SC2218: Anthropology and SC2218: Anthropology and the Human Condition the Human Condition Lecture 9: Ethnicity, Lecture 9: Ethnicity, Nation, and Other Nation, and Other Imagined Communities Imagined Communities Eric C. Thompson Eric C. Thompson Semester 1, 2011/2012 Semester 1, 2011/2012
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SC2218: Anthropology and the SC2218: Anthropology and the Human ConditionHuman Condition
Lecture 9: Ethnicity, Nation, and Lecture 9: Ethnicity, Nation, and Other Imagined CommunitiesOther Imagined Communities
Eric C. ThompsonEric C. Thompson
Semester 1, 2011/2012Semester 1, 2011/2012
Where Are We Going?Where Are We Going?
• Part 1: What is Anthropology?– Strangers Abroad, Race, Culture
• Part 2: What do Anthropologists Study?– Kinship– Gender– Economy– Community
• Part 3: Current Debates and Trends– Representing Others, The Poetry of
Culture, World Anthropologies
YOU AREHERE
Lecture OutlineLecture Outline
• What is are “Communities”?
• Race, Ethnicity, Nation– Types of Communities
• Census, Map, Museum– Technologies of Communities
• Beyond Census, Map, Museum…
Anthropology and CommunitiesAnthropology and Communities• Early modern Anthropology (19th to mid-
20th century) took “community” for granted.– Anthropologists studied small groups, villages– Community and shared culture were taken-
for-granted
• Now, anthropologists take “community” as a topic of research.– How are “communities” formed and imagined?
What counts as a “community”?
Community::Dictionary Definitions
• People with common interests, living in a particular area.
• A group of people with common characteristics living together within a larger society.
• A body of persons having a common history or common social, economic and political interests.
• A body of persons of common interests scattered through a larger society.
• Social Networks and Communities are distinct sociological and cultural things.
• A Social Network is defined by exchange and relationship between persons.
• Exchange takes place on the basis of difference not similarity (though can create relationship and a sense of ‘commonality’)
• A network is not necessarily a “community”.
Unbounded CommunitiesUnbounded Communities• A community of academics, scholars• NUSS = the NUS alumni community• The “Malay community” (or any other “ethnic
community”)• A national community (do you cease to be
Singaporean if you take a trip to Australia?)• The “YouTube” community.• Communities are based in senses of
belonging and identity.
““Imagined Communities”Imagined Communities”• Markers of commonality are arbitrary; they
are socially and culturally agreed upon.
• Communities exist because people imagine them to exist. (They are fundamentally cultural – shared belief, ideas, feelings).
• Communities are not “fictional”… They are social and cultural realities – produced by human imagination.
Culture is…Culture is…
• A system of shared meanings. “Webs of Significance”
• A system for signaling and reproducing those shared meanings.
• How is community culturally produced?
• How do we signal and represent commonality among a group of people?
CensusCensus• Singapore Census 1871 to 2000
• Shifting categories, shifting relationships between categories.
• What happens to:
European? African? Chinese? Malay?
Eurasian? Bugis? Hindoo? Tamil?
• In each census, how would you categorize yourself?
Census Categories: Straits Census Categories: Straits Settlements 1871Settlements 1871
Europeans and Americans(18 subcategories)
ArmeniansJewsEurasiansAbyssiniansAchineseAfricansAndamaneseArabsBengalees & other Natives of
• Markers of commonality are arbitrary…• Race = use of biological, physiological
characteristics as markers of similarity and difference.
• Ethnicity = use of culturally expressed characteristics as markers of similarity and difference.
• Nationality = political affiliation with a state (citizenship); but also combined with senses of ethnicity (ethno-nationalism)
““Caucasian”Caucasian”• Term used by Blumbach (1775)• People from the Caucuses taken to be
prototypes of the race• For Blumbach this included people from across
Europe, the Middle East, North Africa• By the Twentieth Century = “White” Europeans• What are you?... Caucasian, White, Ang Moh,
Mat Salleh, Gaijin, Gwai-Loh… are these really all “the same thing”?
““Malay”/MelayuMalay”/Melayu• Jambi-Melayu, center of “Srivijaya” trade empire
c.12th century.
• Melayu = Royal Lineage (“Bangsa” pre-20th C.)
• Melayu = Having a Raja (Kerajaan)
• Melayu = Malay “race” (“Bangsa” 20th C.)
