traditions.

Risky sexual behaviors and associated factors among adolescent in Gedeo Zone, South Ethiopia: a community based cross-sectional study

Adolescents represent 16% of the global population and they are identified as a critical demographic group for promoting sexual health. Adolescents are susceptible to engaging in risky sexual behaviors (RSB) such as early sexual initiation, having multiple sexual partners, substance use during sexual encounters and practicing unsafe sex. Adolescents represent 16% of the global population and they are identified as a critical demographic group for promoting sexual health. Adolescents are susceptible to engaging in risky sexual behaviors (RSB) such as early sexual initiation, having multiple sexual partners, substance use during sexual encounters and practicing unsafe sex. To assess risky Sexual behaviors and associated factors among adolescent in Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A community based cross-sectional study. A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in Gedeo Zone among adolescents. A total of 2780 (99.3%) adolescents were participated in the study and gave the response rate of 99.3%. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to gather the data and analyzed by using SPSS version 23. During analysis initially bivariable logistic regression model was used then, those variables with a level of significant at a P-value ≤ 0.25 were considered as candidate for multivariable logistic regression model. A level of significant at a P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant in this study. Out of 428 sexually active adolescent 334 (78%) exposed to risky sexual practice. More than half 54.3% of adolescent was protestant in religion followed by Orthodox 34.2% and Muslim 11.5%. In terms of ethnicity, Gedeo 67.4% was the dominant ethnic group in the study area. Mean age at sexual initiation was 15 ± 1.8.Residence AOR 1.14 (1.36–5.25), Sex AOR 2.77 (1.31–5.86), Age AOR 2.01 (1.41–6.39), School attending AOR 1.93 (1.27–5.75), Watching Pornographies AOR 2.51 (1.36–4.62) and Parental monitoring AOR 2.10 (1.07–4.10) were independent predictor of risky sexual practice in this study. The prevalence of risky sexual behavior was found to be alarming among adolescents aged 14–19 years, mostly rural and female adolescents and those adolescent start sexual practice earlier exposed to risky sexual practice than their counter parts. Sexual urge, watching pornography and not attending school were the major factor for risky sexual behaviors of adolescent. Parental over all control can protect risky sexual behaviors among adolescent.

Ethnic bias, economic achievement and trust between large ethnic groups: A study in Germany and the U.S

Evidence for ingroup bias is extensive, yet the distinct patterns of discrimination among dominant ethnic groups in the diverse societies of modern industrial nations such as the United States and Germany remain largely unexplored. Incentivized trust games in nationally-representative samples from both countries reveal biases of roughly equal size by non-Hispanic White Americans, Hispanic Americans, and African Americans against each outgroup. In Germany, the majority demonstrates twice as much bias against Turkish minorities compared to Eastern Europeans. Interestingly, both minority groups send similar amounts to ethnic Germans and members of their own groups. We examine the notion that outgroup discrimination by majority group members stems from stereotypes of minorities as economically unsuccessful, employing trust games with high-income counterparts. We find that majority senders’ bias against minority receivers declines when receivers are known to have high incomes, in line with that idea. Interestingly, some minority groups, especially Turkish descendants, display a negative propensity to transfer to rich members of their ingroup in comparison with outgroup members, relative to baseline. While we focus on differences in sending by ethnic pairing, we note that all participants send less to second movers identified as high income, and discuss possible explanations. We estimate that four-fifths of the observed ingroup bias is taste-based rather than due to expected trustworthiness differences. This estimation is robust to identifying the purely altruistic component of trust game sending toward each ethnic group, including one's own.

