Ethnic Stereotypes Research Articles

Этническая самоидентификация молодежи: средовые и личностные факторы трансформации

The article is devoted to the identification of an individual in a multiethnic environment, including the mechanisms of its transformation. Particular attention is paid to distortions of ethnic self-identification among representatives of the younger generation. It is shown how the external environment influences the formation and development of ethnic identity, and the dependence of the type of ethnic identity on the personal qualities of the individual is noted. A comparative analysis of the results of empirical studies of 2016 and 2023 on the ethnic identification of Omsk youth is presented. A conclusion is made about the need for targeted work with youth audiences to prevent destructive manifestations in culture: ethnofanatism, ethnonihilism, xenophobia, negative ethnic stereotypes.

(Re)fashioning the Tribal Self-image: Reading Contemporary Tribal Writings from India in Translation

Tribal voices are perennially absent in the domains of disciplinary knowledges. Contemporary indigenous writings from different parts of the world contest this archival and textual invisibility of the indigenous subject by documenting the unremitting pain and anguish these communities undergo due to systematic territorial displacement and cultural dislocations. Literary narratives originating within these indigenous communities transcend paradigms of literature by offering a dynamic repertoire of indigenous epistemic practices and lived experiences. Keeping this understanding broadly in the background and contemporary tribal literature(s) from India at the focal point, this paper proposes to argue that critical readings of such texts problematize predominant discourses of ‘indigeneity’. Embedded within the (neo)colonial ethnic stereotypes is the reductionist understanding of ‘indigeneity’ which puts forward a dualistic image of the tribal subject who is either an innocent, vulnerable relic of the past requiring preservation or a savage primitive needing subdual. Contemporary tribal writings from India offer a critical departure from rigid one-dimensional reading of the tribal character/person. By getting further translated into multiple Indian languages and in English, these narratives carry the potential to respond to contexts of suffering, displacement and persecution far removed from the spatiotemporal boundaries of the local context in which they originate. Hence, the act of translation not only ensures mobility to such texts but creates new space(s) for similar narratives of indigenous resistance to engage with each other and also extend the practice of tribal self-fashioning.

«ДАВИД САСУНСКИЙ» ОВАНЕСА ТУМАНЯНА: ОТ ТЕКСТА К ВИЗУАЛИЗАЦИИ

The article analyses the cultural context of the poem "David of Sasun". On the basis of critical discourse analysis, semiotics (C. S. Pearce) and reconstruction of historical memory the perception of the city of Sasun is studied, the peculiarities of historical memory and images of the enemy are reconstructed. Using the example of the poem "David of Sasun" by H. Tumanyan, the semiotic translation from sign-symbols (Tumanyan’s text) to the language of iconic signs (children’s illustrations) is analysed. The analysis of the empirical text showed that Tumanyan created his storyline without additional spatio-temporal details. Some motifs (the part of Sansara and Baghdasara) were omitted in his text because plot entanglements would have appeared. Tumanyan adhered to the "Homeric approach" and touched only one line of the epic, the third branch, dedicated to David of Sasun. The analysis of separate episodes, motifs, plots showed that Tumanyan reproduced the main scheme of the epic’s construction on the opposition of us vs. them, Armenians vs. Arabs, David vs. Msra Melik. The second part of the article presents the results of the study of a modern children’s illustrative project dedicated to H. Tumanyan’s poem. The composition of the children’s drawings is made according to the age peculiarities of the young artists, but the influence of adult project leaders (Sona Badoyan and others) is also noticeable. The analysis also showed that the image of the enemy Msra Melik is represented by Turkic facial features, which reflects the preserved national stereotypes.