• Melayu = Muslim (synonymous?)
• The same sorts of historical shifts can be found with every ethinic name… are Chinese subjects of the Qin Emperor? (That is the origin of “Chinese”)
Race, Ethnicity and NationRace, Ethnicity and NationHistorical PerspectiveHistorical Perspective
• From the 19th to 20th centuries, race was replaced (displaced) by ethnicity.
• From the 19th century onward, “nationality” has straddled an unclear conceptual area between ethnicity (a ‘culturally similar’ group of people) and affiliation with a territorial-state (citizenship).
The shift from RACE to The shift from RACE to ETHNICITYETHNICITY
Race, Ethnicity, LineageRace, Ethnicity, Lineage• Race (Biological Difference) appears as a effect
of biological, reproductive isolation• Ethnicity (Cultural Difference) appears as an
effect of cultural isolation• Over time, isolated groups of people develop
biological (genetic) and cultural (ethnic) distinctiveness.
• Lineages are lines of descent. Everyone has multiple lineages (through their mothers and fathers).
• Racial, Ethnic or National communities are based on beliefs which make biology (race), culture (ethnicity), or political affiliation (nationality) meaningful.
• None of these are meaningful outside of their social construction as “imagined communities”.
Race• Idea of Race is based on
coherence of traits (esp. biological).
• Traits do not cohere.
• 95% of biological/ genetic variation occurs within human populations
• 5% occurs between populations
• Race remains a popular idea but scientifically useless and socially divisive
““None of the Above”None of the Above”
• What are the effects of racial categorization for the people interviewed in the film?
• What purpose does racial categorization serve?
• How would these people identify (or be identified) if they lived in Singapore?
INTERMISSION…INTERMISSION…
What about CULTURAL variation?
Shift from Race to EthnicityShift from Race to Ethnicity• 18th - 19th Century: “Race” = groups who
share physical traits, customs, habits and other characteristics. (Biology AND Culture)
• 20th Century: Ethnicity = groups who share customs, language, social views.
• Ethnicity = Race minus Biology• Ethnicity became a more acceptable way of
categorizing similarity and difference
Ethnicity: Two TheoriesEthnicity: Two Theories• Primordialism
– Coherence (“Sharing”) of Cultural Traits– Assumed Blood Ties, Race, Language, Region,
• Problem:– Evidence supports Circumstantialism– Peoples’ feelings support Primordialism
Ethnic Groups and BoundariesEthnic Groups and Boundaries
• Ethnicity is based on a sense of difference.
• Symbols & practices are not ‘ethnic’ until they become signifiers of difference.
• Examples:– Japanese Shinto– Malay Adat
What is a “Nation”?What is a “Nation”?
• A European (Primordialist) Theory• One “people” living on one territory governed by
one state (French people, German people, Chinese people)
• A Nation = An Ethnic Group with a State.• Problems:
– 1. People move around!– 2. Culture (the marker of ethnicity) changes over
time and space (without clear ‘boundaries’ between groups)
Shifting meaning of “Nationality”Shifting meaning of “Nationality”• 19th and 20th Century: A “nation” is a “people”
(defined in terms of a blurred combination of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’)
• 20th to 21st Century: Nationality is defined by a person’s association with a territorial-state (what passport do you hold?)
• States create “nations” (more than “nations” being a justification for states)– “Peasants in to Frenchmen” (Eugen Weber)– Singapore, Indonesia and other post-colonial ‘nation-
states’
Imagined CommunitiesImagined Communities(Benedict Anderson… and beyond)(Benedict Anderson… and beyond)
• All communities – Racial, Ethnic, National, etc. – are products of cultural processes, symbols, and practices.
• Communities exist because people imagine them to exist.
• We can study distinct processes and practices that enable such imagining.
Census, Map, Museum*
• Cultural Practices
• Governmentality
• Ethnicity & Nationalism
*From Ben Anderson (1991)Imagined Communities, Revised Ed.
MapMap
• Do maps show nations or create nations?
• What is the relationship between maps and national identity?
• Online Communities (the “YouTube community”)• Institutional Communities (the “NUS community”)• Is this class a community?• Does the Wiki create a stronger sense of community?
Final Thoughts…Final Thoughts…• Community is created through …
– Imagination and Practice
• We make our communities through imaginative practices and practical imagination.
• What communities are you part of?• What are the practices through which