New forms of cultural identity in an African Society

This article argues that the media offer a way of reading cultural identity. The theme of collective identity is conceptualized quite differently in the Northern and the Southern hemispheres, due to different historical processes of political and societal change. In the African context, the three liberation struggles of colonial liberation, political‐economical liberation, and fight against authoritarianism has taken place within a short period of time. Hence, the customary western modes of thinking about identity politics in late modernity easily lead to false assumptions when transposed to the African context. In Africa, the locality and life‐world experiences in the village are more important than global ‘media‐scapes’ and ‘ideoscapes’, and the article discusses present changes concerning cultural identities in Africa, particularly in Tanzania and Kenya.     

The role of an affirmed black cultural identity and heritage in the academic achievement of African‐Canadian students

This paper focuses on the educational experiences of African‐Canadian youth in Canada. Traditionally, the tendency is to emphasize the poor academic performance of black students or issues and problems related to reasons for academic failure or to stereotype them as ‘loud, lazy, muscular, criminal, athletic, dumb, deprived, dangerous, deviant, and disturbed’. In contrast, this paper looks at those who have achieved in spite of considerable adversity. The data show that factors such as pride in one's heritage and knowledge of one's culture contribute to academic success.     

Kazakhstan: constructing identity in a post-Soviet society

One of the problems with the now independent countries of Central Asia is that they have little history of independent statehood and even less experience of any ideological context that legitimizes a specific set of political arrangements, other than the discredited Marxist model of the Soviet system. Neither habit nor attachment to a coherent set of political ideals is very helpful as the basis for individual identification with or support of the State. Perhaps as a consequence, political operatives in Central Asian countries have opted to emphasize the centrality of ethnicity to legitimize their current political arrangements. But in Kazakhstan this presents a potential problem – the country is ethnically very diverse, has a large Russian/Slavic population and the ‘core nation’ of ethnic Kazakhs comprises a bare majority of Kazakh citizens. We utilize survey research to test the influence such factors as ethnicity, religion and other nexus of identity have on feelings of attachment to the state. Our findings indicate that identifying as ‘Kazakh’ indeed has a positive effect on identification with the state, as do identifying as Sunni Muslim and ‘Asian’. However, institutional trust and economic well-being are also positive influences on affective regard for the state, allowing an opening for broadening and deepening the basis for state legitimacy.     

Fertility expectations and ethnic identity among Mexican-American adolescents: an expression of cultural ideals

1980 survey data from 2 secondary schools in Arizona are studied to explain the differences in expected fertility of Mexican American and Anglo adolescents. Mexican Americans have maintained higher fertility rates than the national average, and this study helps clarify how cultural heritage and socioeconomic status relate to family formation patterns. The model, which is based on expected fertility rates of adolescents which parallel those of adults, predicts higher fertility rates for minority group members at every level of socioeconomic status. Male adolescent Anglos expect an average of 2.27 children, whereas female adolescent Anglos expect only 2.11. In both instances for Mexican Americans, the expected number is higher: 2.78 for males, 2.68 for females. Mexican American adolescents who speak Spanish at home are more likely to expect 3, 4, 5, or more children, whereas those who speak English at home are more likely to remain childless or to expect less than 2 children. Similarly, the adolescent with a Mexican born father is more likely to expect more children than the adolescent with a native born father. Tucson residents are less likely to expect 2 or more children, while Nogales (80% Mexican origin) residents are more likely to expect 3, 4, or 5 children. The acculturation factors that help to explain the high birth rate expectations of Mexican Americans are: 1) language, 2) generation, and 3) neighborhood. At every level of expected educational attainment and occupational level, Mexican Americans expect more children than Anglos. Socioeconomic status of the family of origin is the crucial variable linking fertility to socioeconomic status. The actual fertility of minority groups should not be mistaken for the expected fertility of minority groups; both are subject to different influences. However, differences in fertility expectations of Mexican American adolescents and their Anglo counterparts parallel the differences in the actual fertility rates of these groups.     

On the shaping of South African society

The Shaping of South African Society edited by Richard Elphick and Hermann Giliomee. Cape Town: Longman Penguin Southern Africa. R15,00.     