Discussion Club of Literary Critics (December 2022 – April 2023)

At the last two meetings of the Discussion Club of Literary Critics – a permanent scientific seminar of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences – the reports continued to cover the topic “Literary contours of modern Central and South-Eastern Europe: events, realities, trends”. The first session of this cycle took place in June 2022 and was devoted to the current literary situation in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. The DCL participants discussed a number of issues related to the numerous productions of Russian literature on the Slovak stage, which testify to the permanent interest in the “Russian theme” among the Slovak theater audience; perception of the image of Russia and Russians in Slavic fiction, reflection of Russian realities and disclosure of the problem of contact of cultures, the formation and existence of national stereotypes (based on a contemporary Czech novel), as well as translations of Slavic fantastic works into Russian, the current state of science fiction literature in Russia and other Slavic countries. In addition, some of the trends observed in the current literary process in Slovakia and the Czech Republic were discussed. The reports focused on the most significant new book releases, the mechanism for awarding literary prizes, such phenomena as the inevitable influence of politics and public life on literature, and the commercialization of the latter. The DCL participants reflected on what factors of the non-literary process can affect the prestige of the institute of literature, what can attract / scare off readers, why they prefer world classics over the works of modern Slavic authors, and also compared the situation in Slovakia and the Czech Republic with the state of the literary process in other Slavic countries.

“And hop from Riga to Krakow…”: (Un)traditional Polish Text in the Cycle of Poems “The Krakow Trumpeter“ by Sergey Moreino

This article focuses on the issue of so-called Polish text of Russian culture in the poetic cycle Krakovskiĭ trubach [The Krakow Trumpeter] (1989–1990) by Sergey Moreino, a Russian poet and translator, who currently lives in Latvia. Traditional semiotic patterns and national stereotypes which existed in Soviet culture (Poland as a Big Cemetery, Poland as a Big Border, Romantic Poland, etc.) had a long-term impact on post-Soviet literature. As it turns out, however, in the case of Sergei Moreino, who consciously kept distance from any Polonophilia moods of the 1960s and 70s, there emerged innovative ways of presenting Poland, and especially the urban space of Krakow.

Cultural Images of the East and West in Elif Shafak's Novels

This article is intended to discuss the images of the East and West as they are portrayed in Elif Shafak’s novels, with emphasis on the ethnic cliches and stereotypes which are often engendered in and disseminated through fiction. More specifically, it examines how the novelist depicts Turkish and Oriental culture, often in contrast with its Western counterpart, through the complex and insightful images she skillfully creates. The theoretical part of the article relies on the seminal works of imagologists such as Joep Leerssen and Manfred Beller, who have laid the foundations for the study of cultural images, with emphasis on their shifting, dynamic and context-dependent nature, as well as on David Katan’s logical levels of culture, which are used as a starting point for the analysis of the similarities and differences between the East and the West as represented in Shafak’s work.

COMPLIANCE OF THE POST-SOVIET BALTIC STATES WITH THE INSTITUTIONAL AND VALUE REQUIREMENTS OF EU MEMBERSHIP

The compliance of the Baltic States with the EU requirements for member states is studied. Compliance is determined by the indicators of gender equality, tolerance and effectiveness of anti-corruption policy. A set of problems that hinder the consolidation of democracy in the Baltic States is identified. The gradual increase of various ethnic stereotypes and new social phobias in the communities of the Baltic States was noted. The authors attribute the problems of democracy quality and discrepancies with EU standards to the peculiarities of political culture and value orientations of the population (dominance of survival values over self-expression values). It is concluded that the Baltic States do not fully meet the EU standards at the institutional and value levels. It is argued that institutional reforms have satisfactory results in many areas, but the values of the population are modernizing very slowly towards those specifically defined by the EU.

Interkulturelle Witze im Fremdsprachenunterricht: ein heikles, zu vermeidendes Thema oder eine interessante Gelegenheit über nationale Stereotype zu reflektieren?

The main focus of the article is intercultural jokes as carriers of stereotypes. After discussing the meaning of humour in a foreign language lesson, the concepts of joke and intercultural joke will be explained. Then, an attempt will be made to answer the following questions: Are intercultural jokes in a foreign language lesson a difficult topic that should be avoided, or do they open up an interesting opportunity to consider ethnic and national stereotypes? How can they be incorporated into the teaching and learning process of foreign languages?

