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Journal ArticleDOI

Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference

01 Jun 1970-British Journal of Sociology-Vol. 21, Iss: 2, pp 231
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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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The case of the Turkish minority in Greece, a beached diaspora and vestige of the Ottoman past, is a peculiar case where the tensions of transnationalism and nationalism intersect and where boundaries are continuously created and negotiated as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The case of the Turkish minority in Greece, a ‘beached’ diaspora and vestige of the Ottoman past, is a peculiar case where the tensions of transnationalism and nationalism intersect and where boundaries are continuously created and negotiated. In order to understand communication in this politicised environment, this article, which is based on interviews with, and participant observation among, Turkish speakers living in Athens, draws on Barth's theory on ethnic groups and boundaries. The paper argues that the media, both national and transnational, often create boundaries for inclusion and exclusion, and eventually participation in a ‘common culture’. The first part of the paper highlights two themes: the first is that gender and generational differences contest the idea of a homogenous Turkish minority and suggest the importance of social change; the second is that media consumption in Turkish households is ordinary, shaped by social rather than ethnic parameters. In the second part of the paper, howeve...

64 citations


Cites background from "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The S..."

  • ...This means that ‘the critical focus for investigation [becomes] the ethnic boundary that defines the group rather than the cultural stuff that it encloses’ (Barth 1969b: 15)....

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Dissertation
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: The Roman moral-based custom of fides as an internal preventative regime that inhibited genocide through rituals of submission to Roman hegemony is discussed in this article, where the authors propose typologies through which the genocidal behaviours of the Romans can be explored and described.
Abstract: As the nascent power of Rome grew to dominance over the Mediterranean world in the Middle Republic, they carried out mass killing, mass enslavement, and urban annihilation. In doing so, they showed an intention to destroy other groups, therefore committing genocide. This study looks at the kinds of destruction enacted by Romans between 343 BCE and 146 BCE, using a novel application of definitions and frameworks of analysis from the field of Genocide Studies. It proposes typologies through which the genocidal behaviours of the Romans can be explored and described. Mass killing, enslavement, and urban annihilation normally occurred in the context of siege warfare, when the entire population became legitimate targets. Initial indiscriminate killing could be followed by the enslavement of the survivors and burning of their settlement. While genocide is a valid historiographical tool of analysis, Roman behaviours were distinct from modern patterns of mass killing in lacking a substantial component of racial or ethnic motivation. These phenomena were complex and varied, and the utter destruction of groups not regularly intended. Roman genocidal violence was a normative, but not typical, adaptation of the Romans of the Middle Republic to the ancient anarchic interstate system. In antiquity, there was no international law to govern conflict and international relations, only customs. This study posits that the Roman moral-based custom of fides as an internal preventative regime that inhibited genocide through rituals of submission to Roman hegemony. This process was flawed, and cultural miscommunication risked causing mass violence. Furthermore, the wide discretion of Roman commanders accepting submission could result in them flouting the moral obligation to protect ii surrendered groups. In such cases, attempts at punishment and restitution from other members of the elite were only partially effective.

64 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored whether accent behaves like a byproduct of coalitional categorization, or like a dedicated dimension of social categorization and found that accent behaved like a specific dimension, remaining unaffected by the same coalitional manipulation that reduces categorization by race.

64 citations


Cites background from "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The S..."

  • ...…have different underlying proximate psychologies, and as has been pointed out by generations of linguists and anthropologists (e.g., Sapir, 1921; Barth, 1969; Gudykunst & TingToomey, 1990), language and race correspond to different aspects of the world, and have complex and varied relationships…...

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  • ...If “group” means a collection of people coordinating, cooperating, or competing, then it is unlikely that accent is always or invariably going to be a better marker (Barth, 1969; Hill, 1978; Sapir, 1921)....

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  • ...As Barth (1969) points out: “…the traditional proposition that a race = a culture = a language and that a society = a unit which rejects or discriminates against others…prevents us from understanding the phenomenon of ethnic groups and their place in human society and culture…[and] implies a…...

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A. D. Smith as mentioned in this paper argues for a wider, more metaphorical conceptualisation of his central terms, using examples to support the view that both kinship (ethnicity) and place (territory) - basic elements in political identity everywhere - may be construed on the basis of diverse materials.
Abstract: One of A. D. Smith's most controversial contributions to the theory of nationalism is his view of the role of the ethnie in the historical emergence of nationhood. He sees the ethnie, its shared memories, myths and territorial belonging as important conditions for stable national identities based on deep emotional commitments, thereby arguing against radical modernist and constructivist views of nationhood. While Smith's view has much to recommend it, this paper argues for a wider, more metaphorical conceptualisation of his central terms, using examples to support the view that both kinship (ethnicity) and place (territory) - basic elements in political identity everywhere - may be construed on the basis of diverse materials. However, and here Smith's interventions have been extremely valuable, the resulting collective identity must be based on some notion of kinship and place in order to be a national identity proper. For many years and through an impressive number of books and journal articles, A. D. Smith has defended his view of the ethnie or ethnic community as the sociocultural and historical basis of modern nationalism (Smith 1986, 1991, 1995, 1998). As the readers of this journal are aware, his view is influential but far from uncontroversial. Already Hans Kohn (1955) distinguished between an 'Eastern', ethnocultural and a 'Western', civic form of nationalism, assuming that only the former was based on ethnic identity. Later studies of French and German nationalism (notably Brubaker 1992) have contrasted the conse- quences of ius soli and ius sanguinis, indicating roughly that Frenchness can be acquired, whereas descent determines whether or not one is to be considered a German. While Smith's theoretical opponent Ernest Gellner (1983, 1997) agrees with the view that ethnic groups formed the basis of nations - somewhat surprisingly, given his gargantuan emphasis on their constructed nature - the equally influential Benedict Anderson (1983) does not posit such a connection. Several of his main examples, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, were not based on a pre-existing ethnie. Current views of possible nations which are immediately relevant to the question of its relationship to ethnicity, include Habermas' notion of Verfassungspatriotismus - constitutional patriotism - and Kymlicka's (1995) concept of multicultural citizenship. The perspective that will be developed here consists in an attempt to overcome the divide between constructivism and primordialism. Just as it can

64 citations