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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06 Aug 2007TL;DR: The strange death of political anthropology has been discussed in this paper, where the authors argue that political anthropology is a metaphor for the state and violence in the modern world, and argue for the existence of pluralism in theory and practice.
Abstract: 1. The strange death of political anthropology 2. Locating the political 3. Culture, nation and misery 4. Performing democracy 5. The state and self-making 6. The state and violence 7. Pluralism in theory, pluralism in practice 8. Politics and counter-politics.
142 citations
TL;DR: The authors examine empirically the relationship between cultural similarities and differences and international dispute behavior in the post-World War II era and find that cultural differences make conflict more likely, but there exists little agreement among scholars over how identity forms among states, what distinctions are most salient and when conflict is more likely.
Abstract: Conventional wisdom suggests that cultural differences make conflict more likely. Culture can unite and divide, but there exists little agreement among scholars over how identity forms among states, what distinctions are most salient, and when conflict is more likely. Researchers have tended to ‘confirm’ the role of identity in an ex post facto fashion, looking only at actual conflicts with cultural differences, without considering the opportunities for conflict among groups. We address a series of problems with existing conceptions of identity and ethnicity. We distinguish between shared and different culture by religion, language, and ethnicity. Rather than equating states with just the dominant groups, we also consider how relations involving secondary groups present in other states can give rise to conflict. We examine empirically the relationship between cultural similarities and differences and international dispute behavior in the post-World War II era. Our results suggest that culture and identity...
142 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a critical systematization of current ideas of Europe as a cultural identity and on a fieldwork analysis of the nine European Cities of Culture (ECC) is presented.
Abstract: The EU has recently introduced a cultural policy. This includes symbolic initiatives, among which is the creation of the `European Cities of Culture' (ECC), that are a primary example of EU attempts at awakening European consciousness by promoting its symbols, while respecting the content of national cultures. This goes together with the realization that the idea of `Europe' as the foundation of an identity is key for the legitimization of the EU. This article addresses the question of European cultural identity as it is appropriated and shaped by the EU in the process of becoming an `imagined community'. It is grounded on a critical systematization of current ideas of Europe as a cultural identity and on a fieldwork analysis of the nine ECCs in 2000. The article argues that if we are to appreciate how Europe is imagined, it is important both to take EU symbolic initiatives seriously, and to try and grasp the specificity of these symbols and the peculiar conditions of their use.
140 citations
Cites background from "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The S..."
...…imagined it is not only important to take EU symbolic initiatives seriously, reaffirming the role of cultural symbols in the shaping of communities, as the classics taught us (Durkheim, 1912; Barth, 1969), we should also try to grasp the specificity of the symbols and of their use (Billig, 1995)....
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TL;DR: The authors argue that religious pluralism tends to be more intergenerationally robust and more deeply institutionalised than linguistic pluralism in western liberal democracies, and that religious diversity entails deeper and more divisive forms of diversity.
Abstract: Language and religion are arguably the two most socially and politically consequential domains of cultural difference in the modern world. Yet there have been very few efforts to compare the two in any sustained way. I begin by aligning language and religion, provisionally, with ethnicity and nationhood, and by sketching five ways in which language and religion are both similar to and similarly intertwined with ethnicity and nationhood. I then identify a series of key differences between language and religion and draw out their implications for the political accommodation of cultural heterogeneity. I show that religious pluralism tends to be more intergenerationally robust and more deeply institutionalised than linguistic pluralism in western liberal democracies, and I argue that religious pluralism entails deeper and more divisive forms of diversity. The upshot is that religion has tended to displace language as the cutting edge of contestation over the political accommodation of cultural difference – a striking reversal of the longer-term historical process through which language had previously displaced religion as the primary focus of contention.
140 citations
TL;DR: The authors posits five propositions about the nature of ethnicity in an effort to illuminate its historical character and diverse experiential forms, drawing examples primarily from Africa, and posits that ethnicity has the capacity to determine social and material life, or is determined by other forces and structures.
Abstract: Is ethnicity an object of analysis, something to be explained? Or is it an explanatory principle capable of accounting for significant aspects of human existence? Because it has been treated in both ways, sometimes simultaneously, there is disagreement over even the most fundamental issues: What is ethnicity, one thing or many? Does it have the capacity to determine social and material life? Or is it determined by other forces and structures? And how does it relate to race, class and nationalism? Drawing examples primarily from Africa, this essay posits five propositions about the nature of ethnicity in an effort to illuminate its historical character and diverse experiential forms.
140 citations