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: For instance, evidence from Chinese documents supports the hypothesis that Sogdians dominated Silk Road trade in East Turkestan during the 7th and 8th centuries as discussed by the authors, and the merchants lived and/or traveled among a diaspora of Sogdkians who settled in the oasis cities of the region and also practiced farming and handicraft making.
Abstract: Evidence from Chinese documents supports the hypothesis that Sogdians dominated Silk Road trade in East Turkestan during the seventh and eighth centuries. The merchants lived and/or traveled among a diaspora of Sogdians who settled in the oasis cities of the region and also practiced farming and handicraft making. Some traders traveled the entire distance between China and West Asia, but others operated along circumscribed routes that connected to the broader commercial network. Residents of the diaspora facilitated trade by acting as cultural intermediaries for unassimilated merchants. Le temoignage des documents chinois soutient l'hypothese selon laquelle les Sogdiens dominerent le commerce sur la route de la soie pendant les VIIe et VIIIe siecles. Les marchands habiterent et/ou voyagerent parmi une diaspora de Sogdiens qui s'etablit autour des villesoasis de la region et exercerent l'agriculture ainsi que l'artisanat. Certaines marchands voyagerent sur toute la distance entre la Chine et l'Asie occidentale, tandis que d'autres travaillerent sur des chemins courts les reliant a un reseau commercial plus large. Les habitants de la diaspora faciliterent ce commerce en leur qualite d'intermediaire culturels au service des marchands etrangers.
47 citations
TL;DR: The authors compare identity and citizenship among four immigrant populations in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area to explore the distinctions that immigrants themselves draw between political and cultural belonging, arguing that immigrants have a bifocal outlook on belonging.
Abstract: This article compares identity and citizenship among four immigrant populations in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area to explore the distinctions that immigrants themselves draw between political and cultural belonging. The article addresses the differences between the rights/responsibilities dimensions of citizenship on one hand, and the identity dimensions of citizenship on the other hand. It demonstrates the significance of immigration status in shaping attitudes toward naturalization, citizenship, and the construction of identity, arguing that immigrants have a bifocal outlook on belonging.
47 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: The Qumran Paradigm as discussed by the authors connects the archaeological site of Khirbet qumran to the manuscripts from the eleven caves in its vicinity and, on the other hand, the descriptions of the Essenes by Philo, Josephus and Pliny the Elder.
Abstract: :
This thesis is a critical study of some of the foundational hypotheses of the Qumran Paradigm. This Paradigm connects the archaeological site of Khirbet Qumran to, on the one hand, the manuscripts from the eleven caves in its vicinity and, on the other hand, the descriptions of the Essenes by Philo, Josephus and Pliny the Elder. Thus, the Qumran Paradigm hypothesises that the Qumran manuscripts reflect the ‘sectarian’ library of a radical minority group (or ‘sect’), which was closely connected to the Essenes and resided at Khirbet Qumran. Part of this group’s ideology is thought to be their self-identification as ‘the chosen righteous ones’, awaiting the eschaton. Their exclusivist self-understanding is perceived to be demonstrated by modes of separatism and dualistic thinking in the manuscripts of the group’s ‘library’.
This thesis discusses several of the hypotheses that have formed the foundations of this prevalent Qumran Paradigm: the idea of a ‘ sectarian library’; literary and socio-historical models of textual classification; the use and accurateness of certain terminology to describe particular textual peculiarities (such as ‘dualism’); and finally, the implications of conclusions drawn from the perception of ideological coherence in the Qumran texts.
First, this study evaluates the notions of a ‘sectarian’ library and a ‘sectarian’ group, and how these notions have influenced scholarly classifications of the Qumran texts. These classifications have constructed chronological models of 'sectarian' development, in the attempt to identify a correlation between text-ideology and social history. The validity of such mirror readings is discussed with regard to a crucially important, yet difficult to categorise, Qumran text, 4QMMT.
The second part of this study focuses on the construction of social reality through the perception of ideological coherence, particularly with regard to the concept of ‘dualism’. We evaluate the expansion of its definition into ten types of ‘Qumran’-specific dualism. Subsequently, the concept of ‘dualism’ is discussed with regard to the Treatise of the Two Spirits (1QS iii 13 – iv 26), as its dualistically perceived ideas are analysed and compared to similar ideas in other texts.
This study wants to critically evaluate those elements in the foundations of the Qumran Paradigm that prevent scholarship from theorising about possible social realities beyond the scholarly construct of the Qumran 'library' and 'sect'. Hence, it wishes to advocate a more revisionist approach that more fundamentally questions the foundations of the Paradigm, specifically for those texts that do not seem to ‘fit’ within the Qumran Paradigm and that allow us to consider whether the texts found at Qumran represent a wider range of social backgrounds and a fuller engagement with the diverse forms of Second Temple Judaism than is normally envisaged.
47 citations
47 citations
Dissertation•
30 Apr 2018
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a lifestyle migration lens to explore the second-generation Turkish-Germans' "return" migration to their ancestral homeland in Antalya, Turkey.
Abstract: This thesis uses a lifestyle migration lens to explore the second-generation Turkish-Germans’ ‘return’ migration to their ancestral homeland. Disappointed with the post-return lives in their parents’ towns of origin and/or in big cities like Istanbul, the research’s sample group consciously made the decision to remobilise themselves and resettle in Antalya, a tourism hub in the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The narratives reflect that the second generation’s ‘return’ imaginings and further life choices such as places of settlement are motivated by their goals of ‘living a fulfilling life’ and have a ‘coherent sense of self’. The qualitative study coins a new term, ‘lifestyle return migration’ which offers a hybrid conceptual framework, alternative to conventional migration theories that evaluate ‘return’ as an ‘income-maximising act’, ‘anomaly’ and ‘homecoming’. Based on the thematic and narrative analysis of 44 semi-structured, in-depth life-story interviews, the findings illustrate that ‘lifestyle returnees’ perceive Antalya as a place wherein their multiple identities, ‘alternative’ lifestyles and translocal ties can co-exist. Thus, Antalya’s cosmopolitan setting with many foreign, especially German, tourists and residents are particularly valued. Moreover, they can mobilise their human capital of educational qualifications, bilingual skills and “transcultural capital” to set up or get jobs in the tourism sector, combining work with leisure in ‘tourism spaces’ wherein they can sustain a persistent holiday feeling. In addition, the narratives reveal more existential themes of (re-)discovering their ‘true’ selves and (re-)inventing the meaning of ‘home’ in this international niche. Subsequently, the thesis aims to highlight the relevance of lifestyle migration approaches to explore complex ‘return’ decisions through an agency-oriented approach and with a focus on social fields embedded in specific locales.
47 citations
Cites background from "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The S..."
...…constructed, sought and actualised in the lives of the second generation in relation to Western modern subjects (bona fide lifestyle migrants) have the potential of understanding diasporic individual’s agencies beyond national borders and “ethnic groupism/boundaries” (Barth, 1969; Brubaker, 2002)....
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...Contrasting how ‘self’ is perceived, constructed, sought and actualised in the lives of the second generation in relation to Western modern subjects (bona fide lifestyle migrants) have the potential of understanding diasporic individual’s agencies beyond national borders and “ethnic groupism/boundaries” (Barth, 1969; Brubaker, 2002)....
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