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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30 Nov 2010TL;DR: Niezen as mentioned in this paper examines the processes by which cultural concepts are conceived and collective rights are defended in international law, and argues that cultivating support on behalf of those experiencing human rights violations often calls for strategic representations of injustice and suffering to distant audiences.
Abstract: In this powerful, timely study Ronald Niezen examines the processes by which cultural concepts are conceived and collective rights are defended in international law. Niezen argues that cultivating support on behalf of those experiencing human rights violations often calls for strategic representations of injustice and suffering to distant audiences. The positive impulse behind public responses to political abuse can be found in the satisfaction of justice done. But the fact that oppressed peoples and their supporters from around the world are competing for public attention is actually a profound source of global difference, stemming from differential capacities to appeal to a remote, unknown public. Niezen's discussion of the impact of public opinion on law provides fresh insights into the importance of legally-constructed identity and the changing pathways through which it is being shaped - crucial issues for all those with an interest in anthropology, politics and human rights law.
46 citations
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29 Mar 2016TL;DR: Gagan D. Sood as mentioned in this paper focuses on ordinary people - traders, pilgrims, bankers, clerics, brokers, and scribes, among others - who were engaged in activities marked by large distances and long silences.
Abstract: Based on the chance survival of a remarkable cache of documents, India and the Islamic Heartlands recaptures a vanished and forgotten world from the eighteenth century spanning much of today's Middle East and South Asia. Gagan D. S. Sood focuses on ordinary people - traders, pilgrims, bankers, clerics, brokers, and scribes, among others - who were engaged in activities marked by large distances and long silences. By elucidating their everyday lives in a range of settings, from the family household to the polity at large, Sood pieces together the connective tissue of a world that lay beyond the sovereign purview. Recapturing this obscured and neglected world helps us better understand the region during a pivotal moment in its history, and offers new answers to old questions concerning early modern Eurasia and its transition to colonialism.
46 citations
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this article, the marginalised status of the Bushmen is discussed in the context of tourism in Namibia and South Africa, where they are considered natural ecologists in need of protection, while in reality they are participants of modernisation.
Abstract: Dwelling in Tourism highlights how marginalised Bushmen people are in the middle of a struggle between traditional en modern forces. Tourism, as an important element of conservation strategies, is a phenomenon built on both, and therefore reveals those struggles and shows how the marginalised status of Bushmen is interwoven with relations of power and myths. Seen from the dwelling perspective as the main theoretical starting point, many tourism environments in four case studies are described, three in Namibia and one in South Africa. All too often Bushmen are considered natural ecologists in need of protection, while in reality they are participants of modernisation with their own agency.
46 citations
Cites background from "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The S..."
...Amongst other strategies, agents of change “may choose to emphasise ethnic identity, using it to develop new positions and patterns to organize activities in those sectors formerly not found in their society, or inadequately developed for the new purposes” (Barth 1969: 32-33)....
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...Today, however, there are no more closed spaces even if there ever were (Agar 1994: 121-122; Barth 1969: 9-10)....
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TL;DR: The authors provided a theory of ethnicity (de)construction that includes migrants as well as non-migrants, and examined the extent to which it has provided extensive contributions not only for the understanding of ethnicity in the marketplace but also for personal/collective well-being.
Abstract: Research into consumer ethnicity is a vital discipline that has substantially evolved in the past three decades. This conceptual article critically reviews its immense literature and examines the extent to which it has provided extensive contributions not only for the understanding of ethnicity in the marketplace but also for personal/collective well-being. We identify two gaps accounting for scant transformative contributions. First, today social transformations and conceptual sophistications require a revised vocabulary to provide adequate interpretive lenses. Second, extant work has mostly addressed the subjective level of ethnic identity projects but left untended the meso/macro forces affecting ethnicity (de)construction and personal/collective well-being. Our contribution stems from filling both gaps and providing a theory of ethnicity (de)construction that includes migrants as well as non-migrants.
46 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated how participation in local voluntary associations reinforces the local experience of the state to shape the ongoing development of political values and affect the prospects for ethnic peace and democracy and found that participation in ethnically heterogeneous voluntary associations does not necessarily promote democratic values and practice.
Abstract: This article attempts to understand why ethnic-regional civil war has challenged the national unity of Cote d'Ivoire and not Ghana, two neighbouring countries with nearly identical ethnic, religious and regional divisions, by examining politics at the grassroots. Based on a carefully controlled comparison of two similar regions of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, the study investigates how participation in local voluntary associations reinforces the local experience of the state to shape the ongoing development of political values and affect the prospects for ethnic peace and democracy. The article finds that participation in ethnically heterogeneous voluntary associations does not necessarily promote democratic values and practice. In fact, in Cote d'Ivoire, participation in ethnically heterogeneous cocoa producer and mutual assistance organisations reinforces vertical patronage networks based on narrower ethnic identities. In contrast, in Ghana, participation in more ethnically homogeneous local church groups encourages the development of democratic values and practices at the local level that mediate the potential for ethnic conflict and support the consolidation of a democratic regime.
46 citations
Cites background from "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The S..."
...Much of this literature has either remained at the level of individual identity and psychology (Barth 1969; Geertz 1973), or concentrated on the level of the nation to evaluate what factors (e.g. institutions, structures, and/or cultural histories) exacerbate or mediate ethnic conflict (Rothchild…...
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