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The 1949 rise to power of the Chinese Communist Party (Zhongguo Gongchandang 中国共产党) was the beginning of a new era in China: the declaration of the People’s Republic of China (Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo 中华人民共和国) was the first step on the “socialist road” leading to the creation of the long-coveted Chinese national unity. However, progress on the “socialist road” has posed many challenges for the ethnic minorities living within China’s borders. Mostly because melting into the Chinese national unity – paradoxically – became a symbol of the autonomy of ethnic minorities. In the spirit of this process, the ethnic nationalist aspirations of the Sibe (Chin. xibo zu 锡伯族; Sib. sibe uksura ᠰᡞᠪᡝ ᡠᡣᠰᡠᠷᠠ), the ethnic minority I studied, unfolded alongside the writing of Chinese national history. In my work, I follow these endeavors from the 1950s until recent times. At the center is a story that is seemingly about the knowledge base of Sibe ancestors, the family trees, and beyond that, about the “reunification” of a clan that was torn apart in 1764 by thousands of miles. But, in fact, it formulates much more than that: the idea of political martyrdom by the Sibe in the interest of creating the Chinese national unity. It is through this story that I wish to provide an insight into how Chinese national unity was created.
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The aim of this paper is to apply accounts of cultural ecological theory (coined by John U. Ogbu and others) to a case study of a Roma family in Romania whose child is a low achiever in the local school and is at great risk of dropping out. As the following sections demonstrate, cultural ecological theory can highlight the epistemological and empirical strengths of the anthropological account by exploring school inequalities in the case of socially marginalised and ethno-racially stigmatized groups. Cultural ecological theory claims that individual values and practices referring to school and education are shaped by the broader social and cultural framework of a community and linked to different types of inequalities and disadvantages typical of this community. The mismatch between the local Roma family and the educational unit, presented in the final section, reflects how experiences with schooling, the labour market, and the forced removal of locals lead to a vicious circle and are responsible for transmitting educational inequalities from one generation to another.
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The aim of this research is to reveal the perceptions of Turks about Turkish World and Turkish World Union living in independent Turkish states, Turkish societies living as minority and self-governed Turkish societies. For this purpose, descriptive scanning model was used in the research. The research group is composed of 415 academicians selected with Criterion Sampling and Convenience Sampling which are among the purposive sampling methods. “Turkish World Perception Questionnaire” including 20 open and closed-ended questions developed by the researchers in order to measure the perceptions of the participants about Turkish World Union was used as data collection. The questionnaire prepared in “Google Forms” was sent to the participants via e-mail. The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistical analysis methods via SPSS 20 package program and frequency and percentages were calculated. As a result of the research it has seen that the participants perceived Turkish World concept as “the root of common Turkish civilization”; Turkish World citizenship concept as “consciousness of being able to act in the common denominator based on the sameness and similarities of the Turkish World individuals”. They also think that these two concepts that they feel close to, must be implemented for practical purposes. Although the majority of the participants proud of Turkish world, they indicated historical and cultural elements as the source of this pride. In conclusion, it has been seen that the people in the Turkish World have similar perceptions and they think that the establishment of the Turkish Union is necessary, important and useful.
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The main religious lay-leader of the Hungarian Calvinists living in Carpathian Ukraine was the peasant-prophetess, Mrs. Mariska Borku (1910–1978). Her higly important work, the so-called “Third Testament” is a manuscript, written under the influence of the Holy Spirit. It was considered by Mrs. Mariska Borku and her followers as a holy text, a part of the Bible. These almost 800 biblical “quasi loci” were spread in hand-written copies and were read aloud at religious meetings in the Hungarian villages of Carpathian Ukraine, even 10–15 years after her death. Beside the biblical paraphrases, religious songs and prayers, one fourth of the text consists of her visions. The prophetess never explained these visions and the Holy Spirit’s “verbs” to her followers – only announced them. Recently the largest religious community of her followers, mostly women over fifty, exists in the village of Dercen. Its lay-leader, Miss Ida Balla, can explain the Words of the “Third Testament”, and the visions of Mrs. Borku on the occasion of their private religious service Sunday afternoons. My study offers a short survey of the historical and political situation of the area between 1920 and 1995, in which the emphasised folk religion played a very important role in the survival of national identity and in strengthening the faith of the Hungarian inhabitants living in a very often tragic minority status. I illustrate my presentation with original visionary texts of the “Third Testament”, and their actual-political exegesis given by the recent lay-leader of Mrs. Mariska Borku’s followers.
