Ethnic Map Research Articles

Moravian and Silesian nationalities: A new phenomenon in the ethnic map of the Czech Lands?

In the 1991 population census, 1.4 million inhabitants of the Czech Republic applied for Moravian or Silesian nationality, which did not exist before.They expressed their consciousness of territorial appurtenance to the historical provinces of Moravia and Silesia and by this declaration they set it above the appurtenance to the Czech nation. New social cleavage thus developed in ethnically almost homogeneous environment of the Czech Republic, which constitutes a potential threat of the further splitting of the State. Trying to find the causes of such a phenomenon, the author deals with the territorial differentiation of these inhabitants and factors which influenced it. The close interconnection with political demands is stressed. The insensive centralizing measures of the communist regime are considered as the direct impulses of the present development. The phenomenon is understood as a specific manifestation of the posttotalitarian social crisis in Central and Eastern Europe.

Igbo Arts and Ethnicity: Problems and Issues

Some months ago, when reading Elechi Amadi's affecting diary of the Nigerian Civil War, Sunset in Biafra, I was acutely reminded that not all peoples generally called Igbo are particularly comfortable being so labeled. Amadi is an Ikwere, which he explicitly calls a non-Igbo tribe, along with Etche, Ekpeye, Engenni, Ogba, and Egbema. All these peoples living south and west of Owerri and north of the Niger delta were placed by Forde and Jones (1950) and, following their lead, by Chike Aniakor and me (1984) within Igbo borders. Who are the Igbo? As Amadi implies, this is a perplexing question, in part because many think they have it answered. No one has problems with core regions where people have long regarded themselves as Igbo, but beyond these live dozens of small groups that have, or had, distinct linguistic and cultural identities. Expansion outward from the center has Igboized some of these peoples, but many resent this partial assimilation and insist, as Amadi does, their separate character. Outsiders and some Igbo have for political purposes wanted to include large numbers within their borders. This is justified by linguists, mostly foreigners, who are more concerned with scientific language families than with concepts of selfidentity on the ground. It is well known that the British had difficulty administering the hundreds of village groups and tribes in this area because of their local autonomy and the frequent absence of single leaders, chiefs. The cultural and linguistic diversity of eastern Nigeria is acknowledged fact, and there is no easy or agreed-upon solution to the artistic or ethnic mapping of the area. In Igbo Art: Community and Cosmos Chike Aniakor and I tried to use regional names and avoid many generalizations for all Igbo whoever they may be but we can be rightly criticized (and were) for including some people and excluding others. G.I. Jones may have come closest to the mark by identifying cross-cultural style regions in his Art of Southeastern Nigeria (1984), but this method is not without its own problems. In bringing the papers in this volume together under an Igbo heading, then, I risk perpetuating a wrong-headed inclusiveness, which is not my intention. I am very much aware of both Limitations of Labels and Open Borders situations that have been highlighted rec ntly in these pages for other areas (vol. 20, no. 4). The paper by John Picton Ekpeye masquerades here (p. 46) addresses these issues, and the original plan called for additional essays other regions. Henry Drewal's contribution Mami Wata shrines (p. 38) in a limited area of Imo State, near Owerri, calls attention to these ideas in a quite different way inasmuch as these cults have exceptionally wide distribution in so many parts of the continent. Drewal's paper, by illustrating Igbo versions that can then be compared with others within a d outside Igboland (however its borders are drawn), may aid with the old but fascinating question: What is Igbo about Igbo art? Afa, the name of one of the divination systems employed in the area, is a cognate of Yoruba ifa and other divination systems among nearby peoples utilizing two chains with eight se d pods each. Yet Igbo afa diviners have relatively little art in their kits, and what they have is sacrifice encrusted, while their Yoruba counterparts often have many finely sculptured pieces, usually clean. Among the Igbo, it is frequently the case that the most sacred and powerful objects are the least artistic. Mbari house figures of Ala and other local deities which I reexamine in this issue in their earlier and more

The USSR Experience in Solving the National Question and the Liberated Countries of the East

A almost two thirds of the world population lives in the countries of the East. All of the great (or primary) human races are represented here. The ethnic as well as the religious composition off -the population is notable for its great complexity. In spite of the processes, accelerated during recent decades, of consolidating the small and very small ethnic groups, tribes, and nationalities into relatively large national communities, ethnographers still place the number of large and small ethnic groups in this area in the hundreds. The majority of the countries of the East have an ethnically nonhomogeneous population. Moreover, within the individual states there sometimes live dozens of peoples (for example, there are no less than 150 in Indonesia, about 90 in the Philippines, over 70 in India, etc.). Only Korea, Somaliland, the Arab Republic of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and a few other Arab states have a relatively homogeneous ethnic composition. An important feature of the ethnic map of the East is the fact that for a number of reasons (the roots of which usually lie in the historical past), often the political boundaries here do not coincide with the ethnic ones. As a result, the territories settled by many large and small ethnic groups are split by political cordons, and these peoples themselves live within the borders of different states. This ethnic nonhomogeneousness of the population and the features of the settlements of many peoples produce numerous intraand interstate conflicts and complications. Frequently these conflicts are intensified by the open or disguised meddling of former colonial powers, which are trying to compensate for the loss of direct political power in the former colonies by spreading various forms'of indirect domination. Although the disintegration of the colonial system and the formation of the young sovereign states have created objective possibilities for overcoming the conflicts and hostility between nations, numerous obstacles stand in the way of realizing these possibilities. The tension in the relations between the nationalities (frequently complicated by uneven levels of social and economic development and national consolidation of the different peoples, as well as by racial or religious conflicts) , is an actual fact in the political life of many of the states in the East. The struggle to find a democratic solution to the national question, to

Ethnic Studies: Teaching and Research Needs

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to identify problems in ethnic studies and to discuss several teaching approaches that we have used in an attempt to meet some of these needs. Some problems of research and teaching in the field of ethnic studies include: 1) lack of awareness of the current social meaning of ethnicity; 2) data deficiencies; 3) lack of sensitivity to problems of scale in spatial analysis; 4) the separation between teaching and research; and 5) limitations imposed by discipline-bounded viewpoints. The research-teaching approaches used in the effort to counter these problems were: 1) migration histories of students' families; 2) studies of ethnic settlement at interregional, intraregional, and intraurban scales; 3) the urban ethnic field trip; and 4) the metropolitan Detroit ethnic mapping project.

The Ethnic Map of the Republic of Kenya

The Ethnic Map of the Republic of Kenya

Basic Methodological Problems in Ethnic Mapping

Basic Methodological Problems in Ethnic Mapping

Basic Problems in the Mapping of Ethnic Groups

AbstractThe development of ethnic mapping in the USSR has raised a number of problems relating to definition of the objects to be mapped, classification of peoples and map-compiling methods. The article discusses the principles used for identifying peoples in countries that lack statistical data on ethnic composition. Advantages and shortcomings of the linguistic classification of ethnic groups are compared and existing methods of ethnic mapping are critically examined. A new method of combining ethnic composition and population density on a single map is discussed in detail.

Studies in Ecuadorian Geography. Edwin N. FerdonJr. , with the collaboration of Malcolm H. Bissell, in "Climates of Ecuador" and with an appendix by William C. Steere, "The Phytogeography of Ecuador." Monographs of the School of American Research No. 15; School of American Research and University of Southern California, co-publishers, 1950. pp. 86+ix, ethnic map, climatic map, 30 illustrations. $3.50.

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