Nationalstereotype im Kulturvergleich: Deutschland im niederländischen und russischen Fremdsprachenunterricht an Schulen und Universitäten

Stereotypes, prejudices, hostile images and clichés are different forms of self-images and images of others. This paper establishes stereotypes as a scalable concept to distinguish them from other forms of fixed attributions. It features a comparison of national stereotypes about Germany, the Germans and the German language from a Dutch and Russian perspective and discusses the use of stereotypes in foreign language teaching, which are aimed at culturally reflective learning.

TRANSFRONTALITY OF LITERARY IMAGES: EXTRAPOLATION OF THE ITALIAN PUPPET HERO PULCINELLA

The article concerns one of the most important characters of national Italian puppet theatre, the marionette Pulcinella, and its influence on the images of folk heroes of puppet and drama theaters, street performances and literary works in European countries. National invariants of this character in the theaters and literatures of Western and Central Europe from the time of the appearance of this character to the beginning of the twentieth century are highlighted. Due to the expansion of economic and political ties, from the beginning of the 17th century, Pulcinella, together with itinerant artists and puppeteers, begins its transition to most European national folk theaters and literature. Depending on the geography of the country, its national character traits and national stereotypes, Pulcinella changes his image, his name, his behavior, and language. However, what is the most important, each national puppet retains both external and internal features of their original predecessor, Pulcinella. Examples provided in the article prove that most of the national invariants of Pulcinella possess his main character trait, that is, a fight against injustice and fierce criticism of authorities. Such characters as the English Punch, the Dutch Pickelgering, the French Polychenelle and Guignol, the German and Austrian Hanswurth, the Spanish and Portuguese Don Cristobal, the Czech Kaszparek and the German Kasperle invariably pursue two main goals: to protect the wronged and to defeat the evil In each of the countries, the characters created on the prototype of Pulcinella, were warmly accepted by the public and became very popular, especially with common people. At the same time, they differed from the original with their national coloring; they became the mouthpiece of national character traits, national ethnic stereotypes. The article seconds the opinion of many literary scholars that the origins the marionette character of Pulcinella can be traced to the Italian folk theater hero of Maccus, mainly because Pulcinella adopts the features of that ancient character's appearance, such as an irregularly shaped head, a large hump on his back, a hooked nose, a large belly and lively shrewd eyes. With small changes and variations, these features of appearance are received not only by Pulcinella, but also by the numerous national invariants of this character in Europe. However, all these national invariants also preserve the typical traits of Pulcinella's character, such as cockiness, cunning, thirst for justice and victory in an argument. In the 19th century, the Pulcinella marionette ‘returns’ to Italy and transforms into the wooden puppet Pinocchio. Carlo Collodi’s novel becomes so popular that it is translated in many countries of the world, and the new characters modelled on Pinocchio, acquire national features, such as Zeppel Kern by the German writer Otto Julius Birbaum. This begins a new round of Pulcinella's influence on the world culture.

СЕМАНТИКА ЕДЫ В ТРАНСКУЛЬТУРНОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ НЕМЕЦКОЯЗЫЧНОЙ ПРОЗЫ ВЫХОДЦЕВ ИЗ СССР)

The article considers the semantics of food and drinks in German-language prose, created by immigrants from the USSR and having signs of transcultural literature, implying the hybridization of cultural (including linguistic and literary) experience. The subject of the analysis are three autobiographical texts written in the 21st century: “My White Nights” (2004) by Lena Gorelik, “The Totalitarian Kitchen. The Cookbook of Socialism” (2006) by Olga Kaminer and Wladimir Kaminer, and “Maybe Esther” (2014) by Katja Petrowskaja. In all three texts, a significant place is given to the names of dishes, foods and drinks, descriptions of the preparation, serving and use of food and drink. They also contain recipes (Gorelik’s text and especially the Kaminers’ book) or mention them (Petrowskaya’s text). Memories of food and drink are integral to childhood memories and are part of the autobiographical discourse. The task of the study is to analyze the functions of the culinary code of these texts. The methodology of intercultural research and interdisciplinary food studies, and various aspects of nutrition researches, were used. Food is presented by all authors as the primary bodily experience that is significant for socialization in a particular culture and plays an important role in acculturation. The function of the culinary codes of the studied texts is shown in structuring the key categories of culture: “one’s own”, “other” and “foreign”, as well as in the process of cultural hybridization. Particular attention is paid to the untranslatability of gastronomic realities: vocabulary denoting dishes and traditions of their use. The mechanisms of metaphorization and metonymization in the field of food and drinks, and the role of these processes in the generation of ethnic and national stereotypes, as well as in their destruction are considered.

