Book reviews

This study analyses the changing identity of immigrant and second generation Indian Jains. Using surveys and interviews in the United States and Mumbai, India, we find that Jains, a distinctive religious minority in India, acquire an ethnic identity of ‘Indian’ in the United States despite concerted efforts to maintain a religiously based identity. Social practices developed by Jains to maintain social cohesion after domestic migration within India actually aid in the creation of ethnic identity after transnational migration to the United States. The geographic context of these immigrants in the United States, including physical settlement patterns and interactions with non‐Jain Indian immigrants, also lead this group to express greater solidarity with ‘Indians’ than with ‘Jains’.     

The imagined ‘other’ and its shifts: politics and identifications in Turkish Cyprus

This article addresses the puzzling case of shifting identity constructions in northern Cyprus, from ethnic to civic–territorial in 2003 and back to ethnic in 2009. It is argued that these shifts occurred when external factors (EU and Turkey) opened/closed windows of opportunity for internal elites’ reconfigurations. It then explains societal responsiveness to these nation-building changes sustaining that, over time, a process transforming the perception of the ‘other’ took place from below and a civic–territorial identity layer (Cypriotness) developed along the ethnic-Turkish layer. These coexist and fluctuate depending on the given context of choice.     

Living as a non-Christian in a Christian community: experiences of religious marginalisation amongst young Korean Americans

Christianity is a critical element in the study of Korean Americans. It is estimated that over 70% of all Korean Americans are affiliated with Korean Christian churches. Much of the existing literature illustrates that these churches provide essential resources for Korean immigrants and they serve as important social mechanisms. This study responds to the need to investigate the lives of secular migrants where religious marginalisation may play a significant role in their everyday lives in relation to their predominantly Christian communities. In particular, the study focuses on the unique experiences of those aged between 25 and 35 living in the greater Boston area. The study compiles vivid narratives of non-Christian Korean American experiences within a dominant Christian ethnic community focusing on their religious and non-religious performances.     

宗教信仰与族群边界--以保安族为例

“回回”原为一个以宗教来认同的族群集体。建国以后 ,国家承认了“回回”的民族身份 ,定名为回族 ,并依据斯大林民族定义进一步将原一律包含进“回回人”中的别具自身文化特点的一些群体识别为单独的少数民族 ,如保安族、东乡族和撒拉族。这样 ,在甘青宁地区穆斯林社会中又出现了一道新的社会边界———民族。那么 ,在当代社会生活中 ,在这个由宗教提供最主要的社会互动关联体系的社会中 ,人们如何区分群体 ?怎样确定群体之间的互动规则 ?基于宗教信仰差异的社会边界和国家认定的民族边界分别发挥着什么样的作用 ?社会生活中真实的族群边界是什么 ?本文试图以保安族为例回答上述问题。     

Forging a Brazilian Islam: Muslim Converts Negotiating Identity in São Paulo

Converts form a growing portion of the Muslim community in São Paulo, Brazil. Often introduced to Islam through media representations, they turn to religion for a variety of reasons, including the desire to search for spiritual truth. This article will examine questions of identity that arise during the process of religious conversion, using data gathered from extensive fieldwork. Specifically, it will analyze how male converts view the place of Islam within the context of Brazilian society and how they reimagine concepts of personal identity through religious conversion. The study suggests that converts hold diverse points of view regarding the development of their spiritual identity, emphasizing both the challenges and benefits of being Muslim and practicing Islam in Brazil.     

Youth sport and community segregation: a study of kids’ participation in Australian rules football and soccer clubs in an Australian community

ABSTRACT

This research addresses the appeal for more empirical-based research on exclusionary practices in local community sport that often go unchallenged within dominant discourses. By examining how organised community sport clubs can uphold systemic segregation of various ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious and socioeconomic groups, this study also draws attention to the importance of research on race, ethnicity, and education in primary school age children; a population group often ignored in both racism studies and studies of sport. Using interview and focus group data from school principals and students (aged 9–12), including students from refugee and asylum seeker migrant backgrounds, collected over 3 years from two schools in the same multicultural community in Melbourne, Australia, this paper challenges the depiction of sport as an uncontested inclusive space in national and educational discourse, and instead demonstrates the continued existence of exclusion through systemically mediated segregation in organised community youth sport.     

