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: In this article, the authors consider British Muslim women's accounts of wearing hijab (a scarf covering the hair) and how this visible declaration of religious identity is implicated in the performance of their religious, national and gender identities.
Abstract: Theories concerning the relationship between social identification and behaviour are increasingly attentive to how group members emphasise or de-emphasise identity-related attributes before particular audiences. Most research on this issue is experimental and explores the expression of identity-related attitudes as a function of participants' beliefs concerning their visibility to different audiences. We extend and complement such research with an analysis of group members' accounts of their identity performances. Specifically, we consider British Muslim women's (n = 22) accounts of wearing hijab (a scarf covering the hair) and how this visible declaration of religious identity is implicated in the performance of their religious, national and gender identities. Our analysis extends social psychological thinking on identity performance in three ways. First, it extends our understandings of the motivations for making an identity visible to others. Second, it sheds light on the complex relationship between the performance of one (e.g. Muslim) identity and the performance of other (e.g. gender/national) identities. Third, it suggests the experience of making an identity visible can facilitate the subsequent performance of that identity. The implications of these points for social identity research on identity performance are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
90 citations
TL;DR: Stern contextualized the six articles in the special issue of the Journal of Advertising dedicated to the impact of gender and multicultural issues as on advertising as discussed by the authors, and presented an overview of the theoretical relationship between evolutionary stages of gender research and multicultural research.
Abstract: Stern contextualizes the six articles in the special issue of Journal of Advertising dedicated to the impact of gender and multicultural issues as on advertising. She presents an overview of the theoretical relationship between evolutionary stages of gender research, formerly called "feminist" or "women's studies," and multicultural research, an outgrowth of cultural studies. To situate the current trends in advertising research, she begins by addressing the nexus between feminist criticism, defined as the cross-disciplinary study of women, and multicultural criticism, defined as the cross-disciplinary study of marginalized populations including (but not limited to) women. Next, she turns to the historical development of gender studies in the modern and post-modern era?the generation from 1960 to the present ? to address the interwoven themes of gender and multicultural research as they affect advertising research. Last, she draws implications from the intersection of gender and race to suggest directions for future multicultural research.
90 citations
TL;DR: The role of differentiation in the Andean polity of Tiwanaku (A. D. 500-1150) is investigated in this article, where the authors evaluate expressions of social identity in relation to differences in status and specialized production.
Abstract: Archaic state formation simultaneously involved political integration and socioeconomic differentiation, which many archaeologists consider mutually reinforcing processes. Differentiation is considered to have consisted primarily of status and specialization, forms of heterogeneity that ultimately supported state integration. This paper addresses the role of differentiation in the Andean polity of Tiwanaku (A. D. 500–1150). Specifically, it evaluates expressions of social identity in relation to differences in status and specialized production in the urban settlements of Tiwanaku and Lukurmata. Patterns of ceramic style are compared with other types of material culture and residential activities. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that, in the context of a potent and ubiquitous state culture, significant social boundaries persisted at multiple social scales, ranging from urban corporate groups to more encompassing regional affiliations. At larger scales identity potentially involved some degree of political autonomy, as it did in later sociopolitical organizations in the south-central Andes. For several hundred years, Tiwanaku rulers, facing profound social diversity and enduring local identities, emphasized incorporative strategies of integration, leaving a great deal of productive management and sociopolitical organization in the hands of local groups. Social boundaries played critical roles in state formation and centralization, and ultimately may have precipitated its disintegration.
89 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate Smith's ethno-symbolist thesis by applying his work on the relationship between states and ethnic cores to the historical example of Britain and find that states that have been able to establish their official cultures on the ethnicity of a demographically dominant and cohesive ethnic core are likely to be more stable than states that are divided by the rival histories and traditions of competing ethnonational communities.
Abstract: . The dominant ‘modernisation’ perspective on the nature of nations and national identities characterises these phenomena as purely modern artefacts which function as sociological cement for complex industrial societies. In opposition, Anthony D. Smith has elaborated an ‘ethno-symbolist’ framework which posits the possibility of pre-modern antecedents to modern national identities. According to Smith, modern states which have been able to establish their official cultures on the ethnicity of a demographically dominant and cohesive ethnic core are likely to be more stable than states that are divided by the rival histories and traditions of competing ethno-national communities. This paper evaluates Smith's ethno-symbolist thesis by applying his work on the relationship between states and ethnic cores to the historical example of Britain. What is Britishness? Is it just a transnational state patriotism, or is it a secondary form of national identity constructed largely in English terms?
89 citations
Cites background from "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The S..."
...At this point it must be stated that Smith deploys the concept `ethnicity' not in the more common sense of the shifting `border markers' that Fredrik Barth (1969) has discussed, nor even in a racial/biological sense.7 Rather, he uses this concept to refer to the sense of common historic culture and way of life amongst a given ethno-national community....
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...Or does it comprise a set of `cultural markers' that are shaped (and re-shaped) in response to contact with signi®cant `others' (that is, a Barthian `boundary' approach (Barth 1969: 9±38))?...
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...At this point it must be stated that Smith deploys the concept `ethnicity' not in the more common sense of the shifting `border markers' that Fredrik Barth (1969) has discussed, nor even in a racial/biological sense.7 Rather, he uses this concept to refer to the sense of common historic culture and…...
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TL;DR: The authors explored the relationship between the unacknowledged tribes and anthropologists in both eras, focusing upon the mixture of essentialist and constructionist approaches to indigenous identity which underlies contemporary collaborations between indigenous intellectuals and leaders and anthropologist interlocutors.
Abstract: California's statehood and assimilation into the United States during the 19th century were accompanied by genocide against the indigenous population; among those peoples that survived, a large number were officially erased by a federal policy of non‐recognition in which anthropologists and anthropological knowledge played a role. At the end of the 20th century the descendants of these peoples, the “unacknowledged tribes,” are engaged in struggles both to gain federal recognition and to revive their languages and cultural heritage, processes in which anthropologists once again are involved. This paper explores the relationships between the unacknowledged tribes and anthropologists in both eras, focusing upon the mixture of essentialist and constructionist approaches to indigenous identity which underlies contemporary collaborations between indigenous intellectuals and leaders and anthropologist interlocutors.
89 citations