Stepan Sokolovskii, Novoe vremia, and the Cartoons of Empire

Abstract Stepan Fedorovich Sokolovskii (pen name Coré) served as the primary caricaturist for the prominent St. Petersburg newspaper Novoe vremia (New Times, 1868–1917) in the late 1890s and early 1900s. While his vibrant style and prolific output have led his cartoons to appear frequently in scholarship, few studies examine his work specifically. Interestingly, his illustrations for Novoe vremia focus almost exclusively on international politics, and thus, prominently engage in national and ethnic stereotypes. These caricatures not only offered eye-catching and amusing visual depictions of foreign relations, they also showed Russia’s imperial rivals as buffoonish back-stabbers that represented the worst excesses of imperialist exploitation. In this way, Sokolovskii’s works offer an intriguing snapshot of popular attitudes towards Russia’s allies and enemies. This essay surveys the broad themes of Sokolovskii’s work and examines the ways his drawings encapsulated complex international conflicts and offered pithy visual representations of Novoe vremia’s loyalist and nationalistic take on foreign affairs. Further, it fills a gap in the scholarship by shedding light on the biography of this prolific artist and examining his views on political caricature as a medium.

Charles Macklin and the Theatres of London

Charles Macklin and the Theatres of London

Ethnolookism as a factor in the attitude of the Romans towards the Germans

The author of the article turned to the theme of ethnolookism - daily discriminatory practices, which are due to compliance or, on the contrary, inconsistensy between the real appearance of representatives of a particular ethnic group and established ethnic stereotypes and prejudices. The article is devoted to a particular case of ethnolookism in antiquity. We are talking about ethnolookism as a factor in the attitude of the Romans towards the Germans. According to the author, in the ordinary perception of the Greeks and Romans, all barbarians of the same ethnic origin - Scythians or Thracians, Getae or Germans - were, as the saying is, “on the same face”. Experts call this effect cross-racial. From the end of the 2nd century BC the Romans actively interacted with the Germans. Latin authors call blue eyes and blond hair, tall stature and a strong physique as characteristic external signs of the Germans. For the Romans these sings were, most likely, the very triggers, which automatically resurrected in the collective consciousness of the contemporaries of Horace, Caesar and Tacitus longstanding fears associated with metus Gallicus and furor Teutonicus. It is characteristic that the Germans, who served under the Roman banners, became “Romans” in the eyes of their fellow tribesmen. The Germans themselves thought so, and the Roman authorities clearly separated “their” barbarians from those who attacked the borders of the Roman Empire. Thus, within the framework of the political unity of pax Romana, the ethnocultural rapprochement of the Romans and Germans gradually took place.

Die "hyggeligen" Dänen und die arroganten Deutschen

The “hyggelige” Danes and the arrogant Germans – Communicative Differences as a Consequence of National Stereotypes?
 The aim of this article is to discuss why German students code switch between German and Danish in a more appropriate way than their Danish fellow students do. The data consist of approximately 230 emails written by 40 German and Danish students enrolled in the Cross-Border Study Programme at the University of Southern Denmark and Europa-Universität Flensburg. A reason for this difference in ability to switch code can be explained by the students’ stereotypes about their own group as auto stereotypes and about the others as hetero stereotypes. In general, Danish auto stereotypes are very positive contrary to the negative hetero stereotypes of the Germans. Because of this, the Danish students seem to think that it is acceptable to use Danish communication structures even though they know that the chosen formulation will not be seen as appropriate German by their German professors.

