Ethnic Studies

Ethnicity and machine politics

by Jerome Krase

This is a book I co-wrote with Charles La Cerra: Ethnicity and Machine Politics: The Madison Club of Brooklyn. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1992.

Bensonhurst, Brooklyn: Italian American Victims and Victimizers

by Jerome Krase

This is a draft of an article published as “Bensonhurst, Brooklyn: Italian American Victimizers and Victims.” In The Review of Italian American Studies. 2000: 233-44.

'The 'Bandon Valley Massacre' as a historical problem' artcle

by john regan

Peranakan as a social concept

by Giokhun Pue

This article discusses the significance of etymology and its role in the construction of social concepts pertaining to... more This article discusses the significance of etymology and its role in the construction of social concepts pertaining to amalgam, namely an ethnic group whose formation stemmed from amalgamation as part of assimilation process which occurs continuously in interethnic relations between the majority ethnic group and the minority. It is an ethnic group that is often overlooked in the discourse of ethnicity as a way to organise social difference in a society into different ethnic categories. The perception that such a group has no place in mainstream society is reflected by the way labels that are created and used on the group tend to be negative and pejorative. As a result, this contributes to ethnic contestation in the society. However, this is not the case in the Malay Archipelago where culturally localised, local-born of non-indigenous descent, particularly offspring from mix-marriage with native women, are referred to as ‘Peranakan’. Derived from the root word ‘anak’ (meaning child), Peranakan may be seen as one of rare social concepts that refers to amalgam in a neutral, if not positive way where the majority accepts the minority as one of their own while simultaneously acknowledging the latter’s ethnic differences. As such, Peranakan may be adopted into societies from non-Malay world as a more suitable social concept to explain amalgamation harmoniously as a way to promote social cohesion in a society.

Review - David N. Gellner (ed.), Varieties of Activist Experience: Civil Society in South Asia (New Delhi, 2010) and Ethnic Activism and Civil Society in South Asia (New Delhi, 2009)

by Uday Chandra

Forthcoming in Social Movement Studies 12 (1), 2013

Call for Papers: "In, out and in between: dynamics of cultural borders"

by Arvi Haak

Call for papers for a conference in Tallinn, Estonia, 17 - 19 October 2012

We are especially looking for contributions for Panel II: (Re-)materialising Ideologies in Landscape and in Practice,... more We are especially looking for contributions for Panel II: (Re-)materialising Ideologies in Landscape and in Practice, with subtopic "Ethnic boundaries in material culture".  The aim of the session is to discuss how and for what purpose elements of past material culture are used in addressing questions of ethnicity. How has ethnicity been constructed on that basis? Special focus will be placed on theoretically informed approaches to ethnicity and its borders: we are interested in the perspectives of past actors and ways of reaching these in the present.

Les traces des absences et des retours: Les empreintes de la migration sur le pasayge religieux mexicain.

by Olga Odgers-Ortiz

Odgers Ortiz, Olga. (2010) "Les traces des absences et des retours: Les empreintes de la migration sur le pasayge religieux mexicain" en Autrepart Revue de sciences sociales au Sud. No. 56, p. 133-152

Les traces des absences et des retours: Les empreintes de la migration sur le pasayge religieux mexicain.
more Les traces des absences et des retours: Les empreintes de la migration sur le pasayge religieux mexicain.

La relation entre religion et migration a été principalement abordée à partir de la perspective des sociétés « d’ accueil ». Que ce soit en s’attachant aux religions transnacionales observables dans les grandes métropoles multiculturelles, ou bien en analysant la capacité des immigrants à adapter leur pratique religieuse dans un nouveau cadre de vie, l’accent est mis sur les lieux d’arrivée, laissant en deuxième terme l’examen des conséquences des réseaux migratoires transnationaux dans les pays d’origine.
À partir des sources statistiques disponibles et du travail ethnographique réalisé dans le champ migratoire Mexique/États-Unis, cet article s’interroge sur les conséquences de l’intensification des flux migratoires dans le paysage religieux mexicain. Nous faisons l’hypothèse que l’empreinte de la migration peut être observée au moins sur trois registres : la relation entre les réseaux migratoires et l’accélération du processus de pluralisation religieuse, l’importance de la pratique religieuse dans la réorganisation de l’espace de vie des migrants – lieux d’accueil, d’arrivée et de circulation-, et finalement la transformation dans la perception de la diversité religieuse et des attitudes de tolérance ou d’intolérance religieuse.
*Mots-clés : religions transnatinales- Mexique- États-Unis- catholicisme- pluralisation religieuse- conversion religieuse- intolérance religieuse- Saints patrons.