Restoring African studies to its linguistic identity: reflections on Ethiopian studies

One of the defining characteristics of African studies at the moment, regrettably, is the fact that the bulk of knowledge produced in and about Africa is written in foreign languages. This, according to Ngugi wa Thiong’o, is the “Europhonic legacies of colonialism.” Any serious attempt to decolonise knowledge production in Africa cannot disregard the language question. The use of local African languages in higher education and academic publications contributes a great deal to a project of complete decolonisation. Against the backdrop of such debates and concerns, the present study examines the issue of language and academic publication in Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Although Ethiopia escaped direct forms of colonialism, the postcolonial situation in the use of foreign languages for higher education and academic publication is quite similar to the rest of Africa. The appraisal of a decade of academic publication in one college and five decades of publication in a research institute reveals that English is the dominant language of academic publications in the university, while the use of local languages like Amharic, Afan Oromo, Tigrigna and Somali are limited or non-existent. The paper, following Ngugi, argues that languages are archives of “social memory” and “remembrance,” and these languages are the most suitable vehicles to get direct access to the various communities and ethnic groups across Africa. Hence, the study calls for intellectuals in African universities and Africanists to use local languages in academic publications and thereby, contribute to the complete decolonisation of knowledge production on the continent.     

DR communication in the South African context: A conceptual paper

Within the disaster risk reduction field the term that is used to encompass all pre- and post-disaster phases such as disaster planning, preparedness, prevention, mitigation, warning, impact, rescue, relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery (Van Niekerk, 2008, p. 367), is disaster risk reduction, response and recovery, shortly referred to as DR⁴. DR⁴ communication refers to communication, management applied during the disaster management phases.     

Hybridising the cultural identity of Mulan from a Chinese ballad to American films

Hybridisation refers to the fusion of diverse cultural elements which generates new cultural forms that are distinct yet interconnected with one another. Previous studies affirmed that hybridisation has become part of an ongoing trend in transnational culture, emerging from a Third Space where diverse cultural elements enmesh. This study aims to explore how Mulan's cultural identity is hybridised when the folklore flows from China to America, becoming entangled within a conflict of Chinese-Western transcultural clashes. Using Jameson's cultural identity model, the paper analyses Mulan's cultural identity in three texts which are the original The Ballad of Mulan, Disney's animated movie Mulan (1998) and its subsequent life-action installment Mulan (2020). Components measuring the protagonist's cultural identity comprising vocation, class, geography, philosophy, language, biological traits with cultural aspects are compared. The findings show that the movies have particularly hybridise the protagonist's cultural identity from the aspects of geography, philosophy, and language. This results in a hybrid cultural identity with transnational markers in Mulan. The significance of the research thus lies in its contribution towards highlighting how Chinese figures are increasingly hybridised by Western influences as the Chinese culture continues to transcend transnational borders.     

On The Face It: the cultural construction of gender in contemporary Australian society

In the past in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea, specialised practices, such as the construction of canoes or traditional slit-drums (garamuts), were the property of patrilineal descent groups. Today, processes of objectification of traditions have generated new cultural identifications and redefined the ways skills are perceived as resources and can be claimed as property. The present article traces contemporary developments of notions of tradition and culture in Manus and discusses these in the light of empirical material obtained in connection with the preparations for an ethnographic exhibition on Manus. The argument is that cultural practices classified as kastam are part of local interpretations of cultural differences in ways that seem contingent with precolonial ‘cultural totemism’ but, as knowledge, cultural practices can also be transacted.     

Social remittances: migration driven local-level forms of cultural diffusion

"Many studies highlight the macro-level dissemination of global culture and institutions. This article focuses on social remittances--a local-level, migration-driven form of cultural diffusion. Social remittances are the ideas, behaviors, identities, and social capital that flow from receiving- to sending-country communities. The role that these resources play in promoting immigrant entrepreneurship, community and family formation, and political integration is widely acknowledged. This article specifies how these same ideas and practices are remolded in receiving countries, the mechanisms by which they are sent back to sending communities, and the role they play in transforming sending-country social and political life." The data concern migrants from the Dominican Republic to the Boston area of the United States.     

Balinese cultural identity and global tourism: the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park

ABSTRACT

The island of Bali has been inextricably bound up with the tourism industry. This article examines the dynamic Balinese cultural identity and its ever changing relationship with tourism in the age of globalism through the analysis of a case study: the construction of the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park (between 1993–2018), containing an enormous statue of the Hindu God Wisnu mounting the magical bird Garuda. The park and statue can be seen as a new cultural landmark for the Indonesian nation and for the Balinese tourism industry. However, the case study of the park also shows how Bali has changed its role within the Indonesian archipelago since the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998 while dealing with new challenges of global tourism. Representations of a Balinese cultural identity have evolved from national, top-down level constructions of ‘cultural tourism’ into a global tourist destination through hosting international events at the park.     