Space-valence mapping of social concepts: Do we arrange negative and positive ethnic stereotypes from left to right?

The body-specificity hypothesis states that in right-handers, positive concepts should be associated with the right side and negative concepts with the left side of the body. Following this hypothesis, our study postulated that negative out-group ethnic stereotypes would be associated with the left side, and positive in-group stereotypes would be associated with the right side. The experiment consisted of two parts. First, we measured the spatial mapping of ethnic stereotypes by using a sensibility judgment task, in which participants had to decide whether a sentence was sensible or not by pressing either a left or a right key. The sentences included German vs. Arabic proper names. Second, we measured implicit ethnic stereotypes in the same participants using the Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT), in which Arabic vs. German proper names were presented in combination with positive vs. negative adjectives. Right-handed German native speakers (N = 92) participated in an online study. As predicted, in the GNAT, participants reacted faster to German names combined with positive adjectives and to Arabic names combined with negative adjectives, which is diagnostic of existing valenced in-and outgroup ethnic stereotypes. However, we failed to find any reliable effects in the sensibility judgment task, i.e., there was no evidence of spatial mapping of positive and negative ethnic stereotypes. There was no correlation between the results of the two tasks at the individual level. Further Bayesian analysis and exploratory analysis in the left-handed subsample (N = 9) corroborated the evidence in favor of null results. Our study suggests that ethnic stereotypes are not automatically mapped in a body-specific manner.

Collective Biologies: Healing Social Ills through Sexual Health Research in Mexico by Emily A. Wentzell

Reviewed by: Collective Biologies: Healing Social Ills through Sexual Health Research in Mexico by Emily A. Wentzell William Sorensen Collective Biologies: Healing Social Ills through Sexual Health Research in Mexico. By Emily A. Wentzell. Durham: Duke University Press, 2021, p. 221, $25.95. In chapter one of Collective Biologies, there was a dramatic situation which riveted the reader's attention: a Mexican man was carjacked and kidnapped by narcotraficantes. He escaped; he was later interviewed by Wentzell. This was a compelling opening to more cerebral and repetitious writing throughout the rest of the book. Yet perhaps we need this repetition, for the subject matter is complex. Wentzell is an American anthropologist who recruited men already enrolled in a biomedical human papillomavirus (HPV) cohort study. The original study began in 2005 in Cuernavaca, whereby 3,000 men were tested for HPV every 6 months. While the testing component was in process, Wentzell stepped in to interview 84 participants, including the spouses of some of the men. Most of the couples were interviewed together. Her goal was to describe how being connected to a medical study would aid the biological and social wellbeing of others with whom they were related. On a broader level, Wentzell questioned the U.S. medical paradigm, which values individualism. There is good justification for doing these interviews: HPV is very prevalent (globally), can be deadly (certain strains develop into cancer), and men tend not to talk about their behavior or medical history. What they had to reveal is the subject for this book: Middle-class voices in a richly varied society, a society that includes poor Indigenes and wealthy elites, from narco-gangs to corrupt government agencies. But these participants are in the middle and perceive themselves as the vanguard of a future Mexico. Her conclusion is that these participants think of themselves as entities beyond mere individuals, as larger composites, yet biological in nature. These composites have different layers. The first level highlights "companionate" marriage or relationships (mutual, intimate, communicative, and respectful). Then comes the family unit. Then the citizen in a larger social unit, embracing mestizaje, which navigates away from European or indigenous identities. These subjects unfold as chapters 3, 4 and 5, respectively. Not only do these participants think and act this way, in larger composites; they also aid the biological and social wellbeing of others across the various levels. Wentzell's skill in describing these biological abstractions is impressive. She has the capacity to weave complex subjects together: class differences, Mexican gender norms, national stereotypes, history, the economy, [End Page 461] racial stereotypes, sexual disease transmission, familial and educational concerns, perceptions of governmental function, and more. She may improve her book by looking deeper into an examination of study bias. She is convincing up to a point, then seems to miss describing a possible Hawthorne effect from her study. Also, there is not sufficient acknowledgement of volunteer bias. Wentzell never comes full circle at the end the book by looking back at her preface. In the preface she brings up Covid-19 and mask-wearing behavior in Iowa; there would be interesting parallels with HPV and Covid-19 if discussed. To her credit, she nails down the complexity of HPV infection and that misunderstandings about HPV spread will inevitably arise–there is a large latency time to deal with, or unclear pathways of transmission. Still, 75% of the couples blamed men as the major transmitters of HPV. There is much harm in this outcome. Consequently, Wentzell develops a model of collective biologies based largely on people's misunderstanding. She acknowledges these points, sure, but more effort should be made to emphasize limitations of scientific knowledge of HPV transmission, and that model-making cannot possibly be finished (we see this same problem with Covid-19). Lastly, there are other theories that may explain why men, or women for that matter, psychologically change over time, and in the direction of "more companionate" humanity. For example, the theories of Erikson or Levinson's adult stage development in men can explain Wentzell's male participant behaviors (that is, men become more expansive as they age, they think of others more, they empathize more, and they develop a...

