Construction Of Ethnic Identity Research Articles

Curious Emblems

Abstract As mainstream examples of Polish foodways, pierogi and pączki function as what Michael Owen Jones refers to as “emblems of ethnicity,” symbolizing Polishness for Americans with no ancestral ties to this ethnic group. In this article, I explore the opposite: foods that serve as emblems of ethnicity when the emblems in question are of contested ethnic origin. I also examine what that uncertainty means for the construction and transmission of ethnic identity. As documented in the literature, ethnic identity can be performed through food. Family recipes provide the script for this performance, allowing members of an ethnic group to navigate the boundary of inclusion with foods that—to them—symbolize ethnicity. Drawing on a case study involving a special-occasion cookie served at Wigilia and multigenerational interviews with my Polish American family supplemented by analytic autoethnography, I argue that an ethnic emblem need not be authentic to transmit ethnic identity. Informed by Annie Hauck's concept of the food voice, I posit that something as fragile as one family recipe can speak with multiple food voices to reproduce and resurrect ethnic identity, regardless of authenticity or provenance because, as objects of material culture, family recipes are linked not to a place but to the people—and the ethnic identity of the people—who made them.

Conceptual Understanding of Ethnicity in Nepal: Exploring Primordial and Constructivist Approach

This paper critically analyzes the primordial and constructivist approaches to understanding ethnicity in Nepal and examines how intersectionality, hybridity, power dynamics, and agency shape ethnic identity construction. The study draws on diverse perspectives and scholarly literature to explore the complexities of ethnicity in Nepalese society. The findings reveal the interplay of primordial factors, such as shared ancestry and kinship, with constructivist factors, including social construction and fluidity, in shaping ethnic identity formation. The analysis also highlights the significance of intersectionality, where gender, caste, class, and ethnicity intersect, in influencing ethnic identity construction. Additionally, the study emphasizes the role of hybridity, power dynamics, and agency in shaping and contesting ethnic identities. The implications of these dynamics for marginalized ethnic communities are discussed, focusing on their challenges in challenging dominant narratives and advocating for their rights. The research contributes to a comprehensive understanding of ethnicity in Nepal and informs future research, policy considerations, and interventions related to ethnicity and identity.

Sites and Ways of Belonging to Diaspora Networks: The Case of the Greek Second Generation in Italy

Abstract To survive over time, a diaspora must create sites of belonging and micro places in which to concentrate the main elements of its “iconography” that can consolidate social networks. This article analyzes how second-generation Greeks in Italy fit into diaspora networks by investigating the ways in which they define their sense of Greekness and use their ethnic resources. The findings of field research show a weakness of (formal and informal) social network ties and the pre-eminence of the family’s role in the process of sociocultural identification and ethnic identity construction. In fact, the second generation’s “ways of belonging” and the sense of attachment to Greece have an autonomous significance and are expressed more at a familial level and less collectively. Familial socialization plays a mediating role in the process of identification and transmission of Greekness, as well as in guiding ways of employing ethnic resources, contributing to the maintenance of the diaspora.

The Constructions of Ndebele Identity in Skyz Metro FM: An Audience Reception Study

Discourses on the negotiation and construction of ethnic identities in Zimbabwe have preoccupied scholars across disciplines, ranging from history, sociology, anthropology, and most recently media and communication studies. This study proceeds against the background that in Zimbabwe, literature on the relationship between identity formation and the media is little and far between, while available studies are limited to textual and discourse analysis. This inquiry takes a reception study approach to find out how audiences physically interact with radio content and negotiate different identity categories through qualitative in-depth interviews. This study extends this scope to the examination of how the advent of Skyz Metro FM has aided representation to extend discursive construction of identities. The study shows how a sense of belonging to Ndebele identity has been shaped by various changing power dynamics of internal and external factors in ways that allows one to understand how the production of national identity impact on the expression of belonging to Ndebele ethnic identity. The analysis is framed on the premise that like most collective identities, Ndebele identity has been flexible, fluid, negotiable, complex, shifting and contested but it centrally argues that Ndebele identity gels around key markers such as language. The relationship between broadcasting and ethnic nationalism found clear expression in Skyz Metro’s deliberate adoption of the slogan Esabantu (for the people) and maintains the station’s signature which is deployed throughout its programming.