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The paper offers an ethnological reading of the Turkish TV series “What is Fatmagül’s guilt?” as well as a critical view on its broadcast on Bulgarian television. The central subject matter is a group rape which sets the main theme of the series: violence against women. The authors develop the theme in two main forms:physical/sexual and symbolic violence, the latter regulated and maintained by thewedding ritual. The core of the latter is the problem of virginity.Special focus is paid to the script and the way in which pre-modern culture is presented. There are examples which show that the literary text is not only a super structure over cultural facts or their basic illustration, but in many cases it conducts a dialogue with them, transforms them and even rejects them as cultural practices (the problem of guilt, the ‘besmirching’ of the woman, the first wedding night complex,the cultural meaning of the red colour in a man’s relationship with his wife, the bed,material and spiritual, etc.). The series represents a good example of creative work on and analysis of pre-modern culture.
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A Kádár-korszak cigánypolitikájának végrehajtása Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén megyében
The situation of the Gypsy population in County BAZ had already been handeld before the publishing of the party decree in 1961. The party decree in 1961 officially specified the tasks and proclaimed the ideological standpoint in connection with the Gypsies. The state party and the investigated county shortly faced with great difficulties, especially on the field of the so-called „elimination of the Gypsy camps without adequate social conditions”. In the 1960s and 1970s, the officials strictly insisted on the party decree of 1961, on county and national level as well. The new party decree in 1979 did not denied the previous one, the changes only answered the newly emerged difficulties. To the end of the 1970s – parallel to the national tendencies – a moderate improvement occured in the situation of the Gypsies in the investigated county. On the other hand, the positive developments affected just a small part of the Gypsy population.
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This article is devoted to the manifestations of patriotism in the teachings (homilies, sermons, occasional speeches in the years 1986-1994) of Rev Stanisław Jeż, protonotary apostolic, who for 30 years (from 1985 to 2015) had been the rector of the Polish Catholic Mission in France. His teachings were collected in the publication entitled My jesteśmy czasem. Kazania i homilie [We are the time. Sermons and homilies], published in Paris in 1995 by the Polish Catholic Mission in France. The article focuses on the manifestations of love for the Homeland and compatriots and concern for them in the sermons of Rev S. Jeż. While discussing the diversity of these manifestations, the article focuses on presenting the ways of “smuggling” patriotic thoughts in his sermons through: the use of historical events important for Poland and Poles, celebrating anniversaries and jubilees, reference to current events in Homeland, celebrating significant events for the Polish community abroad (jubilees of service, anniversaries of important institutions), reference to the life and teaching of the Holy Father John Paul II, recalling the models of life of Polish saints, recalling the characters and the words of eminent Poles, quoting excerpts from the works of outstanding Polish artists, voicing concern for the preservation of Polish culture and tradition in emigration, solidarity and the community of emigrants.
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The purpose of my study is to analyze the camera system at one of the elementary school in Slovak republic. I especially describe how the lives of children at school have been influenced by the camera system. The special attention is paid to the role of the camera system in relation to school bullying. The study is based on long-term, qualitative, inductive, and ethnographic fieldwork. The central method of the fieldwork was ethnographic observation. The results of this study show that the camera system cannot prevent socio-pathological phenomena in educational settings. The study also sheds light on aspects of interactions of school and non-school settings.
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In this article, I address an issue of how structures of cultural, national and generational memories are reproduced in the personalized narratives of the past, and how the meta-narratives of the society are adjusted to the needs of a person in constructing the meaning of the past. The article discusses the complex relationship between ideology and biographical memory: which expressions do individuals use in their personal life stories/family histories about life in postwar Lithuania, and how are the narratives structured by the idea of building a new society, which was a central constituent of the Soviet ideology? How was the image of a new society constructed in the Soviet times and which of its structural components are still actualized in personal life stories/family histories of today’s Russian-speaking community, which was the biggest ethnic group in postwar Klaipėda? The article starts with a brief introduction to the idea of this research and explains why it is focused on the Russian-speaking community in Klaipėda. Following an overview of historical studies on the migration of Russian-speaking people in postwar Lithuania gives a social and demographical profile of the context that structured the collective experience and memories. After an explanation of the analytical model and the methodological assumptions, I proceed to the narrative analysis of life stories/family histories told by Russian-speakers and explore how the narratives are structured by the ideology of the Russified Soviet identity and how this discourse is transformed. By investigating these transformations, I try to show the complex relations between direct and indirect experiences, collective memory as an ideological structure and a city as a living space of different social groups. The analysis of the life stories/family histories of the Russian-speaking community of Klaipėda supports the thesis that the family stories told by these people are transformed taking into account the personal and generational interests to display loyalty to their families and naturalized attachments to their place of residence.
