Interethnic Contact Research Articles

Оленеводческий лексикон в уральских языках в контексте языковых контактов

This paper provides an overview of the study of reindeer husbandry and vocabulary associated with it on the material of the Uralic languages. The article is based on the methods of etymological and comparative analysis. The source base of the research was the dictionary materials and personal observations of the author. The purpose of this work is to analyze the reindeer herding vocabulary in the context of the linguistic contacts of the Ural peoples. It is noted that the systematic study of various aspects of reindeer husbandry based on the material of different ethnic groups began in the second half of the 20th century. The most important for the analysis are the materials of the Samoyed languages, in particular the Nenets, whose influence extended to adjacent linguistic continua. There is a section on reindeer husbandry in the context of interethnic and interlingual contacts, since the latter is often the result of economic and interethnic contacts. In a number of cases, the Nenets were the source of distribution of certain methods of using reindeer. An attempt was made to comprehensively analyze the Northern Russian dialect borrowed data, possible etymons that are recorded in the Komi language, the Baltic-Finnish, Ob-Ugric languages, as well as in the Samoyed languages. The interaction of the Samoyed, Perm and Ob-Ugric continuums is noted on the data of the vocabulary of reindeer husbandry.

Maternal Attitudes Toward Child Interethnic Relations in the Netherlands: Facilitating Intergroup Contact Effects?

Ethnic diversity and interethnic contact are increasing in Europe. Intergroup contact theory suggests interethnic contact to improve interethnic attitudes, but for young children, parental attitudes toward child interethnic relations might be an important factor determining whether they are exposed to these potentially positive contact effects. This study therefore examined maternal attitudes toward child contact with different ethnic outgroups among 251 mothers (137 White Dutch, 69 Turkish-Dutch, and 45 Afro-Dutch) of a 6- to 10-year-old child ( M = 7.51, SD = 0.98). Furthermore, associations between maternal attitudes toward child interethnic relations and child outgroup rejection were examined, as well as mediation effects of child actual outgroup contact. Neutral to positive maternal attitudes toward child interethnic relations were found, with relatively more negative attitudes among Turkish-Dutch than White Dutch and Afro-Dutch mothers, and toward child relations with Muslims as compared to another outgroup among White Dutch and Afro-Dutch mothers. Furthermore, results did not indicate that maternal attitudes were related to child actual outgroup contact or child outgroup prejudice and no support for the intergroup contact theory was found. These results suggest that intergroup contact theory does not easily apply, highlighting the need for more research on children in various populations and contexts using different measures and informants. Patterns from the present study suggest that most improvement in terms of maternal attitudes fostering child interethnic relations can be made in the interethnic relations including ethnic groups in the Netherlands that predominantly identify as Muslim.

ЕТНОКУЛЬТУРНІ УКРАЇНСЬКО-ЛИТОВСЬКІ КОНТАКТИ ЛИТОВСЬКО-ПОЛЬСЬКОЇ ДОБИ

In the course research the problems of the common political history of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania were comprehended, first of all, the influence of the Slavic world on the process of formation of the Lithuanian state, mutual influences of historical and cultural nature. The article focuses on the cultural interethnic contacts of Lithuanians and Ukrainians. Linguistic interethnic contacts, Lithuanian-Ukrainian interactions in family and marriage traditions of Ukrainians are revealed. Within the frameworks of the study the language situation was described. It can be argued that the Rus influence was stronger here, because the so-called “Rus language” was used both in everyday life and in official records. But it posed difficulties in its linguistic interpretation, many variants for its nomination were suggested which was described in detail in the article. Numerous Lithuanians in modern Ukrainian lexicon representing various fields undoubtedly testifies to the importance of Lithuanian-Ukrainian contacts in the Middle Ages and the historical contribution of Lithuanians to the formation of the Ukrainian ethnic group. The reciprocity of Ukrainian-Lithuanian contacts is evidenced by numerous Ukrainian borrowings in the modern Lithuanian language, most of which undeniably entered the vocabulary during the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A striking example of Lithuanian-Ukrainian interaction presents such a sphere of spiritual life as marital relations. After all, in the Ukrainian lands beginning from the XVI to the first half of the XIX century Lithuanian Statutes were in force (before the introduction of new Russian legislation), to which the norms of Russkaya Pravda regulating marital and family relations in the Kyiv state were transferred. Thus, Ukrainians got their own marriage and family traditions. The institution of marriage in the Lithuanian Statutes is considered quite extensively, but to a greater extent they regulated relations between the more affluent sections of the society at that time. Meanwhile, certain norms were universal: a clear definition of marriage age, defining the rights and responsibilities of parents and relatives in creating a new family, the obligations of the groom, determining the position of women and their children, and others.

