Summary
Title: From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict: An Anthropological Perspective on International Ethnic Conflict
Author:
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472085387
Pro:
• Examines the nature of ethnicity and how it develops, politically
• Many examples from current conflicts on how ethnicity is used
Con:
• None
Description:
• Explores the nature of ethnicity and how it develops
• Examples from current political conflicts on how ethnicity is used
• Explores what can be done about ethnic conflicts
Book Review
In his book From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict: An Anthropological Perspective on International Ethnic Conflict, Jack Elller argues that most people’s understanding of ethncity and its role in modern conflicts is largely misunderstood. According to him, ethnic confrontations tend to mask underlying political disagreements; and even more importantly, ethnic differences do not have the ancient heritage claimed for them. On the contrary, they are of much more recent vintage and have been created to fulfill modern needs of identity, culture and power:
- “...ethnicity is no mere reflection or reflex of culture, especially of traditional culture, but a complex reworking, remembering, sometimes reinvention, and always employment of culture in the light and service of present and even future considerations.”
Just what is ethnicity? Eller explores a number of ways in which social scientists have defined the term, but points out that they all share in common the idea that ethnicity is fundamentally about symbolism, group cohesion and personal identity. Thus, he argues that ethnicity is a cultural process used by individuals so as to affiliate themselves with some larger cultural group.
First, ethnicity involves being conscious of some particular difference between one’s self and others. Second, ethnicity involves a subjective valuation of that difference — it must be seen as important and relevant. Finally, ethnicity requires that people organize and mobilize around that difference — after all, an ethnicity of one doesn’t amount to very much. The result is a feeling of “familial” relationships with others who belong to the same ethnic group.
A couple of things should become apparent from this understanding of ethnicity. First, the existence of difference (cultural, racial, physical, religious, linguistic, etc.) is not sufficient for the construction of an ethnic group. For that, people must not only be aware of those differences but must also value them in a particular manner. In addition, no particular differences are any more “naturally” the basis for ethnicity than others. Some might be easier to use than others, but any difference might be employed in practice.
Another important matter to note is the fact that focusing on some differences also requires ignoring other differences. In every ethnic group, there are differences which are believed to bind people together, but also just as many differences which could easily separate them — focusing on the former requires members to ignore the latter as much as possible. This is a calculated “forgetting” which Eller refers to and which, in turn, can lead to apparent inconsistencies in how some ethnic groups are constructed:
- “...ethnicity generally demands the overlooking of internal differentiations. Hispanic as an ethnicity embraces remarkable amount of cultural, historical and economic diversity. Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, Puerto Rican-Americans, and all of the other “Hispanic” Americans are distinguished by a tremendous variation of society and culture and of economic class in the United States, the only thing that unifies them is language (or linguistic descent) and the general part of the world from which they, or their ancestors, hail.”