Prospects for Ethnic Harmony in Post-GoHomeGota Protest in Sri Lanka: An Analysis of #Aragalaya on Twitter

In early 2022, in the wake of the state collapse in Sri Lanka (due to a severe economic meltdown with near-political anarchy), we observed an extraordinary ambience of ethnic tolerance and togetherness among masses gathered under the slogan #GoHomeGota to protest the corrupt regime. The nexus between state collapse and ethnic identity construction is puzzling. Does state collapse facilitate the disintegration of ethnic attributes? To find answers, this paper draws on protest materials publicly posted on Twitter from April to June 2022. Rather than the collapse of the state in Sri Lanka weakening the ethnic ties of all ethnic groups equally, findings suggest that the state’s collapse has hindered the ability of Sinhalese nationalism/majoritarianism to take hold, which may give the impression that the Sinhalese are becoming less tied to their ethnicity. However, while Aragalaya is largely represented by all ethnic, religious, and language groups in the country, it has been unable to erase minorities’ strong in-group attachment, as well as their suspicion of Sinhala majoritarianism.

The rise and demise of Ashkenazi cuisine in Israel/Palestine: The marginalization of the foodways of a hegemonic ethnicity

ABSTRACT Food plays a central role in the construction of national and ethnic identities. This article examines the marginalization of Ashkenazi (Jews of European descent) cuisine in Israel/Palestine, despite the dominance and hegemonic status of Ashkenazi identity in Israeli society. By examining the foodways of a ‘hegemonic ethnicity’, we expand upon previous research on ethnic identities in migrant communities. By analyzing the culinary processes of adaptation, simplification, and vulgarization that East-European fare underwent in Israel/Palestine, as well as the social contexts of the centrality of the Holocaust in Israeli cosmology and the consolidation of Mizrahi identity, we explain the rise, demise (and, perhaps, revival) of Ashkenazi cuisine in this country. Drawing on ethnographic and primary historical sources, this socio-historical analysis uncovers the intermittent processes of marginalization and estrangement, as well as the dynamic and contingent nature of the de-ethnization and re-ethnization of hegemonic ethnicities’ cultural practices.

Refiguring Refugee Resistance and Vulnerabilities: Hazara Community Publishing in the Australian Resettlement Context

ABSTRACT This research focuses on intercultural negotiations and constructions of contemporary ethnic and cultural identity in a Western country of resettlement, through collaborative community publishing with Hazara people, a persecuted cultural and linguistic group. As a research team, primarily using interviews, we examined the multicultural children’s bookmaking project and the intercultural negotiations undertaken between 2018 and 2022 which led to the publication of an Afghanistani children’s story in three languages (English, Hazaragi and Dari) with artwork created by children. A crafted research narrative is used to present participants’ voices genuinely and respectfully as they generously engaged with our research process. We build upon Judith Butler’s analytical framework of linguistic vulnerability as the generative foundation of resistance to examine how linguistic precarity for Hazaragi speakers resettling in Australia is experienced. We found that community bookmaking and publishing involved complex processes of translation and transliteration where practical and political problems about cultural and linguistic authority were confronted. Engaging in this process of intercultural negotiation affords new possibilities for the resignification of recognisable and intelligible Hazara identities. We argue that a more liveable life for refugees in linguistically precarious resettlement contexts can be supported through culturally and linguistically responsive infrastructure that is respectful of their meaning making resources.