Lexico-semantic unit “Man” based on the material of the Nizhnekolymsk old-time dialects of Yakutia

The paper studies the specifics of the linguistic reflection of the image of a person in the Nizhnekolymsk old-time dialects of Yakutia. Despite the available research, the issue of the preservation of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Arctic remains relevant in our time. It is of great interest in terms of geostrategic location, natural resources and human potential. The purpose is to describe the composition of the lexical-semantic unit “Man” in the Nizhnekolymsk old-time dialects of Yakutia. The source of the material was the four-volume Dictionary of Russian Old-Time Dialects on the Territory of Yakutia by M.F. Druzhinina. The method of continuous sampling was used to identify 95 lexical units that form the LSU “Man”.The structure of the unit includes the following lexical and semantic groups: physical, personal and social characteristics of a man. Intraunit systemic relations are characterized by the presence of a variety of paradigmatic connections: derivational synonyms, inflectional variants, phonemic doublets, antonymic and synonymous pairs, hypo-hyponymic and hyper-hyponymic relations, derivational series. The Nizhnekolymsk dialects are a monument of the Russian old-timers’ culture, which is a result of interethnic and cultural contacts between the newcomers and the local population, as well as the influence of natural conditions. The processes of globalization, integration and industrial development of the Arctic accelerate the assimilation of Russian old-timers from Nizhny Kolyma, which makes the problem of the preservation of their ethnocultural identity relevant.

Development of interpretation skills in future escort interpreters for work in international tourist activity

The rapid development of international cooperation and interethnic contacts entails the need to improve training in the field of tourism, including training of escort interpreters. It is known that escort interpreters must not only have skills and abilities, but also constantly improve their knowledge of foreign languages. Thus, the problem of optimizing the development of translation competence in escort interpreters is gaining importance. The aim of the study is to substantiate the need to optimize the development of translation competence in escort interpreters to work in international tourism. The article involved the following methods: theoretical review and analysis of domestic and foreign literature on the problem of research, pedagogical observation and generalization of the experience of training escort interpreters in universities. It was found that optimization of translation competence in escort interpreters will be more effective in implementing the author’s model and methodology presented in the professional. The theoretical significance of this article is that the theory and methodology of vocational education identified and established the content of translation competence and a model for optimizing its development. The practical significance lies in the focus on optimizing the translation competence in translation guides. Relevant methods and programmes have been identified, which provide for development and application in practice of professionally oriented language situations in improvement of foreign language skills. The results indicate the effectiveness of established models and methods of optimizing development of translation competence in escort interpreters to work in international tourism based on the improvement of foreign language skills.

Специфика оценки иноязычной подготовки взрослых к межкультурной и межэтнической коммуникации

