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 paper, the role of ceramics as functioning tools in the first and early to mid second millennia has been investigated in the Victoria Nyanza region between first millennium Urewe users and second millennium Transitional and Entebbe Ceramics.
Abstract: This paper presents results of recent research in Kenya and Uganda on ceramics from the first and early to mid second millennia ad Whereas previous research has tended to emphasise the role of ceramics as chronological tools, or as an index of past ethno-linguistic identity, this paper will emphasise the role of ceramics as functioning tools Combining archive and published data with new results from fieldwork, the evidence presented here demonstrates continuity of settlement in the Victoria Nyanza region between first millennium Urewe users and second millennium Transitional Urewe and Entebbe ceramics, and the emergence of specialist lacustrine communities The changing nature of ceramics over this time span is compared with evidence from historical linguistics to suggest a shift in social authority from the family home to the wider community in the second millennium, and the growing influence of economic wealth or individual leadership
87 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a systematic ethnographic study of emic ethnic classification in Puerto Rico, including a replication and extension of Marvin Harris's (1970) seminal study in Brazil, is presented.
Abstract: This article presents a systematic ethnographic study of emic ethnic classification in Puerto Rico, including a replication and extension of Marvin Harris's (1970) seminal study in Brazil. I address three questions: (1) what are the core emic categories of color? (2) what dimensions of semantic structure organize this cultural domain? and (3) is the assumption of a shared cultural model justified? Data are from two sets of ethnographic interviews in southeastern Puerto Rico, including 23 free listing interviews and 42 structured interviews using Harris's standardized facial portraits. Results indicate a small core of salient emic categories with well-defined semantic structure and high interinformant agreement, reflecting shared cultural understandings of color. I discuss how systematic ethnographic methods can contribute to comparative research on ethnic classification.
86 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine a transection of the discipline that shares this methodology, focusing on encounter approaches to transnational capitalism, space and place, and human-nonhuman relations.
Abstract: Ethnographies of encounter are one response to calls to decolonize anthropology. These ethnographies explore how culture making occurs through unequal relationships involving two or more groups of people and things that appear to exist in culturally distinct worlds. The term encounter refers to everyday engagements across difference. Ethnographies of encounter focus on the cross-cultural and relational dynamics of these processes. They consider how such engagements bring discrepant stakes and histories together in ways that produce new cultural meanings, categories, objects, and identities. This article examines a transection of the discipline that shares this methodology. We focus on encounter approaches to (a) transnational capitalism, (b) space and place, and (c) human-nonhuman relations. Rather than taking capitalism, space and place, and humanness as contextual frameworks, these ethnographies demonstrate how encounter is the means by which these categories emerge.
85 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a life cycle model for aboriginal arts performance in tourism related situations from the perspective of authenticity is proposed, which is designed to help understand and manage the increasingly complex world in which aboriginal arts can decline, survive or change.
Abstract: This paper suggests a life cycle model for aboriginal arts performance in tourism related situations from the perspective of authenticity. It is proposed that aboriginal arts performance is subject to a change and potential revitalisation process which consists of five stages: (1) the primordial state; (2) increasing involvement; (3) situational adaptations; (4) revitalisation; and (5) management for change, conservation or decline. The paper also examines the existing literature concerning authenticity in the field of tourism. It is designed to help understand and manage the increasingly complex world in which aboriginal arts can decline, survive or change.
85 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine Late Classic (A.D. 600-950) material patterns from the Naco valley, northwestern Honduras, for the light they shed on the proposed integration of political and cultural processes within developing complex polities.
Abstract: Those seeking to ensconce themselves at the pinnacles of emerging sociopolitical hierarchies must forge alliances with both their immediate subordinates and distant peers. In the first case, allegiance to a polity that transcends extant and emerging sectarian affiliations must be achieved if the realm is to survive the passing of individual charismatic rulers. Cooperation with foreign leaders, in turn, guarantees a steady supply of political valuables useful in ensnaring clients within dependency relations that undergird sociopolitical hierarchy. Achievement of these objectives requires creation and propagation of at least two distinct social identities, one linking rulers and ruled within a polity and the other uniting paramounts in a network covering vast territorial expanses. In this article, we examine Late Classic (A.D. 600-950) material patterns from the Naco valley, northwestern Honduras, for the light they shed on the proposed integration of political and cultural processes within developing complex polities. The strategic manipulation of material symbols to fashion new affiliations and the implications of these identities for social change are also considered, [social identity, Mesoamerican archaeology, ideology, political contests, symbols]
84 citations