Lower-Stakes Legislative Collaborations, Ethnicity, and Gender

How do legislators decide with whom to collaborate? I argue that legislative collaborations are shaped by ethnicity and gender, with legislators from dominant ethnic groups and men legislators having more opportunities to collaborate than non-dominant legislators. These dynamics are likely present even when the nature of the collaboration is not particularly electorally salient. I test this hypothesis using newly collected data on question-asking from local legislators in Delhi. Dominant caste men legislators tend to dominate question-asking collaborations as expected, with men legislators consistently having more collaboration opportunities. The results suggest that legislative power dynamics are present even in lower-stakes interactions and may mean that simply encouraging additional legislator collaborations does not address underlying discriminatory patterns in how dominant legislators select their collaborators.

Interethnic dynamics and ethnic identification process an example from the Southern Shan State, Burma (Myanmar)

ABSTRACT The essay addresses the issue of which cultural tools are used in order to index particular ethnic identifications within an interethnic environment. It is analysed how the Inle Lake region has undergone a symbolic restructuring of its socio-cultural network since the end of the 1950s. We shall first address the issue of how the interethnic dynamics was renegotiated after the waning of the Shan political sway upon the region and how the Intha emerged as the new dominant ethnic group as well as how they symbolically manipulated a socio-cultural landscape common to all the ethnic communities inhabiting the region; it will eventually be analysed how a particular ethnic community, the Taung’yo, indexes its position within a newly created dynamics through the technical choice of phonetic markers in a specific context of interaction in order to align with the position within the interethnic dynamics that the oral traditions grant them.

India: the making and resisting of an ethnocracy

ABSTRACT India today exemplifies the making of an “ethnocracy,” a polity in which the dominant ethnic group obtains political control and deploys the state apparatus to ethnicize territory and society. I illustrate the making of India's ethnocracy by documenting key political and policy practices of Narendra Modi’s rule. I do this by offering evidence of this process by documenting: (1). the contest between the dominant Hindus and minority Muslims over territorial space and the public realm; (2). solidifying Hindutva ethno-nationalism; which builds on and consolidates; and (3). long-term political and economic stratification between Hindus and Muslims. However, the making of India’s ethnocracy has not gone unchallenged. Therefore, I direct attention to the resistance mounted against India’s ethnocratic turn in the institutional, political and social terrains.

Culture, Travels and National Identity in Transylvania in the Aftermath of the Great War

In the aftermath of the Great War, the Kingdom of Romania significantly expanded its territory and population by incorporating Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bucovina. Despite the enthusiasm that accompanied the “Great Union”, integrating these culturally distinct areas proved to be a complex and challenging process. Alongside political and administrative unification, the Romanian state faced the task of bringing together populations with different histories and cultural backgrounds. This integration involved not only formerly dominant ethnic groups but also Romanians who had lived and defined themselves as a national community within different contexts. Various debates emerged among the Romanian elites regarding the means of achieving cultural and spiritual unity. One of the factors perceived as hindering the profound unification was the fact that the Romanians from the Old Kingdom and those from the newly acquired provinces were unfamiliar with each other’s culture, habits and customs. Although cultural contacts and transfers had indeed existed before the war, the new context necessitated broader engagement, and the ties needed to be extended to a larger segment of the population. One suggested solution was to promote tourism and travel between the Old Kingdom and the new provinces, so as to foster better understanding, familiarity, and unity among Romanians. By examining journal articles, travel notes and memoirs, the main issue addressed by the present paper is the manner in which tourism and travel fostered cultural and social bonds among Romanians from different areas of Greater Romania, reinforcing a shared sense of national identity. Keywords: Greater Romania, unification, integration, nation, culture, Transylvania, travel, memoirs.