The article deals with the problem of adults' language teaching for intercultural communication. The novelty of the work lies in the scientific substantiation of the priority of the development of adults' cultural identity. The authors determine its levels and the possibility of its development with the introduction of an ethnically oriented approach. International relations, the language policy of the state, the high degree of Russia's involvement in international cooperation, the expansion of interethnic contacts led to the social order of society for foreign language training and retraining of the adult contingent of students. In this article, the authors describe the structural content and highlight the levels of cultural self-identity of adult learners, and analyze the possibility of introducing the author's ethnically oriented approach into additional adult language education. In order to test the effectiveness of using the elaborated methodology for the development of cultural self-identity of adults on the basis of ethnically oriented, competence-based, communicative-cognitive, personal-activity and linguistic approaches, in the 2019-2020 academic year, the first series of experimental training was conducted for students of the Communicative English Course for Adults program at Nizhny Novgorod Dobrolyubov State Linguistic University. The classroom load was 120 hours. Adult education aimed at the development of cultural identity is based on the following approaches: competence-based, communicative-cognitive, personal-activity, linguo-cultural, ethnically oriented. Cultural self-identity has the following levels: initial, associative-analytical, verbal-analytical, and verbal-creative. The obtained results of experimental training indicate that the training conducted in the experimental group, which aimed at developing cultural identity for effective intercultural and interethnic communication, was successful. Based on the results of the experimental training, it can be concluded that the ethnically oriented approach developed by the authors has a positive impact on the development of the students' cultural identityy. It is necessary to build training on a contrast-comparative basis with the use of an ethnically oriented approach, using a set of exercises, which give adults a real opportunity to compare, analyze, mentally penetrate into the linguistic and cultural phenomena of their country and countries speaking the language adults study.

EXPERT COMMUNITY’S OPINION ON SOME PROBLEMS OF NATIONAL POLICY IN CHUVASHIA

The article presents the views of 30 experts on a number of national policy problems in the Chuvash Republic. According to experts, friendly, conflict-free interethnic and interconfessional relations prevail in Chuvashia, rare cases of negative interethnic contacts are characteristic of everyday situations, most often related to the use of native languages. The possibility of interethnic conflicts is considered as unlikely. They may be associated with potentially ill-conceived actions in the sphere of linguistic and other ethno-cultural interests of representatives of individual peoples. According to experts, preservation and improvement of good-neighborly relations between representatives of certain ethnic groups are greatly influenced by the verified national policy and successful economic development of the republic. Some experts support the opinion which prevails among the republic population on the negative impact of labor migrants on the labor market opportunities for the old-age population, although statistics data do not confirm such attitudes. From experts’ viewpoint, successful implementation of national policy in the republic could be facilitated by organization of a special state management structure (ministry, committee), active involvement of enthusiasts in national cultural associations in various management issues, regular ethnological monitoring, dissemination of positive practices in the field of interethnic relations, etc. In general, experts believe that there is no noticeable influence of the ethnic factor on real politics in Chuvashia.

Intergroup Contact, Intergroup Anxiety, and Attitudes towards the Opposing Group in Divided Society

The negative attitudes and negative emotions play a key role in maintaining the hostilities between the groups of a divided society. Evidence suggests that intergroup contact can improve or worsen intergroup attitudes. The current study examined the mediating role of intergroup anxiety on quantity of interethnic contact and acculturation attitudes and emotional responses to contradictory conflict narratives in a divided society with a background of armed conflict in the past. The study was conducted among 202 Albanians and 239 Serbs in Kosovo. The results indicate that as more as they meet members of the opposing group the less they feel intergroup anxiety and the more they show acculturation attitudes towards the opposing group among both Albanians and Serbs. However, such mediating role of intergroup anxiety was not found on emotional responses to contradictory conflict narratives, except among Serbs who live in certain enclaves. The findings are discussed in terms of context, reconciliation, and maintenance of frozen conflict.

Personal Social Networks of Recent Refugees in Germany: Does Family Matter?

This article explores the composition of the personal social networks and their interrelation with the family context of recently arrived refugees in Germany. Using the Refugee Sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel (2017) and performing logistic regression analyses, the findings suggest that refugees living without their partner, children, or extended family in Germany are more likely to have at least one close non-kin confidant. The same holds true for inter-ethnic contacts. Moreover, the results show that also opportunity structures like the workplace or leisure-time activities matter. As male and female refugees have different family arrangements, differences by sex emerge.