学校教育情境中族群认同感建构的社会学分析(上):文献综述及研究方法

国家学校教育情境下学生如何建构族群认同感的问题倍受关注。本研究采用日记与文件分析法、访谈法与非参与观察法,剖析影响藏族学生族群认同感建构的国家政策情境、社区情境与学校情境。研究发现,学生族群认同感建构存在两种张力:一是国家和学校通过意识形态渗透而指定的族群认同感,二是学生通过藏族文化符号再现而声称的族群认同感。国家和学校期望学生在中华民族多元一体化格局框架下建构族群认同感,以便实现其政治与经济目的。     

美国少数族群的双重认同轨迹及其影响

族群认同问题是民族问题中的核心问题。对于国际社会中处于多数的多民族国家而言,如何有效构建统一的国家认同和社会认同将是关乎国家团结统一的关键性问题。我们是谁?我们属于谁?随着族群生存环境和社会环境的变化,族群的认同总是会发生某种程度上的波动性变化,进行自我身份的再认知和认同的自我调整,这种情况在移民国家更为明显。在美国身份认同政治氛围高涨的情况下,本文通过对美国少数族群双重认同的形成、互动轨迹、影响因素及配合因素等进行综合分析,解析双重认同存在的根源,以为多民族国家加强对少数族群认同的认识和国家认同的建构提供借鉴。     

中华民族共同体视域下当代少数民族题材记录片的创作演变

“铸牢中华民族共同体意识”是党和国家基于民族工作新形势部署的新战略。作为民族话语重要文化载体的中国少数民族题材纪录片见证并勾勒了其话语表达逻辑及实践机理。从主流意识的“政治宣传”到民族文化“共生交融”,从话语主体的“他者言说”到“开放自述”,从镜头对准“集体形象”转向聚焦“个体形象”,折射出我国民族共同体话语建构传播的递嬗性超越。作为民族话语重要文化载体的中国少数民族纪录片一方面应以植耕历史,加强对各民族优秀文化的挖掘和阐发,表达文化诉求,促成各民族间的认识、认知、认可、认同,进而在精神层面生发持久、恒定的态度与力量。另一方面从人本角度出发,思考“人的自我发展”、“人与他者”、“人与世界”的多元伦理关系,互相接纳,互相启迪、互惠利他,在休戚与共的命运共同体中解决现实生活中的生存生活困境,在共同体谱系中实现个人、民族的价值追求。     

涉藏州县宗教神圣场域的共同体意识的表达

以川、青区域涉藏州县的藏传佛教场所为重点关注对象,探讨涉藏州县宗教神圣场域中共同体意识的建构渊源、演进历程、现时表达及未来期望。在具有藏传佛教传统的涉藏州县区域,以寺院为核心的神圣场域建构,是藏传佛教历史传承和发展的主要路径。在川青涉藏州县的多民族复合文化语境下,藏传佛教的神圣场域建构不断发展完善。在这一漫长历程中,藏传佛教一方面不断调适以适应本土化的历史现实语境,另一方面则通过教派之间竞争博弈与交往交流,形成与社会主义社会相适应的藏传佛教文化形态。在这个历史过程中,中华民族共同体意识有其在场的内在基础,并与藏传佛教话语体系形成相互促进、相互成就的正反馈路径,不仅形成了具有中华民族认同心理的地缘文化与宗教神圣场域叙事,而且还以人物交流、宗教传播及文化扩散的方式对周边乃至更远区域的中华民族文化构建产生了积极的辐射影响。同时,文化的交往、交流和交融构成了中华民族共同体意识在川青涉藏州县多元文化语境的终极表达。     

GMS五国华人华侨中华文化认同研究

GMS五国华人华侨对中华文化的认同度处于较高,但不是很高的水平。年龄、华人代数、祖籍地、汉语水平和汉语使用情况等都是影响华人华侨中华文化认同的重要因素;性别不是影响因素。华人华侨文化认同十分复杂,但GMS五国华人华侨的中华文化认同呈现出一定的发展趋势,可以对之施加影响。建议:进一步加强对GMS五国华人华侨的研究;面向不同的华人华侨群体有针对性地开展工作;加强汉语传播和华文传承工作;在学校、家庭、社区三个层面帮助华人华侨传承中华文化;加强正面宣传,与华人华侨交流时注意细节。     

