Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference
About: This article is published in British Journal of Sociology.The article was published on 1970-06-01. It has received 4205 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Social organization & Ethnic group.
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TL;DR: The authors argue that the individual mobility of minority-language speakers is far better served by shifting to a majority language than by using essentialism in minority language rights, and that the apparent utopianism and artificiality of'reversing language shift' in the face of wider social and political'realities'.
Abstract: While advocacy of minority language rights (MLR) has become well established in sociolinguistics, language policy and planning and the wider human rights literature, it has also come under increased criticism in recent times for a number of key limitations. In this paper, I address directly three current key criticisms of the MLR movement. The first is a perceived tendency towards essentialism in articulations of language rights. The second is the apparent utopianism and artificiality of 'reversing language shift' in the face of wider social and political 'realities'. And the third is that the individual mobility of minority-language speakers is far better served by shifting to a majority language. While acknowledging the perspicacity of some of these arguments, I aim to rearticulate a defence of minority language rights that effectively addresses these key concerns. This requires, however, a sociohistorical/sociopolitical rather than a biological/ecological analysis of MLR. In addition, I will argue that...
164Â citations
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TL;DR: The authors explored the possibilities and limits of collaborative work, focusing on recent Native heritage exhibitions in southcentral and southwestern Alaska and discussed the cultural politics of identity and tradition, stressing social processes of articulation, performance, and translation.
Abstract: The ambivalent legacy of anthropologists' relations with local communities presents contemporary researchers with both obstacles and opportunities. No longer justifiable by assumptions of free scientific access and interpersonal rapport, research increasingly calls for explicit contract agreements and negotiated reciprocities. The complex, unfinished colonial entanglements of anthropology and Native communities are being undone and rewoven, and even the most severe indigenous critics of anthropology recognize the potential for alliances when they are based on shared resources, repositioned indigenous and academic authorities, and relations of genuine respect. This essay probes the possibilities and limits of collaborative work, focusing on recent Native heritage exhibitions in southcentral and southwestern Alaska. It also discusses the cultural politics of identity and tradition, stressing social processes of articulation, performance, and translation.
162Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the Nubians of Uganda were studied in the context of the 1071 coup d'etat of Idi Amin and their subsequent sudden rise following it.
Abstract: Most concepts of ethnicity are unsuitable for political analysis because they ignore either subjective or objective aspects, and because they ignore the fluid and situational nature of ethnicity. The approach flowing from the concept proposed here permits the observer to examine empirical variations that tend to be treated as rigid assumptions by modernization analysts on the one hand and class analysts on the other. The concept is applied to a study of the Nubians of Uganda because of the intermixture of class and ethnic features involved in their fall from status at the beginning of the colonial period and their subsequent sudden rise following the 1071 coup d'etat of Idi Amin. The fairly recent creation of the Nubians as an ethnic category and the relative ease with which others can become members illustrate other features of the proposed concept of ethnicity. Finally, this concept is used to examine and criticize overly restrictive notions of ethnicity found in theories based upon both cultural pluralism and consociationalism.
161Â citations
01 Jan 2012
160Â citations
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31 Oct 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, the development of nation states (riki) is discussed in the context of the Viking Age in the British Isles and in the North Atlantic region of modern-day Russia and the East.
Abstract: Part 1: Viking Age Scandinavia People, Society and Social Institutions. Living Space. Technology and Trade. Warfare and Weaponry. Pre-Christian Religion and Belief. Language, Literature and Art Part 2: The Viking Expansion The British Isles. Continental Europe and the Mediterranean. The Baltic. Russia and the East. The North Atlantic Part 3: Scandinavia Enters the European Stage The Coming of Christianity. The Development of Nation States (riki)
160Â citations