A perfect match? The dampening effect of interethnic marriage on armed conflict in Africa

How does interethnic marriage influence the occurrence of ethnic violence in sub-Saharan Africa? Previous studies on the relationship between intergroup contact and conflict onset have produced mixed findings. Some scholars have argued that this might be due to the way interethnic contact is measured. Building on insights of social psychology, this study examines the influence of interethnic marriage as the ultimate form of positive intergroup contact. In doing so, we combine information of the Demographic and Health Surveys with event data on ethnic conflict. Our analysis shows that areas with higher levels of exogamy significantly experience less ethnic conflict.

Axiological aspect of modern german ethnosymbols in teaching german language

Based on the axiological approach, it has been established that the moral-ethical orientations of the German society have been internalized in the minds of the ethnos and verbalized by the ethnosymbols. An ethnosymbol is a motivated, conventional linguistic sign with multiple meaning that embodies important cultural meaningful concepts. The reasons for the formation of ethnosymbols are the specificity and duration of interethnic contacts, social, political and economic conditions for the development of ethnic groups. The semantic structure of the ethnosymbol is formed on the basis of national associative relationships commonly used in a particular sociolinguistic system of agreements. The aim of the article is to establish the value dominants of German culture on the basis of the analysis of ethnic symbols as important components of the linguistic picture of the world. Symbolic meaning as an associative rethinking of the direct and figurative meanings of the word involves taking into account the social function and ethnocultural specifics of the denoted object. National verbal associations are a prerequisite for the formation of symbolic semantics of the word, but the involvement of only linguistic methods does not provide a thorough and comprehensive study. The connection between language and language consciousness can be explored through an associative experiment. The results of such an experiment make it possible not only to establish the features of verbal memory, mental lexicon, cultural stereotypes, but also to reflect the specifics of the worldview of the language community. Most German ethnic symbols objectify such concepts as order, punctuality, purity, diligence, thrift. The set of the value dominants creates a certain type of the culture that has been maintained in the language and is transferred from generation to generation.

Features of sheep breeding development in the Transnistrian territories of East Podillya at the end of the XIX – the first half of the XX century

Based on the interpretation of archival sources and field data, the article analyzes the specifics of sheep breeding in the ethno-contact zone of the Ukrainian‑Moldovan borderlands and traces the basic displays of ethnocultural interactions in it. It was found that because of long-term interethnic contacts in the Transnistrian territories of Eastern Podillya, ethnocultural complexes with a symbiosis of economic experiences have been formed, which is also typical for sheep breeding. Methods of historical comparisons, interviewing respondents, and partially – the principles of ethnographic mapping were used in the research. The materials of the Ukrainian archives in Kyiv, Odessa, Vinnitsa, as well as the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova in Chisinau, were examined. The main aspects of the topic were revealed with the help of the author’s expedition materials, recorded in 2013–2016 in the border villages of Vinnitsa and Odessa regions of Ukraine. The number of sheep, the characteristics of their keeping, forms of grazing and some ritual manifestations of sheep breeding were considered. In the conclusion, the facts were summarized and the directions for further research were indicated.

Traditional family rites of the Ukrainians of Podolia: archaic elements of а cultural text

Podolia is an ethnographic region of Ukraine, which is known for active interethnic contacts for many centuries, which, on the one hand, have systematically enriched the Podolsk spiritual and material culture, and on the other hand, in various spheres of the traditional culture of the Podolians, there is a preservation of many Slavic archaic elements. The article presents the archaic elements of the traditional culture of the Ukrainians of Podolia in traditional family rituals – birthlore, wedding and funeral on the material of the verbal component of the cultural text. Field records of dialectal texts, made by the author in 2006–2014 in more than 100 villages of Vinnitsa region served as empirical basis of the study. The family rites texts attest the realization of the main semantic oppositions of the Slavic picture of the world: "top" – "bottom", "full" – "empty", "own" – "alien". The motives of the cult of ancestors, deception of death, syncretism of agrarian and family rituals are elements of the archaic, which constitute an essential part of the folk consciousness and beliefs of the Podolians. Several fragments of the folk culture of the Ukrainians of Podolia presented in the article through the prism of the comparative typological analysis, with the involvement of data from other Slavic traditions, signal the preservation of the general archaic fund of the spiritual culture of the Slavs

Mind the Gate: General Practitioner's Attitudes Towards Depressed Patients with Diverse Migration Backgrounds.