Shas and the resignification of the intersection between ethnicity and religion

Current analyses of ethnicity and religion emphasise the subordination of the one to the other in the construction of collective identities. One line of research perceives religion as a resource of political mobilisation, while another conceptualises religion as the essence of ethnicity. As opposed to these analyses, this article explores how these two markers intersect and constitute each other in the process of identity formation. I centre on the ways Shas, an ethno-religious movement in Israel, mobilises hegemonic ethnic and religious markers of Middle East and North African (MENA) Jews in order to construct its collective identity. The analysis of Shas’s newspapers shows how, by suffusing religious traditions with ethnic meaning and marking an ethno-class collective as religious, Shas interweaves ethnicity and religion and resignifies their relation. This identity project is intended to redefine the symbolic boundaries of the Jewish nation and to redeem MENA Jews from their marginality. Intersectional analysis as applied in this article explains why different ethno-class and religious collectives imagine themselves as sharing a common identity, illumines why particular identity markers are chosen out of the numerous existing categories, and provides an explanation for the flexibility of social movements.     

从美国PM老年华人社区看新华人的聚居性

美国PM社区的老年新华人居民,在华人散居的地区以及没有入住老年公寓的族裔优先权的情况下,从无到有实现了一定规模的聚居。本文主要从居住选择和自我组织两个方面来探讨形成这种聚居现象的原因。影响居住选择的各种因素都体现出这里的居民作为"前第一代"老年华人的特殊要求,这种特殊要求可能使他们潜在地追求某种族裔聚居形式,而PM华人组织的成长则促成了聚居的真正形成,由此可见从文化认同的角度理解族裔聚居性的重要性。     

Flexible ethnic identity,adaptation, survival,resistance: The Garifuna in the world-system

In this paper we examine flexible ethnic identity formation as a mechanism of accommodation and resistance deployed by a particular social group with origins in the periphery as they respond to changing political and economic forces in the world-system. This paper addresses criticisms that world-system analyses are ‘too macro’ or ‘structurally deterministic’ by examining on the ground action and responses by a local oppositional movement within its broad political and economic context. Its focus is an historical case study of a particular group of people whose origins lie in European colonial expansion into the Caribbean in the seventeenth century. The paper begins by recounting ethnographic reports of Garifuna origin myths, then sketches this group's forced incorporation in a colonial world-system (and their responses), discusses their assignment to ‘minority group’ status within newly independent Belize at about the same time they are establishing transnational communities via migration to the United States, and concludes with some thoughts on the emerging ‘virtual communities’ of Garifuna and indigenous peoples around the world that are emerging on the worldwide web today. We explore what the notion of ethnic identity means in this particular case, and how and why it changes over time. We also try to understand if this flexible identity, and the social movements that arise as it is redefined, can be understood as a form of ‘resistance’. Finally, we ask if diasporic identity movements of indigenous people, like the Garifuna, actually or potentially can contribute to rising challenges against the forces of contemporary ‘globalization’.     

‘Both an Arab and a woman’: gendered,racialised experiences of female Palestinian citizens of Israel

Following feminist and postcolonial discourses, this paper uses the concept of ‘everyday experience’ as a tool to trace the social world of educated Palestinian women in Israel. The term refers to the complex array of these women's experiences in racialised and gendered social sites, as well as within the class, religious, and ethnic contexts in the subordinated group and its relations with the dominant Jewish group. Based on 108 in‐depth interviews with Palestinian women citizens of Israel, the paper claims that educated Palestinian women are located in a ‘third place’ between cultural, gender, class, national and racial structures that generates a continual ambivalence. Within this marginal, ‘unhomely’ space women negotiate their own identities and challenge dominant social definitions. Women create various modes of interim spaces and multi‐dimensional, shifting identities for themselves. The ambivalent attitudes generated by the women's experiences expose the possibility of shedding categorising markers. The omnipresent existence of the gendered, racialised regime of knowledge makes every place a potential site of subversion and resistance.     