Кельтская триада: кинематографии британских национальных меньшинств и «внутренний колониализм»

The global success, both in viewership and expert community, of auteur feature films Belfast, directed by Kenneth Branagh, and The Banshees of Inisherin, directed by Martin McDonagh, and produced by independent Northern Irish companies in 2022–2023, prompts a closer examination of the challenges faced by the national minority cinemas of Great Britain. Specifically, we focus on the culturally and linguistically related regions of Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, collectively referred to in this article as the Celtic Triad, which represent a significant presence in the world cinema landscape. A number of British film historians and sociologists argue that national film industries are on the verge of survival, highlighting two main trends in the context of national cinema: inclusivity and sovereignty. From the perspective of the dominant ethnic group and its major production companies, inclusivity entails assimilation into the mainstream, while sovereignty involves preserving distinct national cultural characteristics. The representatives of national minorities are striving to safeguard these characteristics in the face of what American sociologist Michael Hechter termed internal colonialism—a policy implemented by the dominant Anglo-Saxon ethnic group towards cultures of national minorities and expressed in their marginalization and Anglification. A negative consequence of these dynamics, according to Hechter, is ethnocentrism, that is, the prevalence of one’s own culture in shaping perceptions of the world. Nevertheless, as this article demonstrates, the strategies employed by the Celtic Triad in pursuit of economic independence and artistic self-determination not only ensure the survival of national cinema but also establish its distinct sovereignty and success beyond the borders of Great Britain. Television broadcasting in national languages, which has gained popularity with the advent of digital broadcasting, plays a significant role in this process. An important contributing factor here is the economic and socio-cultural collaborations of these cinemas with both domestic and international partners, relying primarily on the influence of soft power and implying adaptation not only by adjusting to them, but also by active interchange and cross-fertilization of cultures.

Analysis of Internal Conflicts in Afghanistan from the Perspective of Ethnic Elites in the Last Two Decades

Afghanistan has witnessed unprecedented internal wars, terrorist attacks, and insecurity over the past two decades, which have plunged the country into the depths of political turmoil. These conflicts have inflicted significant damage on the country's political structure and people's livelihoods, affecting society, political, social, economic, and cultural relations, and have also caused negative impacts on regional security and economy, especially for neighboring countries. This applied research, from the perspective of the intellectual elites of society, aims to investigate the fundamental causes, effects, and complexities of internal and external factors contributing to Afghanistan's internal conflicts during the last two decades. The research method employed is descriptive-explanatory, utilizing a deductive strategy and inspired by the theory of ethnic elite competition. It seeks to explore the influence of variables such as ethnic nationalism, deprivation, the state, and competition among regional and transregional powers in internal conflicts. The data collection tool used is a questionnaire, and the statistical population consists of intellectual elites from Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, and Uzbek ethnic groups. The sample size for this study is 400 intellectual elites selected through random sampling. The research initially lacked hypotheses, as the results were obtained after entering data through SPSS software and then applying linear regression calculations. The findings indicate a significant correlation between ethnic nationalism (r = 73%), the state (r = 152%), relative deprivation (r = 52%), and the competition of regional and transregional powers (r = 126%) with social conflicts. Moreover, the most crucial factor in the continuation of internal conflicts in Afghanistan is the monopolization of government by the dominant ethnic group. Ethnic elites, given their societal influence, can act both as agents of conflict escalation and as facilitators of peace.

Damned if she does: The subordinate male target hypothesis and discrimination of social dominant female minority members.

According to the subordinate male target hypothesis (SMTH), racism is based on an ethnicity-by-gender interaction, with a stronger link between experiencing racist discrimination and subordinate or dominant ethnic group status for men compared to women. This study reevaluates the SMTH, originally focused on objective discrimination, by applying it to self-reported active harm as a theoretically derived measure of racist discrimination and by exploring interindividual differences in female ethnic minority members' discriminatory experiences. We proposed that social dominance orientation (SDO) among female ethnic minorities would influence SMTH predictions. We tested this using multiple linear regression analyses among a sample of New Zealand Europeans as the majority in New Zealand and non-Europeans as the minority. As hypothesized, male non-Europeans reported disproportionally more active harm than female non-Europeans. Unexpectedly, not only female but also male, non-Europeans high in SDO reported more active harm than non-Europeans low in SDO. Therefore, applied to self-reported racist experiences, oppression of ethnic minorities is driven by interindividual differences rather than by gender. Together, these findings provide evidence that the SMTH cannot be unreservedly extended to reports of racist discrimination and that other processes may underlie these subjective experiences of discrimination that need to be considered in more detail.