Andrzej Pleszczyński / Grischa Vercamer (Eds.), Germans and Poles in the Middle Ages. The Perception of the „Other“ and the Presence of Mutual Ethnic Stereotypes in Medieval Narrative Sources. (Explorations in Medieval Culture, Vol. 16.) Leiden, Brill 2021

Article Andrzej Pleszczyński / Grischa Vercamer (Eds.), Germans and Poles in the Middle Ages. The Perception of the „Other“ and the Presence of Mutual Ethnic Stereotypes in Medieval Narrative Sources. (Explorations in Medieval Culture, Vol. 16.) Leiden, Brill 2021 was published on December 1, 2022 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 315, issue 3).

«Three Great Reforms» of the Edo Period as Foundation for Understanding Japanese Behaviour

The proposed review deals with the problem of the Three Great Reforms in the second half of the Edo period in Japan. All Three Reforms were named after the era, when each began (Kyoho, Kansei, and Tempo). The general slogan of the reforms was «back to the golden age», which meant the time of the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty. The real reason for the reforms was the need to reconcile some bourgeois changes in society with the formal feudal structure of the State organization. The content of each reform, its results, initiators and the socio-political situation are presented here in full, comprehensive form with basic details. The list of references is absent for the reason that the review itself is based on the materials of a doctoral dissertation, written by the author of the article previously, in Russian. The complete list of several hundred publications on the topic can be obtained by referring to the full text of the dissertation (Philippov A. V. «Three Great Reforms» and evolution process of the Japanese society, in the second half of the Edo period. Dissertation of Doctor in History. St. Petersburg, 2003. 503 p. URL: https://www.dissercat.com/content/tri-bolshie-reformy-i-protsessy-evolyutsii-yaponskogo-obshchestva-vtoroi-poloviny-epokhi-edo). The author suggests that the experience of reforms in Tokugawa Japan was very useful for the formation of national character, ethnic stereotypes of behaviour, psychology and way of thinking of the Japanese. The content of all Three Great Re-forms combined has never been presented in English or Japanese before.

Jewish Stereotypes in the Samogitian Dialect Worldview

Abstract In the early through to mid-20th century (before the Second World War), the Jewish population in Samogitian towns was quite abundant; they were generally business owners, and therefore there could have been various relationships between the rural Samogitian farmers and the urban Jews. The paper analyses the material of dialectal texts (recorded in the 1980s through to 2010s) from the ethnolinguistic perspective to find out how the Samogitian attitude towards Jews is reflected in the Samogitian linguistic worldview. The study focuses mainly on the methodology of the Lublin Ethnolinguistic School, in particular in terms of the view that language is directly related to culture, identity, and remembrance. The research revealed that the Jewish ethnic stereotype in the Samogitian linguistic worldview was quite positive, while especially negative evaluation was related to the context of religion.