1. definitions:
ethnicity
"perceived shared characteristics of a racial or cultural group"
-historical lineage, language, religion, race, geographic homeland
- most of these are "learned" characteristics
2. Prevalence: Pretty much everywhere
except homogeneous
states: Finland, Denmark, Japan, South Korea
People are mixed together
Map
showing degree of ethnic heterogeneity in various countries
Indigenous
peoples in Latin America
reasons:
Latin American: Spanish/Portugese-Native American-Africans-migration to escape poverty, war, repression
-conquest, colonialism, imposed cultural values on some peoples, moved people around (e.g. Ottoman, Soviet empires)
-artificial state included different peoples
-coerced slavery
-economic complementarties of different peoples (Fulani)
-religious missionary activity
South Asia:-religion: native, Christianity, Islam (Sudan)
-immigrant settlers: Euros in S. Africa, Kenya.
South Asians, Lebanese
3. Theory of declining importance of identity politics
a. Development would bring:
urbanization,
industrialization, education
would bring secularization, forgetting of old culture and religion
b. building of new nationalism
c. class identification would
be become more important
4. Theory of increasing importance of identity politics
a. people get mixed together more as:
urban migration
becomes easier due to transportation (push and pull)
education
brings people together
b. population pressures increase, more
conflict over resources
land, water, trees, grazing areas
-poor farmers migrate, try to take land from indigenous people Brazil
-tension between pastoralists and settled agriculture
Does it begin with the very first family?
Cain - farmer, killed his brother
Abel - herdsman
international pastoralist conference
Darfur Conflict
- 1 - 2
c. state has more power to impact on
ethno-religious groups
dominant group
uses state power to impose its preferences (ethno hegomony)
-language, education
-economic policy/regional policy
-political control, patronage
-legal policy: family law, property, criminal
-symbolic politics: state religion
Example: Malaysia: Malays dominate, Chinese and Indian minorities:
Malays get discounts on houses, scholarships, qota of 30% of shares in
companies
Chinese don't get permanent land titles, only fixed term leases (NYT
Ap 14, 2008)
people resist ethnic domination.
d. expansion of public
sector implies/require more sharing
and transfers (eg. in education, health, retirement programs)
- in a multi-ethnic environment, this requires an acceptance
of shared destiny.
e. collapse of empire,
personal dictatorship leads to weak state, local anarchy
- triggers new competition for land, resources, power
- external peacemakers can make things worse
-example: ethnic
violence in Congo
f. democracy, political
parties, wonderful opportunities for
-ethnic demagogues
-ethno party mobilization
g. majority political leaders provoke violence against minorities to divert attention from corruption, economic problems, consolidate their regime with violence (kill real or potential opponents, as well as targetted minorities.
-examples
c. Neighboring country intervenes (international border
divides a single ethnic group)
Zaire
in Rwanda-vice versa
India
in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
Chad
- Sudan
d. economic stress, downturn often leads to more interest in identity politics (note periodic millennial movements)
ii. economic recession, depression.
iii. long-term ecological problems
e. Can genocide be predicted?
i. examples in:7. Political Resolution has worked in some regions:
India: "reservations" for the "scheduled castes"
Malaysia: for Malays, to the detriment of overseas Chinese
East Africa: "Africanization"ii. can cause "backlash" (as in India)
a. federalism, giving substantial regional power and autonomy on geographic basis
b. consociationalism
(wiki
discussion)
constitution recognizes groups and allocates power to groups
groups have full civil and political rights,
various ethnic leaders involved all have veto power
esp. over policies affecting their groups.
national leadership, budget shares linked to population statistics
groups relatively autonomous
recognition of cultures and languages
autonomy and subsidies for indigenous peoples, regional nationalists
classic, clear example of ethnic power sharing: Lebanon 1
| 2
Lebanon constitution specifies representation of religious groups: source
| Executive Allocations | |
| President | Maronite Christian |
| Prime Minister | Sunni Muslim |
| Speaker of the House | Shi'a Muslim |
| Legislative Allocations | (after 1992) |
| Maronite | 34 |
| Greek Orthodox | 14 |
| Greek Catholic | 8 |
| Armenian Orthodox | 5 |
| Armenian Catholic | 1 |
| Protestant | 1 |
| Other Christians | 1 |
| Total Christians | 64 |
| Sunni | 27 |
| Shi'a | 27 |
| Druz | 8 |
| Alawite | 2 |
| Total Muslims | 64 |
Problems occur when there are changes in the population ratios
(due to unequal birth rates or migration patterns)
eg: Lebanon (decline in Christian percentage)
c. Power sharing agreement (Northern Ireland)
d.cultural
integration
-but even where there is extensive intermarriage, violence has broken out.
Bosnia, Rwanda
e. Sometimes secession is only route (Eritrea, Bangladesh, Kurds?)
8. Many cases of unsolvable ethnic tensions. People simply
can't live peacefully in close proximity.
Possible results:
-failed state, chronic instability and communal violence
-Partition -- population forced to move to make a separate state for each group:
Cyprus (North for Turks, south for Greeks)- Forced population transfer to make ethnicity congruent with state borders.
India - Pakistan (Partition effected, with great violence, 1947)Sri Lanka (will the northern part become a separate state for Tamils?)India: continuing tensions (Aug 2006)
Israel/Palestine (Will there be a 2-state solution?)
Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia (Yugoslavia partitioned)
Serbia Kosovo?
United States - Native Americans (reservations)Iraq? some advocate "soft partition," others warn it is difficult.