L’Union européenne et les Roms : pauvreté, haine anti-Tziganes et gouvernance de la mobilité

by Nando Sigona

Avanti Popolo: Italian-American Writers Sail Beyond Columbus

by Michael Carosone

In pursuit of the pagans: Muslim law in the English context

by Prakash Shah

Western and Muslim law. Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks’, and in the... more Western and Muslim law. Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks’, and in the context of the struggle for Islam to be acknowledged as a legitimate source of value pluralism in the Western context, the religious aspects of Muslim law, with their doctrinal justifications, are being foregrounded. With the English case as the main focus, I further argue that customs among Muslims are suppressed in this process of ‘shariatisation’. Beyond that, even Muslim doctrines are being placed under the spotlight in various ways. These changes are taking place as a result of Muslims living as nondominant communities in Europe, where they are under the gaze of the dominant culture and are judged to be potential or actual violators of human rights and the rule of law. Relying on Balagangadhara’s (2005) explanation of the ‘dynamic of religion’, I present these processes as an outcome of the collision of two religious cultures, the Islamic and the Western.

Reasons to Ban? The Anti-Burqa Movement in Western Europe

by Prakash Shah

This MMG Working Paper 12-09 (Göttingen: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity) is Co-authored with Ralph Grillo, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex. Publications include: Pluralism and the Politics of Difference: State, Culture, and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective, Clarendon Press (1998); editor of The Family in Question: Immigrant and Ethnic Minorities in Multicultural Europe, Amsterdam University Press (2008); co-editor of Legal Practice and Cultural Diversity, Ashgate (2009). Ralph Grillo is a member of the Advisory Group of the Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity at Göttingen.

During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a... more During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a matter for debate and, in several instances, the subject of legislation. In France, a ban on the wearing of the headscarf
in places of education (2004) was followed in 2010 by the law criminalizing the wearing of the face-veil (usually but inaccurately referred to as the ‘burqa’) in public space. Other countries have enacted similar legislation. Muslim women’s dress has historically been a controversial matter in Muslim-majority countries, too, most recently in North Africa following the Arab Spring, but the present paper concentrates on the movement against face-veiling in Western Europe, documenting what has been happening and analysing the arguments proposed to justify criminalizing this type of garment. In doing so, the paper explores the implications for our understanding of contemporary (ethnically and religiously) diverse societies and their governance.
Is anti-veiling legislation a protest against what is interpreted as an Islamic practice unacceptable in liberal democracies, a sign of a wider discomfort with non-European otherness, or an expression of an underlying racism articulated in cultural terms?
Whatever the reason, is criminalization an appropriate response? An Appendix notes some topics for further research.

Polish and Italian vernacular landscapes in Brooklyn

by Jerome Krase

Kurdish Problem: A Dangerous Impasse (I curdi della Turchia: stallo pericoloso) Equilibri, 2/2010, pp. 334-344.

by Volkan Aytar

Co-Auhtored with Ayşe Çavdar, "Kurdish Problem: A Dangerous Impasse" (I curdi della Turchia: stallo pericoloso) Equilibri, 2/2010, pp. 334-344.

Lately, Turkish government has taken some shy preliminary steps to acknowledge the Kurdish issue as a problem to be... more Lately, Turkish government has taken some shy preliminary steps to acknowledge the Kurdish issue as a problem to be solved, beyond mere denial, assimilation and security-oriented measures of the past. The presence of the Kurdish party (Peace and Democracy Party, BDP) in the Parliament should have also normally contributed to the solution of the problem.  However, as of mid 2010, this process seems to have stalled or even reversed. In this paper, we will try to understand this current deadlock by espousing a more historical approach and identify major axes and actors of the ongoing conflict. An associated box provides a timeline of major developments with regards the Kurdish issue.

New Interethnic Relations and Native Perceptions of Human-to-Human Relations in Brazilian Amazonia

by pirjo kristiina virtanen

2009. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 14(2): 332-354.