“The Other”, Official History, and Memory of the City in Soviet Guidebooks to Chernivtsi

The paper examines attempts to create new interpretations of the memory and history of Chernivtsi during the Soviet era through the prism of guidebooks and tries to deconstruct it. Guidebooks are considered primarily as textual representations of official policies on reconstructing Chernivtsi's past as valuable narrative sources for understanding how the totalitarian state ideologically dominated this culturally diverse city. A linguistic approach based on the theoretical model of newspeak is applied to the study of publications in order to identify discourses and analyze them. Soviet newspeak in guidebooks functions as a means of constructing narratives and an instrument for their internalization in society. The author also examines the guidebooks in the context of official historical and national policies in the post-Stalin USSR, which, in the case of the annexed territories of the Ukrainian SSR in the aftermath of the Second World War, involved the assimilation of new regions by Ukrainians along with the cleansing and demonization of local “Others.” The ideological framework for these actions included discourses on “Old Russian ethnicity” (davnoruska narodnist) as “a cradle of three brotherly peoples,” “Russian-Ukrainian friendship,” “Great Patriotic War,” and others. The study also seeks to understand the motivations of the guidebooks' authors, drawing on their biographies. It concludes that Soviet guidebooks to Chernivtsi, adhering to the official doctrine, create an exclusive and sanitized image of the city's past, aimed at erasing the history and experiences of the local “Others,” represented primarily by Romanians, Jews, and Germans, who, before the Soviet annexation, were demographically dominant ethnic groups in the city. In specific contexts, markers of “Others” create the illusion of presence and agency; however, the guidebook`s texts mostly ignore the multicultural past of Chernivtsi. Simultaneously, when the “Others” are not excluded from the narrative, their very presence in Chernivtsi's history was mainly interpreted as a hostile phenomenon, a historical mistake, and a consequence of colonial oppression in the city declared by the Soviet authorities to be primordially Ukrainian. As publications aimed at tourists and guests of the city, guidebooks appropriately represent Soviet memorials and objects of the symbolic space of Chernivtsi, through carefully crafted textual interpretations. Tourist guides are regarded as significant sources for researching local memory and history policies.

Ethnic disparity in cancer mortality in adult Fijian women, 2013-17

Abstract Background Fiji, population 884,887 (2017 census), is a Pacific Island country with two dominant ethnic groups: 62% Indigenous Fijians (i-Taukei) and 31% Fijians of Indian descent (FID). Cancer mortality by ethnicity for women aged 30-69 years was investigated. Methods Proportional mortality and probability of dying (PoD30-70) from cancer (ICD-10: C00-D48) for women aged 30-69 years were calculated from empirical unit mortality data by ethnicity. PoD30-70 is the cumulative mortality risk derived from the cumulative rate, from mortality rates by 5-year age group. Results Cancer was reported as the underlying cause in 21% of deaths of Fijian women aged 30-69 years; 25% for i-Taukei and 14% for FID women. This ethnic disparity was consistent across cancer sites, including breast, cervical/uterine and ovarian cancers. Empirically derived PoD30-70 from all cancers (ICD-10 C00-D48) was 9.6% (95%CI: 9.1-10.1%) for Fijian women; higher for i-Taukei (12.1%; 95%CI: 11.4-12.8%) than FID women (6.6%; 95%CI: 5.9-7.2%). Globocan 2020 estimates the highest PoD30-70 from all cancers in women was 10.8% in Malawi; for Fiji, Globocan estimates of 9.2%, from 2008-2012 mortality rates applied to the 2020 population, are comparable to empirically derived PoD30-70. From empirical data, PoD30-70 from breast cancer for Fijian women was 2.9% (95%CI: 2.6-3.1%), higher in i-Taukei (3.8%; 95%CI: 3.4-4.2%) and lower in FID women (1.7%; 95%CI: 1.4-2.1%). Globocan 2020 estimates of PoD30-70 due to breast cancer was highest in Barbados (3.6%), followed by Fiji (3.4%). PoD30-70 due to cervical/uterine and ovarian cancer was approximately double for i-Taukei (3·2 and 1·0%) compared to FID women (1·5 and 0·5%). Conclusions PoD30-70 due to breast cancer and all cancers was higher in i-Taukei Fijian women than in other countries and was double that of FID women. High incidence and late diagnosis contribute to high cancer mortality; differences between i-Taukei and FID women require further investigation. Key messages • Probability of dying due to breast cancer, and all cancers, was higher for i-Taukei women in Fiji than for women in other countries, and double that of Fijian women of Indian descent. • High incidence and late diagnosis contribute to high cancer mortality; further investigation is required to determine how these, and other potential factors, contribute to ethnic differences.