Racialization as a Strategic Orientation: Arab Organizations and the Construction of Ethnic Identity in the Cold War Era

Arab Americans are fertile ground for scholars interested in studying processes of racialization and race-making. The ambiguous, or “in-between,” racial status of this population has caused some obstacles for scholars attempting to theorize the source and persistence of discrimination against this group. This article attempts to address these paradoxes by examining the history of Arab ethnic and racial activism in the civil rights/Cold War period and uses this empirical case to argue for an historical interpretation of Arab racialization. Specifically, this article asks two questions: “What international and historical contexts shaped the development of Arab ethnic identity in the United States?” and “How do these historical mechanisms inform and amend current theories of Arab racialization?” To answer these, the article employs a “theoretical frontier” analytic architecture to analyze archival sources documenting Arab ethnic advocacy and organizing strategies during the critical civil rights/Cold War period. The article finds that prominent Arab organizations and their leaders navigated a hostile American public that levied both politically and ethnically motivated attacks against their advocacy, and argues that this historical context in turn shaped later Arab organizations’ approach to formal recognition as an ethnic and racial group. Ultimately, the article argues that racialization—in this case, the decision by Arab organizations beginning in the mid-1970s to pursue a project of Arab ethnic advocacy disarticulated from its political origins—was an historical development that requires reckoning with within the theoretical literature on Arab ethnic formation.

Little Steamship on the Prairie: Grass-Roots Preservation and Artistic Interpretation in the Construction of Ethnic, Local, and National Identities

The enigmatic life of Finnish-Canadian pioneer Tom (Damianus) Sukanen (1878-1943) is discussed in connection with his steamship Sontiainen, today preserved at the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum, outside of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. The article examines details of Sukanen's life and the wide array of plays, novels, films, and musicals that have been made about him since the 1970s. The question of representing heritage through preserved artifacts and museums is explored.

Falling off the Radar? Reaching Out to the Finnish Roma Community during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this paper, we ask how the Finnish Roma community handled the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the information reached Roma communities. The previous studies indicate existing health inequalities between Finnish Roma and the general population. The point of departure for the article is crisis communication between Finnish Roma and national authorities. The themes of racialization, mistrust and Roma relying on peers as a source of information and support became apparent. From this setting, this article sheds light on the way of speaking, usage of language, (Finnish) as a social construction of ethnic identity and expression of (non)belonging. At the same time, the usage of languge and codeswitching reveals social stratifications among the Finnish Roma population. Findings indicate that subtle forms of exclusion of Roma prevail in Finland and are materialized as a “left alone mentality”. Consequently, Roma persons working as civil servants or NGO workers would potentially constitute a crucial link between health authorities and the Roma population. This link, however, should be constantly maintained. The study is a qualitative study and based on thematic interviews among Roma actors.

Culture and Language Maintenance Efforts of the Hungarian Community in San Diego

In this paper, I argue that members of the Hungarian community (who are assumed to be first-generation Americans) living in the city of San Diego, California and have assimilated into the mainstream culture of their adopted country, have developed anidentity that can be regarded as a combination of their native language and culture as well as their dominant language and culture. This distinctively dynamic identity contributes to the maintenance of their heritage language and culture. Through negotiating their identity via intentional code-mixing in their written discourse, they invite members of the mainstream group to learn about and become interested in their culture. Among the many types of significant influences that minority communitymedia can have on ethnic identity construction, there is an opportunity for the community to be present inside and outside of the group as well as operating as an essential communicator of culture and a creator of cultural artifacts. The illustrative material analyzed in this paper is sourced from the House of Hungary (San Diego) website and the latest issues of their newsletter.

Cultural Continuity and Fragments of Diaspora: A Comparative Study of Identity Construction by Second and Third Generations of Overseas Vietnamese in Northeast Thailand

This article is based on research on how members of the Vietnamese diaspora in northeast Thailand construct their hybrid identities. Although “diasporic identity” is mentioned often in diaspora studies, it is crucial when investigating it to consider relevant political, social, cultural and economic contexts. This article investigates, compares and analyzes the similarities and differences in place-making and ethnic identity construction by the Vietnamese diaspora’s second and third generations, over different periods of residence, in northeast Thailand. Participant observation, in-depth interviews and desk research methodologies were utilized in this research. The findings reveal that second and third generations of the Vietnamese diaspora underwent dissimilar processes when constructing their hybrid ethnicities (as Vietnamese Thai) due to differences in their migration experiences and levels of social embeddedness in their home and host countries, and because of changes in the geopolitical context in the last 70 years. The differences in identity construction between the two generations reflects their journey from migrant group to diaspora community, their cultural continuity and fragmentation, and their ongoing negotiations to culturally adapt within the host country, and at the same time, maintain attachments with their home country. Keywords: Vietnamese diaspora, Second generation, Third generation, Place-making, Hybrid identities.