This article attempts to provide fresh insight into the new kinds of intermediaries found in Amazonian native... more This article attempts to provide fresh insight into the new kinds of intermediaries found in Amazonian native communities, showing how interethnic relations have changed
today’s native communities. The text presents a case study of the Manchineri people living in Brazilian Amazonia, focusing in particular on their spokespeople in rural and urban areas. These intermediaries work to produce equality and relatedness within the new social spaces where negotiations are required. Producing new human perspectives with non-natives is necessary in order to interact in the contemporary Amazonian
interethnic sociocosmologies. However, in the Manchineri community, new social roles have caused widening generational, urban–rural and gender gaps. The social logic
of Amazonian native peoples limits the ways in which specific social roles with special interethnic skills are temporarily adopted, and produces new ways to overcome deepening
social, political, and economic distances.

Migrants and Citizens: The Shifting Ground of Struggle in Canadian Literary Representation

by Naava Smolash

Co-authored with Myka Tucker-Abramson, published in Studies in Canadian Literature

Recenzja: Agnieszka Chwieduk, Alzatczycy. Dylematy tożsamości, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, Poznań 2006, ss. 244

by Mariusz Filip

Lud 2007, 91: 383–386

Silesian Autonomist Movement in Poland and One of its Activists

by Konrad Pedziwiatr

Pedziwiatr, K. (2009). Silesian Autonomist Movement in Poland and One of its Activists. Krakow: Tischner European University.

This research paper was prepared within the project L'Europe Rebelle financed by the French Ministry of Education and... more This research paper was prepared within the project L'Europe Rebelle financed by the French Ministry of Education and Research and carried out in cooperation with Université Paris-Est Marne-La-Vallée. The goal of the research was to analyse multidimensional nature of today's political contestation in Europe. It assumed that one could not fully understand contemporary European societies without in-depth knowledge about the diverse movements of contestation functioning in their midst. Amongst such new movements an important role play inter alia alter-globalists, regionalists, ecologists and feminists. Drawing from the scholarship of sociology of new social movements and regional comparative studies Europe Rebelle strived to better comprehend contemporary social movements through in-depth analysis of the activists' biographies.

El Caucas, una regió amb conflictes estructurals?

by Francesc Serra Massansalvador

Published in Nova nº 17, 2010, p. 6-7.

El Caucas, una àrea de transició.

by Francesc Serra Massansalvador

Published in "El Caucas. Política i llengües", Naciografies Nº 1, 2011

Heel bone mass of a young South Indian population with a Nigerian population residing in a South Indian suburban neighborhood: a comparative study

by Anburajan Mariamichael

V. Sapthagirivasan & M. Anburajan, Osteoporos International, DOI 10.1007/s00198-012-1898-9, Online Published on 14th Feb'2012 (Impact Factor: 4.859)

Summary This cross-sectional cohort emphasized the impact
of heel bone mass in the South Indian population and... more Summary This cross-sectional cohort emphasized the impact
of heel bone mass in the South Indian population and
its comparison with Nigerian ethnicity, residing in South
India. Peak bone mass, however, evidenced a significant
decrease of around 30% compared to that of Nigerian
ethnicity.
Introduction In the South Indian population, the local folks
do not seem to be well informed about the relative association
of bone mass with osteoporosis. Hence, there is an
acute necessity to assess the same with respect to the ethnic
population, presumed to have possessed high bone mass, i.e.,
the Nigerian population.
Methods The calcaneus of the right foot was measured with
a quantitative ultrasound device (Sahara, Hologic Inc.,
USA) for a total population of 734, out of which 314 were
Indian males, 348 Indian females, 41 Nigerian males, and 30
Nigerian females, whose ages ranged from 18 to 35 years.
Results The peak bonemass in Indian males and females is
0.507±0.1 and 0.479±0.1 g cm−2, respectively, and it is
0.714±0.2 and 0.682±0.2 g cm−2 with regard to Nigerian
male and female populations, respectively. Indian males
and females who were within the age group of 26–30
and ≤20 years, respectively, represented high bone mass,
and the same was the situation with respect to Nigerian
counterparts who were within the age group of 21–25 years.
Indian and Nigerian non-vegetarian population of both the
genders demonstrated a high significance value of p<
0.000001, deciphered by means of unpaired t test.Conclusion Peak bone strength was dominant in the Nigerian
population compared to that of Indians. The Indian
population is approximately lagging by 28–30% with respect
to peak bone mass behind their Nigerian equivalents.
Indian non-vegetarian male and female populations lagged
by 6.15% and 6.16% behind the Indian vegetarian male and
female populations, respectively.