Description
Book Synopsis What does it mean to “fit in?” In this volume of essays, editors Günther Schlee and Alexander Horstmann demystify the discourse on identity, challenging common assumptions about the role of sameness and difference as the basis for inclusion and exclusion. Armed with intimate knowledge of local systems, social relationships, and the negotiation of people’s positions in the everyday politics, these essays tease out the ways in which ethnicity, religion and nationalism are used for social integration.
Trade Review “Schlee and Horstmann as the book’s editors must be congratulated on combining a variety of perspectives from around the globe on how differences and sameness may either contribute to or prohibit unity. In this regard, Schlee’s introduction provides a helpful analysis of four models…[It] consists of proper scholarly research well substantiated by references and would therefore serve as good scholarly material. The presentation of the data is not too difficult for a non-specialist who is interested in inter-cultural engagement. In this regard, this collection should attract a wide audience.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI)
“While conflict remains the dominant trope in the analysis of ethnic diversity, the book accrues its value in emphasising coexistence as a mode of managing diversity.” • Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
Introduction: Difference and Sameness as Modes of Integration
Günther Schlee
Chapter 1. Distances and Hierarchies: The Struggle over Ethnic Symbols in Nepal’s Public Spaces
Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka
Chapter 2. Identity through Difference: Ambivalences of the Social Integration of Mauritania’s Former Slaves
Urs Peter Ruf
Chapter 3. Identification with the State and Identifications by the State
Günther Schlee
Chapter 4. Politics of Belonging and Identity Transformations in Northern Côte d’Ivoire and Western Burkina Faso
Youssouf Diallo
Chapter 5. Tanguiéta: Identity Processes and Political History in a Small African Town
Tilo Grätz
Chapter 6. Transnational Practices and Post-Soviet Collective Identity
Claus Bech Hansen and Markus Kaiser
Chapter 7. Living Together: The Transformation of Multi-Religious Coexistence in Southern Thailand
Alexander Horstmann
Chapter 8. Three Dyads Compared: Nuer/Anywaa (Ethiopia), Maasai/Kamba (Kenya), and Evenki/Buryat (Siberia)
Günther Schlee
Chapter 9. Ruling over Ethnic and Religious Differences: A Comparative Essay on Empires
Günther Schlee
Epilogue
Günther Schlee, Alexander Horstmann, and John Eidson
Bibliography
Index