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Az etnicitás szerepe a diplomás roma nők munka- család konstrukcióinak alakulásában
How is work-family balance achieved in a country where working mothers must take their choices under considerable economic constraints? Besides these constraints, how can women of a stigmatized minority, who participate in a highly discriminative social context, achieve their desired work-life balance? This paper demonstrates the role of ethnicity in graduate Roma mothers’ constructions of their work and family preferences and in balancing these two life spheres. Based on qualitative life story interviews with 26 Roma women, we attempt to reveal how preferences towards work and family are constructed. We claim that in reconciling work and family, there is no such thing as “free choice” among “individual preferences”, because the latter is always dependent on class, gender, habitus, networks and experiences, as well as on ethnicity and a number of other social constraints. If we are about to understand the work-life balance strategies of minority women, we have to on the one hand expand the widely used model explaining the difficulties of western majority women working in the corporate sector. While doing so, we need not only to expand the dimensions of “family”, as the few studies on minority groups suggest, but also to analyse the meaning of “work” for minority women. On the other hand, we also need to understand the particular mobility path – the “minority culture of mobility” – that characterizes many first generation graduate Roma women and play a role in their construction of work preferences.
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Macedonia is still in the process of forging its identity as an independent state; a process that is "contested" not only sub-state national identities but also the extent to which Macedonia sees itself as a subject of international relations. Without the protection of the Yugoslav federation, Macedonia found its security weakened and as a response to Bulgarian and Greek attitudes a more assertive and uncompromising view of Macedonian nationalism emerged, which would have a significant influence on Macedonian-Albanian relations in the new state. The Macedonians saw their national identity "contested" from several directions at the beginning of the 1990s, most notably from Greece and Bulgaria, and from inside the new state the Albanian opposition to Macedonian political and cultural dominance. Internal challenge to national identity is a result of the large number of cleavages between the two main ethnic communities. Because of this society has become increasingly segregated with major tensions running through the formation of new political identities and institutions across ethnic lines. External challenge to national identity between the Republic of Macedonia and its neighbors can be summarized as follows: Bulgaria is the main identity threat to the extent that identity is anchored in language; Serbs are the main identity threat to the extent that identity is anchored in religion; Albanians are the main identity threat to the extent that identity is anchored in statehood; and Greeks are the main identity threat to the extent that identity is anchored in the name of the nation, its language and state.
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On the basis of written sources and field materials, the article examines the phenomenonof the “Odessa cuisine” as a regional complex of food. In the context of thehistorical dynamics, it shows the role of the Balkan traditions in the formation anddevelopment of the everyday culture of the inhabitants of Odessa. Special attentionis paid to the current state of the trade subculture and, respectively, to the systemof the food traditions in Odessa. In particular, the article shows that there are manyproducts introduced by natives from the Balkans (first of all, Greeks and Bulgarians):eggplants, tomatoes, cheese, corn, mutton, grapes, etc. The regional dishes perceivedas “Odessaian” but having roots in the ethno-cultures of the above-mentioned communities,are developed on this basis. The text shows also the “blue” (eggplants) invarious variations of preparation and the “pshonka” (corn). Beside the national, theprofessional mass cuisine is also analyzed (restaurant); in it the Balkan substratumhas found its place a long time ago along with the Jewish, Ukrainian and Moldavian.In the menu of these institutions, there are surely a number of dishes with Balkanorigins. On the other hand, it is worth characterizing the special national restaurantsof Odessa (Bulgarian, Gagauzian, Greek).
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The emigration from Thessaloniki and the consequences of the Second Balkan War for the separate members of the Bulgarian family Tapkov is in the focus of the paper. The study is based on unpublished family documents only, property of members of the aforementioned family. It is examined briefly the professional and social activities of the brothers Dragan and Kiril, posing the issue of the religious and national identity before and after emigration.