Nationalism and the Puzzle of Reversing State Size

abstract: Having increased for centuries, territorial state size began to decline toward the end of the nineteenth century and has continued to do so. The authors argue that processes triggered by ethnic nationalism are the main drivers of this development. Their empirical approach relies on time-varying spatial data on state borders and ethnic geography since the nineteenth century. Focusing on deviations from the nation-state ideal, the authors postulate that state internal ethnic fragmentation leads to reduction in state size and that the cross-border presence of dominant ethnic groups makes state expansion more likely. Conducted at the systemic and state levels, the analysis exploits information at the interstate dyadic level to capture specific nationalist processes of border change, such as ethnic secession, unification, and irredentism. The authors find that although nationalism exerts both integrating and disintegrating effects on states' territories, it is the latter impact that has dominated.

Identity overlap and context-dependent instrumentation of territorial belonging: an interrogation of multiple levels of indigeneship mobilisation in Nigeria

ABSTRACT The subject of territorial belonging remains one of the regular flashpoints of conflicts in contemporary politics. With identity overlap and context-dependent instrumentation of belongingness, the question of how one identity classification attains preponderance over others in the overlap and the character of the associated conflicts compel studying every instance as a unique case. This paper interrogates the instrumentation of multiple levels of indigeneship mobilisation in inclusion politics in tertiary education institutions in Nigeria. Qualitatively drawing from vice-chancellor’s selection politics in University of Nigeria, this paper found that four incentives drove the preponderance of ethno-territorial indigeneship mobilisation over other levels of indigeneship mobilisation in the institution. First, politically, the collective interests of the dominant Igbo ethnic group were held paramount in the ethnic territory. Second, the rationales for the collective interest of the ethnic group were widely acknowledged by all communal settlements on the ethnic territory. Third, democratically, the phenomenon ensured the rule of the majority in vice-chancellors’ selection politics. Fourth, the merit prerogative of the academy, breached in inter-ethnic struggle, remained sacrosanct in intra-ethnic competition for the choice position. These exemplify the situation of many federal tertiary education institutions in Nigeria and become their prominent trademarks.

Does auditor ethnicity matter in determining audit fees? Some empirical evidence from Indonesia