Decolonial Architecture and Urbanism: Symbolic Formation of Regions in Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract: My research examines post-Soviet architecture in Russia through a postcolonial lens, focusing on decentralization processes from 1990 to 2010. I analyze the role of architecture in the construction of regional and ethnic identities, using classic post- and decolonial theories and concepts on identity and regionalism. In this paper I identify and describe decolonial architectural practices in regions of Russia and their relationship with decentralization and regional autonomous subjectivity. I claim that post-Soviet architecture was a tool in regional symbolic politics that was used by local elites to establish regions as unique and rightful territorial social groups or to challenge the established order. I show, however, the hybridity of such regional architectural practices, which were both empowering and suppressive, decolonial and orientalist. Finally, I propose the new perspective to describe the architecture in regions as "symbolic regimes," linking the local political, economic, and cultural disposition with architectural practice.

Les Lieux de Memoire and the Legacies of Roma Slavery in the Collective Memory. Case Study in Tismana, Gorj County, Romania

This article aims to analyse the content of the local collective memory regarding slavery in Tismana, the place of the first documentary attestation of “Gypsies” in Romanian territory as slaves. To construct my theoretical framework, I use theories particularly from the field of sociology, but I also take in consideration works from the field of history and cultural studies. The research model I use is a qualitative one – ethnographic, based on the theory of social representations. The case study is based on the relationship between the local mnemonics (the presence of the monastery) that refer to the phenomenon of slavery and the Roma community. After I identify the content of local collective memory regarding the phenomenon of “Gypsy slavery” and the meanings attributed to the mnemonics relating to slavery, I analyse how this content influences the construction and assumption of Roma ethnic identity, today, in this locality. I argue how the heritage of slavery shapes the relations between Roma and the majority population nowadays. This article also aims to introduce the debate on Roma slavery in Romania into the global discussion on collective memory, identity, and the legacies of slavery.

Constructed Identities and Potent Imaginaries

Abstract This paper offers a missiological reflection on the construction of Mainland Chinese ethnic and racial identity. Through a survey of scholarly literature on both the ethnic classification project in Mainland China and “yellow” as a racial designator in Western imagination, this article demonstrates their fluid, constructed, and imagined nature in the context of power, inequality, and vulnerability. While these imposed constructions are contested and negotiated, they are also, to varying extents, shared and accepted. This article also argues that such constructed identities and imaginaries can powerfully shape our understanding and encounter with others in our increasingly diverse and interconnected world. For the Christian, Jesus’ humble, self-giving, sacrificial love and service should shape our identity and relationship with others in ways that transcend our inherited ethnic and racial identity constructions. As citizens of heaven, Christians – in both their attitudes and practices – should thus model an alternative to the ethnic and racial division and brokenness already evident in the church and the world.

The Chalybes as an Historical People

Abstract: The mythical iron-workers the Chalybes are described as an historical people by both Greek and Roman writers. This paper examines the ancient sources that describe them as a ‘barbarian’ people inhabiting the peripheral regions of the known world and highlights significant differences between the ‘historical’ Chalybes and the mythical Chalybes. By adopting an approach located at the intersection of several disciplines, such as ethnography, human geography, history of religions, and structuralist methodologies, the author discusses how the presence of the Chalybes in a narrative is a signal of ‘other’ space and how the description of their customs calls into play issues of the construction of individual and ethnic identity.