Negotiating cultural boundaries: Confucianism and trans/national identity in Korea 1

Abstract

This essay looks to the complex intercultural relations of China and Korea to highlight two important issues in political theory and international relations: the transnational nature of world politics and the limits of analytical binaries such as East‐West and tradition‐modernity. Discussions of international politics in East Asia characteristically address issues of security and development studies. More recently, Confucianism has been mobilized as part of the clash of civilizations of Asia with the West. This essay will consider how cultural boundaries are negotiated within the region via an analysis of the workings of the transnational discourse of Confucianism in the construction of Korean identity. While many make truth claims about what ‘Confucianism’ means in Korea, this essay examines the discursive economies of ‘Confucian events’ in three overlapping social spaces: official, mass media, and academic. This essay will show the diversity of Confucianism within East Asia, and underline how rather than being a simple orthodoxy, the shape of Confucianism is an active political issue. While many try to define a core ‘Korean Confucianism’, I argue that we should use Confucianism as an analytical tool to understand something else, citing how some scholars are using Confucianism for the specific project of building democracy in Korea.     

Critical aspects of cultural diversity in music education: examining the established practices and cultural forms in minority language schools in Finland

This article addresses the role of general music education within the framework of cultural diversity. The empirical part of the article focuses on teachers in Swedish-speaking minority schools in Finland and their perceptions of the relationship between music and multicultural perspectives. The results showed that in some instances it took some time for teachers to discuss, define and grasp the concepts of multiculturalism and cultural diversity in relation to their teaching activities. While much was discussed on a theoretical and/or political level, it was not necessarily something that they would connect to their own practice.     

Of cracked lenses: cultural translation,opacity and the African novel

This article investigates the function of different languages in African fictional texts by focusing on the kinds of social relationships expressed by narratives that tell their stories bilingually, or even multilingually. I argue that the layers of different languages within a text invite translation, both literally and figuratively. Alongside the postcolonial reading, which interprets the juxtapositions of different languages by stressing the contestatory function of re‐placing language, the reading advanced by this article explores such devices as forms of cultural translation. Cultural translation, it is argued, can account for the counter‐discursive reading that analyses relations of power; it can also account for a reading that foregrounds less hierarchical forms of address and thus expresses the quest for alternative subjectivities and relationships. The latter, the article suggests by adapting Judith Butler’s theory of an ethics of opacity, is gestured towards in narratives whenever the limits of intelligibility or translatability are exposed.     

In search of cultural identity factors: a comparison of ethnic students*

L'analyse factorielle d'items de type Likert administrés à des étudiants sousgradués suggère que six facteurs peuvent décrire les modalités d'identification ethnique: la religion, l'endogamie, la langue utilisée, les organisations ethniques, l'éducation paroissiale et le choix d'amis à 1'intérieur du groupe. Une comparaison des profils factoriels de sept groupes ethniques révèle plusieurs variations. Les étudiants juifs s'identifient fortement avec l'endogamie et les choix d'amis à 1'intérieur du groupe, mais donnent relativement peu d'importance à la religion et à l'utilisation de la langue ethnique. Les étudiants français sont fortement identifiés à leur langue et à leur religion. Les étudiants français et juifs attachent de la valeur à l'éducation paroissiale. L'identification au groupe ethnique est la plus faible chez les Scandinaves et les Polonais. Les modalités d'identification tendent á varier avec les expériences qui ont une importance historique pour le groupe ethnique. C'est pourquoi les mesures de ces modalités révèlent une structure à facteurs multiples. Factor analysis of Likert-type items administered to undergraduate students suggests that modes of ethnic identification can be described in terms of six factors: religion, endogamy, language use, ethnic organizations, parochial education, and choice of ingroup friends. A comparison of the factor profiles of seven ethnic groups revealed considerable variations. For example, the Jewish students identified strongly with endogamy and ingroup choice of friends but ranked low on the importance of religion and the use of their ethnic language. The French students' identification with their language and religion was high. Both the French and the Jewish students valued parochial education. Scandinavian and Polish ethnic ingroup identification was the lowest of all seven groups compared. The modes of identification tended to vary with the historically important experiences of ethnic groups. Therefore the measures of the modes exhibited a multifactor structure.     

Study on the cultural identity of the Chinese-Indians in Kolkata,Sihui and Toronto

Although the Chinese in Kolkata have preserved their Chinese identity, they have been acculturated by various cultural elements from India. It is this mixture of Chinese and Indian practices that gives them a unique cultural identity. When members of this Chinese community in Kolkata and its vicinity emigrated to Toronto or were forcibly deported to China in the aftermath of the 1962 conflict, they carried with them, both knowingly and unknowingly, some of these Chinese-Indian cultural traits. By focusing on the Chinese-Indians living in different geographical and cultural settings, this essay examines the formation of a Chinese-Indian identity in Kolkata and its preservation by some of those who are now residing in Sihui in China and in Toronto, Canada. It also explains some of the main similarities and differences among the three groups of Chinese-Indians. It concludes with an analysis of cultural identity as it manifests among the Chinese-Indian communities.