This study aims to examine (a) whether there are differences in general practitioners' (GPs) attitudes towards native Belgian patients, patients of foreign descent and asylum seeking patients who all express symptoms of major depression, and (b) whether these differences depend on GPs' experience with cultural competency training and interethnic contact. Using a video vignette study among 404 Flemish (Belgium) GPs, we find evidence of a provider bias. While GPs regard a patient of foreign descent as less trustworthy and less able to adhere to medical recommendations than a native Belgian patient, they also hold more pessimistic views on a potential recovery of an asylum seeking patient. In addition, we find that cultural competency training might alter GPs' attitudes of asylum seeking patients in a positive way. Summarized, our research highlights the need to target stereotypes among GPs for interventions designed to reduce migration-based disparities in healthcare use and health status.

Armenian migrants in the Russian socio-territorial space: theoretical and methodological foundations of an empirical study

The article thematically focuses on the analysis of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the social interactions of Armenian migrants with the local population. The components of the methodological basis on which empirical research is carried out are presented and described in detail. The procedural side of migrants 'adaptation is shown, as well as possible restrictions at various stages of migrants' adaptation. The concepts of accommodation, acculturation, and cultural shock are interpreted. The theory of social support and the acculturation model are analyzed. The possible consequences of migration for an individual or group are considered, including such categories as integration, assimilation, segregation, genocide. It is summarized: interethnic contact and the accompanying process of psychological adaptation for a migrant will depend on what acculturation strategy the individual adhered to. The process of reproduction of ethnic identity in a non-ethnic environment is studied. The essence of the phenomenon of the Diaspora as an ethnic community, its mentality, main features and functions are investigated. It is emphasized that the restructuring of the diaspora's mentality occurs during the collision of established forms of interaction with new types of communication, which helps to reduce the cultural distance between the diaspora and the host society. Ethnic identity is considered through its component part — the social identity of the individual. The phenomenon of identity is subjected to scientific observation from the position of its main component-self-identification. The methodological concepts of the study of factors and features of socio — cultural interaction of the dyad host community-ethnic migrants are analyzed. It is concluded that individual and socio-group adaptation is focused on the process of achieving social and psychological integration with another culture without losing the achievements of their own. The idea is updated that adaptation by the type of integration is considered a successful option for migrants, and unsuccessful adaptation can occur in the form of segregation or isolation.

Emotions in Intergroup Contact: Incidental and Integral Emotions' Effects on Interethnic Bias Are Moderated by Emotion Applicability and Subjective Agency.

This research draws from three distinct lines of research on the link between emotions and intergroup bias as springboard to integrative, new hypotheses. Past research suggests that emotions extrinsic to the outgroup (or “incidental”), and intrinsic to the outgroup (or “integral”), produce valence-congruent effects on intergroup bias when relevant or “applicable” to the outgroup (e.g., incidental/integral anger and ethnic outgroups). These emotions produce valence incongruent effects when irrelevant or “non-applicable” to the outgroup (e.g., incidental/integral sadness and happiness, and ethnic outgroups). Internally valid and ecologically sound tests of these contrasting effects are missing; hence we examined them experimentally in meaningful settings of interethnic contact. To this end, we hybridized established research paradigms in mood and intergroup contact research; this approach enabled us to use same materials and induction methods to instigate incidental and integral emotions in a single research design. In Experiment 1, White Australian students (N = 93) in in vivo real face-to-face contact with an ethnic tutor in their classroom displayed less interethnic bias when incidentally sad (vs. happy) or integrally happy (vs. sad). In Experiment 2, White American males' (N = 492) anti-Arab bias displayed divergent effects under incidental vs. integral (non-applicable) sadness/happiness and similar effects under incidental vs. integral (applicable) anger. The role of perceptions of agency in the emotion-inducing situation is also explored, tested, and explained drawing from mainstream emotion theory. As expected, integral and incidental applicable emotions caused valence congruent effects, at the opposite sides of the subjective agency spectrum, by encouraging the generalization of dislike from the outgroup contact partner to the outgroup as a whole. On the other hand, incidental-non-applicable emotions caused valence-incongruent effects on bias, under high agency conditions, by encouraging (non-partner-centered) heuristic processing. Because of the improved methodology, these effects can be regarded as genuine and not the byproduct of methodological artifacts. This theory-driven and empirically sound analysis of the interplay between emotion source, emotion applicability and subjective agency in intergroup contact can increase the precision of emotion-based bias reduction strategies by deepening understanding of the emotion conditions that lead to intergroup bias attenuation vs. exacerbation.