Moving Ethnography Online: Analysing the Social Meaning of Manglish in Youth WhatsApp Chats

This article contributes to the changing landscape of fieldwork practices within sociolinguistic research, specifically the practice of online ethnography. It makes a case for the significance of online chats in observing the construction of ethnic identities and social intimacy among young Malaysian English (henceforth Manglish) speakers. The rise of Manglish discourse has been hardly ignored in digital settings. Thus, the rationale for choosing Manglish as a language of communication within online spheres such as Instant Messaging is unclear. This article argues that the socially structured meanings that underlie Manglish practices deserve exploration as it would benefit from online ethnography. Drawing on Androutsopoulos’s (2008) discourse on online ethnographic approach, this paper shows how researchers could use WhatsApp chats to explore the linguistic and social behaviour of Manglish speakers. The findings suggest that the interrelation of speakers’ online behaviour and linguistic choice can denote their ethnicity, in-groupness, stances, and regional identity. Online ethnography is therefore significant and should not be limited to linguistic sources but also used as a mode of participating in, as well as observing, the construction of identity that reflects the ‘offline’ aspect of speakers’ social lives.

"Stuck in Their Skin?": Challenges of Identity Construction Among Children with Mixed Heritage in Norway

This article, based in social anthropology, discusses challenges of ethnic identity construction among children and youth of immigrant origin in Norway, particularly those of mixed race. Compared to the United States, Norway has a short history of people of color immigrating. Since the Second World War, Norwegian official policy has underlined that “we are all equal” and “have the same worth,” regardless of gender, sexuality, and skin color. A color-blind ideology has been an ideal. Today, second- and third-generation immigrants speak Norwegian fluently and have good jobs in the public eye, including in radio and TV, and thus are often publicly exposed, but are still classified as “foreigners” because of their appearance. The article shows that the cultural schema/model of Norwegian identity includes white skin color only, which children of mixed race may experience as particularly challenging. They have one foot in White identity and the other in a colored one, and they may feel “White” on the inside but be labeled as “foreigner” (“Black”) by others. The article asks how children and young people of mixed-race origins experience ethnic identity construction in light of the categories “Norwegian” and “foreigner” and how this is to be understood. The overall conclusion is that mixed-race children and youth may experience being “stuck in their skin” more strongly than those with two parents of immigrant origin, because they also identify with the parent of White ethnic Norwegian identity. The article also concludes that Norway, as an “underdeveloped” country regarding racial reflexivity, needs more research on how White privilege results in “making up people” through racial hierarchical categories, understood as resistance strategies to White majority power and color-blind ideology.

Graphic diversity and ethnic identification in contemporary Manipur

ABSTRACT This article describes how attention to the uses, attitudes, and perceptions of various scripts may provide a dynamic picture of the construction of ethnic identity beyond the framework of ethnic conflict in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. Currently, the languages of Manipur are written in several scripts such as Eastern Brahmi, Roman, Meitei Mayek, and Zo script. Drawing on data collected from interviews of college-age residents of Manipur from different ethnic backgrounds, representatives of cultural organizations in the hills and plains, and from analysis of social, print, and audio-visual media, the article argues that the alignments between script, ethnic identity, and territory are not stable but change in relation to individuals’ or organizations’ positionality towards broader social and political ideologies. In graphically diverse regions such as Manipur, script serves as a semiotic resource through which people can incorporate distinct, but overlapping, ideas of belonging in the construction of ethnic identity.

“Transgenerational Transmission of Chosen Trauma”: Locating Micro-Experiences in Macro-Historical Eventsand the Quest for Cultural and National Identity in Temsula Ao’s These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone

Micro experiences of people immensely influence their personal narratives and play an undeniable role in reflecting the effects of macro-historical events. The narration of individual experiences contributes to the transgenerational transmission of historical memory and its collective experiences to posterity. Interweaving the micro experiences with macro-historical events promotes the construction of ethnic, national and cultural identities. Such individualistic narratives help in the construction of both the personal and cultural self for the macro-historical formation. This paper aims to interpret the select short stories from Temsula Ao’s These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone for manifesting transgenerational transmission of the memories of Naga insurgency incidents and the collective traumatic experiences through the micro experiences of the characters. The storytellers in the select stories such as “The Last Song” and “An Old Man Remembers” situate themselves as historical subjects to relay the stories of protracted armed conflicts, political instability, and civilian causalities that occurred in the Indian state Nagaland during the years of insurgency. Hence, through careful analysis, this paper provides the relevance of transgenerational transmission of chosen trauma and the role of storytelling technique to preserve and transfer the endurance of the past through narratives.