铸牢中华民族共同体意识：理论逻辑、现实基础和实践路径

科学研判我国民族关系发展的客观现状,将铸牢中华民族共同体意识作为民族工作的主线,是以习近平同志为核心的党中央为我国民族关系长远发展所制定的战略规划。铸牢中华民族共同体意识具有凝心聚力之效,意蕴是丰富而多维的:其理论逻辑在于,对历史的继承和发展是历史意蕴,"五个认同"是核心内容,服务"两个大局"以实现中华民族的伟大复兴是价值导向;其现实基础在于,中华民族从"站起来""富起来"到"强起来"提供了物质基础,从"自在""自觉"到"自强"是其精神基础,中国特色社会主义民主政治提供了政治保障,多元一体的中华民族结构是其社会基础;最后,坚持和完善民族区域自治制度、建立共享繁荣发展的经济体、构筑各民族共有精神家园,加强各民族交往交流交融,是其实践路径。     

论"主体民族"观念的现代转换——社会不和谐因素消除途径初探兼与陈克进、李亦园商榷

坚持以人为本是科学发展观的本质和核心,是我国经济社会转型期消除不和谐因素的出发点、立足点与重要途径之一.而"主体民族"的提法仅从非哲学意义上把主体理解为居于主导地位或起主导作用的角色,未从哲学主体的角度去理解和区别国家或地区"主体民族"的合适提法,混淆了各民族的政治地位和社会作用的概念,易造成误解与纷争.田野调查表明,"主体民族"观不能表达强势民族对弱势民族的平等态度,属于轻视他们的语言文字和行为,加剧了弱势民族干群的自卑情绪、"等靠要"观念与民族隔阂.民族地区的现代化,首要的是人的观念和行为的现代化.本文提出了转变"主体民族"观念的建议及其现实需求、事实依据与理论分析.     

Protestant Ulster: Ethno-history,Memory and Contemporary Prospects

This article highlights the processes by which an Ulster Protestant identity came to be fashioned, in the era of political conflict over Irish Home Rule, in accordance with ethno-religious and, more ambiguously, ethno-nationalist criteria. It explores how processes of myth-making and remembering have been central to the reproduction of this sense of identity. Finally, it considers the role played by ethnic essentialism in the contemporary period, and the question of whether ethnic imperatives might be transcended within the context provided by the Good Friday Agreement and the promise of new British-Irish structures and new relationships within these islands.     

土民、客人与乡绅:万历至乾隆的黄姚社会

明清时期是广西府江流域社会变革的重要阶段,导致这一变革的关键因素为万历府江僮乱的平定与清初客人的进入。本文以府江流域昭平县黄姚街为中心,将该社区的构建置于区域变动的大背景下展开讨论,力图理解在此过程中,土民、客人在具体的历史场景中如何透过变革祭祀系统、重述祖先故事以确立其社会地位。     

Ukrainian and American identities as predictors of marital and parenting attitudes within the acculturating Ukrainian-American community

The Ukrainian-American community represents a unique acculturating community with respect to sociohistorical context, as well as specific demographic and cultural characteristics. The Ukrainian immigrant experience reflects the identity formed in relation to its challenges faced during the twentieth century and its complex relationship with the former Soviet Union. The purpose of this study was to examine the process of acculturation within the Ukrainian community in the United States and to examine how acculturation processes are related to attitudes on childrearing and traditional family formation. The participants for this sample included 188 participants drawn from the Ukrainian diaspora in Central New York. Analyses demonstrated the unique influence of religious beliefs and the simultaneous unique influence of both American identity and Ukrainian identity on attitudes towards traditional marriage formation and parenting. American identity was associated with more liberal attitudes towards divorce while both Ukrainian and American identity were associated with childrearing beliefs. Higher Ukrainian identity predicted more traditional parenting beliefs, while higher American identity predicted more progressive (less traditional) parenting beliefs. These results describe the distinctive features of the Ukrainian-American community in the United States that contribute to attitudes regarding marital behaviour as well as parenting beliefs.