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This paper presents a brief overview of the topic of relations and links between People’s Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian diaspora in Western Europe during the Cold War. The policy of socialist Bulgaria to the Bulgarians abroad was based on political selection and was conducted through orchestrated contacts. In the context of the Cold War the migrants in the countries of the West were divided into “enemy” and “patriotic” (loyal) “emigration” in accordance with their attitude toward the communist regime. During the late socialism the regime in Sofia used more actively the “patriotic” arsenal to attract and use for its own purposes the so-called “Bulgarian colonies” in the “non-socialist countries”. But the ideological and political boundaries in the state policy were preserved. The topicis developed in view of the great importance of the issue of external migrations and relations with the diaspora for Bulgaria nowadays.
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Adoption of a minority law was a major precondition to FR of Yugoslavia’s (Serbia’s) admission to the Council of Europe after the change of the regime in October 2000. Ever since the position of ethnic minorities in Serbia has been constantly supervised by international factors such as EU, OSCE and Council of Europe, foreign embassies, as well as by domestic non-governmental organizations. What marked the past nine years were numerous ethnically motivated incidents and the state’s basically inadequate minority policy. Since the “new” political elite persevered in constituting an ethnic state, the situation of national minorities remained high on the agenda for observers of developments in Serbia. Due to a deficient legal frame -- but also due to non-existent will for changing the overall social climate – minorities are still not satisfied with the manner in which the state and the society treat them.
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For the past two decades, Sandžak has been a crisis point which could rapidly be activated and come to the forefront. Belgrade policies served to radicalize the Muslim population in Yugoslavia ahead of the wars of the nineties. One of the theses used to justify them is that radical Islam brought Yugoslavia down1. Nor did that policy change aft er October 2000, despite the fact that Sandžak Bosniacs contributed to the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević (2000) and, later, to the establishment of a pro- European government (2008).
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Presevo Valley gained international attention mostly due to the insurgency of local Albanians in 2000, which was also a key factor destabilising Macedonia in 2001. Situated in southern Serbia and bordering on Macedonia and Kosovo, Presevo Valley is home to Serbia’s Albanian minority. Although the Valley has been calm in the last few years and the resurgence of armed conflict is unlikely at the moment, the situation is still fragile and continues to pose a potential security threat for the wider region. As the solution to Kosovo’s status is approaching, the problems of Albanians in Presevo Valley deserve serious attention. There are two main sources of security threats: one is the potential influx of Serbian refugees, the other is Kosovo’s (hypothetical) partition. The latter could potentially lead to the outbreak of violence, as Albanians of the Valley recently declared their intention to be united with Kosovo if the Serbian villages in the North of Kosovo would join Serbia. This Policy Brief argues, however, that the Serbian government could reduce the chances of conflict by addressing some everyday problems faced by the Albanian minority, which could take the wind out of the sails of potential irredentists. Albanian grievances centre on issues such as their weak presence in the public sector, high unemployment, limited implementation of their language rights and the lack of economic development. Some of these problems could be effectively addressed through strengthening local autonomy, which could be part of the solution. It is argued here that continuation with the Covic plan, which combines decentralisation and demilitarisation, could bring about the desired stability for the region, which needs continued attention and assistance from international bodies, among them the European Union.
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Following the 2015 national election in Turkey the AKP, for the first time since coming to power in2002, failed to win enough votes to form a majority government. Since the election the AKP has giventhe impression that it is attempting to form a coalition government, but in reality the party has beenemploying a number of tactics in order to increase its share of the vote in preparation for a snapelection. These tactics have mainly revolved around increasing the nationalist vote and damaging themain Kurdish party. However, these manoeuvres have increased polarisation in Turkey and haveresulted in an escalation of the conflict with the Kurds. Worryingly, it has become evident that the AKPaims to win power in the next election at all costs.
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This policy brief argues that the decentralisation of Serbia by degating more authority to municipalities could benefit minority groups that constitute a local majority. Although there are three such minority communities living in Serbia, the Bosniaks in Sandzak, the Albanians in Presevo Valley and the Hungarians in Vojvodina, the paper focuses on the first two groups, because their problems could potentially destabilise Serbia and the wider region. Thus, addressing the root causes of tensions in these two regions is an urgent task. Moreover, not only would minorities gain from sound decentralisation – all municipalities would do so regardless of ethnicity. Ultimately, decentralisation would be an essential step in Serbia’s democratisation process, following the example of other Central and East European countries.
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