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the presence of the audit partner ethnicity on audit fees within the Indonesian context.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consists of 803 firm-year observations from the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the period of 2014–2018. The study uses fixed-effect regression analysis to examine the relationship between audit partner ethnicity and audit fees.FindingsThis study reveals that firms audited by audit partners from the main ethnic group demonstrate lower audit fees, indicating a more extensive audit business network for this particular group of auditors compared to those from minority ethnic groups. Particularly, the study finds that firms audited by audit partners from the three largest ethnicities, namely, Balinese, Javanese and West Sumatranese, are associated with lower audit fees compared to others. These findings further contribute to the existing narrative and literature that highlight the ethnic background of audit partners as a form of social capital that influences lower audit fees.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides valuable practical and academic implications regarding the impact of audit partner ethnicity on audit fees. The findings highlight the importance for audit firms to strive for a balanced representation of ethnic diversity in their auditor characteristics, as it can positively influence both governance and marketing strategies. By recognizing and addressing the significance of ethnic diversity among audit partners, firms can enhance their overall effectiveness and success in the auditing profession.Originality/valueThis study makes a unique contribution by providing empirical data on audit pricing theory in Indonesia, specifically focusing on the role of ethnic diversity as a determinant of audit pricing. Previous research has not extensively explored the connection between auditor ethnicity and audit fees, particularly in relation to the business network as a channel mechanism. The theoretical explanations for the fee differentials have also been limited in prior studies. The current study addresses this gap by offering a theoretical basis that highlights the advantage of the dominant ethnic group in establishing an efficient audit market system. Consequently, these auditors are able to charge lower fees to clients without compromising on the quality of their services. This finding aligns with the existing literature on audit fees and underscores the importance of the main ethnic group in fostering an effective audit market, resulting in lower audit fees compared to mixed audit markets.

Quotidian expressions of religiosity: examining ethno-religious diversity in the everyday lives of contemporary Bosnians and Herzegovinians

ABSTRACT This paper investigates religious and secular social greetings as a prism through which to view contemporary ethnic identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This study employs comprehensive surveys and one-on-one interviews with experts representing the three dominant ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Data relating to religious social greetings were gathered from over 230 individuals. SPSS was used to analyze survey responses, while interview data were transcribed and coded thematically. The paper finds that social greetings play a varied role among the different ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with processes of de-secularization shaping the use of particular greetings among Bosniaks and Croats. The paper concludes that religious social greetings continue to color contemporary social identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina society, both in private and public spheres of life.

Subject Peoples and Civilizational Priority: Competition among Babylonians, Egyptians, and Judeans in the Hellenistic Era

AbstractThis article proceeds on the principle that we need to decenter dominant ethnic groups—primarily Greeks and Greco-Macedonians in the early Hellenistic era—in order to understand other marginalized viewpoints and experiences, including but not limited to those of Judeans (Jews). An analysis of the Babylonian author Bel-re’ushu helps to provide a new angle on Judean (e.g., Artapanus) and Egyptian (e.g., Manetho) participation within ethnic discourses that include claims to civilizational priority. I would suggest that the rhetoric of ethnic superiority in writings by subject peoples can be viewed as a symptom of ethnic interactions and not merely as a literary response to elite Greek claims regarding the inferiority of supposedly “barbarian” peoples. So it is not always the currently hegemonic Greeks that are the principal interlocutors in these ethnic discourses.

Языковой сдвиг и этническое самосознание: детерминация, интердепенденция или констелляция?

The article discusses some aspects of the relationship between the ethnic identity of the collective and the preservation of the native language. This question is one of the most controversial problems, far beyond the scope of the science of language, and it is often not linguists who speak most fervently and categorically about it. An unambiguous solution is hardly possible here. When analyzing aspects related to it, it is necessary to distinguish whether we are talking about a language collective living in a foreign-language environment (diaspora in the broad sense of the word), but having its historical homeland, where this idiom is the main means of communication, or about the indigenous population of the territory that is part of a larger state entity that has no another “national hearth”. In the first case, the gradual “extinction” of the original language does not lead to the loss of it among the people as a whole; in the second, this process will most likely be perceived precisely as the desire of the dominant ethnic group to assimilate the corresponding people. Even after factual linguistic shift, if the sense of ethnic identity remains, the latter often begins to find linguistic expression. On the other hand, the struggle of the authorities against ethnic separatism often extended to the language, the displacement of which from any socially significant spheres, and preferably from everyday communication, was sometimes conducted by rather harsh means. Thus, of the three functions indicated in the title of the article, the leading trend is usually interdependence, although others may prevail in certain periods of history.