Межрегиональная сравнительная характеристика национального состава населения Среднего Поволжья и Южного Урала второй ПОЛОВИНЫ XIX века.

The paper presents a comparative analysis and characteristics of the social and everyday life of the peoples who inhabited the regions from 1867 to the end of the 19th century. Russian population in the provinces of the Middle Volga region had a larger share than in the Southern Urals, but the overall percentage of the Russian population decreased in the Middle Volga region, which is caused by a weak influx of Russians from the central part of Russia, the outflow of this part of the population to other parts of the country, the migration process of non-Russian peoples to the Middle Volga, the difference in the birth rate of representatives of the peoples. The population of the Middle Volga region and the Southern Urals by the end of the 19th century was distinguished by an exclusively multinational composition, which was due to the historical features of the settlement of the peoples of Russia, the socio-economic conditions of the development of the provinces and the migration processes (what exactly). Provincial cities were places of concentration of a more diverse population in national terms, in contrast to the inhabitants of counties and volosts, and centers of intensive interethnic contacts.

Prevention of Crime in the Context of Ethno-Social Relations

In this article, the authors examine the importance of crime prevention in the context of ethno-social relations. The problem of interethnic interaction is extremely important for any multi-ethnic state. Interethnic contacts are not always positive, which is why the problem of interethnic conflicts is one of the most important and relevant areas of research in modern social sciences. Ethnic conflicts objectively lie on the line of differences between ethnic groups, the subjective basis of which is ethnic identity. The theory of crime and the ways of its prevention is investigated on the basis of the program-target approach. Throughout the research, the authors come to the conclusion that in order to overcome the crime, it is vital to target the most vulnerable groups and implements special programs. As a result of the targeting approach, the ethno-social tensions could be overcome and minimize the proliferation of crime

Classroom Predictors of National Belonging: The Role of Interethnic Contact and Teachers\u2019 and Classmates\u2019 Diversity Norms

Schools can be important for the development of national belonging in students with immigrant backgrounds. Following Contact Theory and prior research on diversity norms, this cross-sectional survey study examined if intergroup contact and perceived diversity norms of teachers and classmates predicted national belonging in ethnic minority (i.e., Turkish [n = 95], Moroccan [n = 73], and Surinamese [n = 15]) versus majority students (n = 213) living in the Netherlands (Mage = 10.53 years; 50.3% female). Minority students reported less national belonging than their ethnic Dutch classmates. Multilevel analyses indicated that their national belonging was affected by the presence of ethnic Dutch classmates and the relationship with their teacher. These results indicate that minority students’ national belonging could be promoted by reducing school segregation and stimulating positive teacher-student relationships.

Ethnic Diversity and Local Economies

AbstractThe effect on economic outcomes of ethnic diversity remains debatable. Some view ethnic diversity as a deterrent of development, whereas others consider it a source of innovation and productivity, which can be translated into a higher level of development. This study aims to shed further light on the issue. Applying instrumental variables estimation to district‐level data, we find that ethnic diversity has a significant positive association with nighttime light intensity, which is used as a proxy for level of economic activity. The finding is robust to alternative specifications. Our finding suggests that centuries of interethnic contacts and coexistence may have helped ethnically diverse communities to gain experimental knowledge of the diverse beliefs and social practices and transition it into better economic outcomes.