多元族群视野下的华人特性——美国亚裔六大族群的比较

根据美国最新公布的各族群的普查、统计及抽样等数据与研究成果,对亚裔各族群进行比较分析发现,华裔、印度裔、菲律宾裔、日裔、韩裔和越南裔,在人口构成与地理分布、人口素质与职业构成、个人与家庭收入、企业数量及收益、自营职业状况等方面各有千秋。华裔呈现两极状态:高层次方面,华裔受教育水平、高级职业比例、企业平均收益等指标,都紧随印度裔之后居第二位;在硅谷和美国新经济中,华裔与印度裔相媲美;低层次方面,华裔贫困率高以及高中以下学历者多,都仅次于越南裔;偷渡移民在亚裔中最为突出。此外,华裔族群经济规模较大,自成一体,具有自我生成、自我扩张的能力,能够消化相当数量的移民。亚裔在美国的差异性与他们在亚洲本土的文化差异度没有直接的相关性,甚至大相径庭。这些差异是移民及其后裔在迁徙过程和异国谋生过程中适应环境所做出的不同的理性选择。中华文化与海外华人的独特性等既有观点,经不起客观数据比较的验证。     

中国华侨华人研究的学科建设与学术定位

在前期研究的基础上,进一步对当前华侨华人学科建设与学术定位中的一些认识问题、理论问题进行了阐述。主要观点为:学术研究与政策宣传是相辅相成的。相对独立和自由的学术研究是制定政策的基础工作和必要前提;华人研究不应该以中国社会为中心,而应该以海外华人社会为研究的主要对象;华侨华人研究应该摆脱功利主义的考量和民族情绪的影响,坚持理性思考的科学精神;华侨华人研究应该有宽松的氛围、宽阔的视野和宽容的态度。     

北朝民族史撰述的发展

在中国史学史上,北朝的民族史撰述有了进一步发展,先后经历了三个阶段:第一,以邓渊、崔浩史学活动为代表的民族史撰述奠基阶段;第二,以李彪、崔鸿、郦道元为代表的民族史撰述走向繁荣阶段;第三,以魏收为代表的民族史撰述趋于成熟阶段。它们不仅深刻地反映了当时民族融合的历史进程,而且自觉、有力地推动了构建新的历史文化认同的进程。     

Military Anxiety and Genocide: Explaining Campaigns of Annihilation (and Their Absence)

When and why do states launch campaigns of genocide against minorities? In 2017, in a violent campaign increasingly described as genocide, the Myanmar military drove almost 700,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State into Bangladesh killing an estimated 6,700 in the first month and an unknown number overall. This assault is particularly puzzling given the international goodwill and economic benefits the regime was accruing since it opened its political system after decades of isolation. Scholars have identified a number of causes of genocide yet this literature requires development in two areas. First, few studies compare cases of genocide with situations of lower level political violence, meaning it is difficult to distinguish between societies that are simply violent from those which are genocidal. Second, despite the central role played by militaries in genocide, most studies have treated the institution as simply a tool of nationalists and other genocidal leaders rather than as actors with their own incentives and fears. In this study, I develop an explanation of genocide that places militaries at its centre. I contend that armed forces sometimes choose genocide during periods of rapid political change when they perceive a serious threat to their political and economic interests or self-appointed status as “guardian of the nation.” My study begins with a comparison between Rakhine State, Myanmar and a similarly volatile region that has avoided genocide, Assam in Northeast India. In a later stage of theory testing I examine another case of genocide, Indonesia in 1965/66.     

Genocide for “Sanitary Purposes”? The Bogdanovka Murder in Light of Postwar Trial Documents

Drawing on Soviet and Romanian postwar trial material, this study offers a renewed exploration of the Bogdanovka mass murder, while highlighting the extemporaneous character of the most deadly single episode of the Romanian Holocaust. As this case demonstrates, even when there was no initial intent to slaughter Jews in a given area, other local circumstances and actors linked up to cause the obliteration of over 45,000 Jews in a matter of days. In the winter of 1941, the Romanian authorities’ search for solutions to two separate problems—a man-made sanitary crisis and Bucharest's intention of removing Jews from the territories under its control—closely intertwined to spark a genocidal decision. The documentation reviewed for this study provides rare insight into Romanian and German micro-cooperation on the ground, and reveals the “double functionality” logic, which formed the basis of the Axis powers’ jointly planned and implemented murder operation. Simultaneously, the paper discusses the entanglements between the issue of Jewish property, “sanitary considerations,” and the rationale for mass killings.     

Enemies of liberty? Nationalism,immigration, and the framing of terrorism in the agenda of the Front National

This paper systematises the framing of the terrorism issue in the programmatic agenda of the Front national (FN) by focusing on nationalism. We argue that the FN's position on terrorism constitutes part of its strategy to justify its anti‐immigrant agenda by offering ideological rather than biological rationalisations for national belonging. To test our argument empirically, we operationalise four categories of nationalism, including ethno‐racial, cultural, political‐civic, and economic, and code official FN materials published in reaction to seven terrorist attacks on French soil during the period 1986–2015. We find that whilst older documents draw on all four categories, Marine Le Pen documents draw almost exclusively on the cultural and political‐civic categories, confirming our argument. Building on the “normalisation” or “de‐demonisation” approach, our nationalism framework presents a distinct theoretical advantage by allowing us to conceptualise the shift in the party's programmatic agenda.     

‘We disputed every word’: how Kyrgyzstan's moderates tame ethnic nationalism

In post‐violence Kyrgyzstan, a small group of civic‐minded nationalists are fighting to tame extremist voices by formulating their own reconciliation policies. These moderates have adopted several strategies, including persuasion and bargaining with nationalistic elites. This process is not without its limitations. Important issues, such as forging a civic identity for the majority ethnic group, remain unaddressed. Still, moderates' policy achievements and concrete actions are likely to continue to undercut nationalist rhetoric. The case of Kyrgyzstan offers one possible alternative to the Soviet paradigm of framing nationhood alongside citizenship.     

Tracking local dwelling changes in the Chittagong Hills: perspectives on vernacular architecture

Historically, geographers, anthropologists and colonial British administrators (1860–1947) frequently mentioned two ethno-geographical categories – khoungtha and toungtha – when referring to the tribal groups in the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh. Some of these early works considered the livelihood patterns of these groups and the nature of their social and economic interactions. However, a discussion of the changes to their vernacular built environment has escaped any serious investigation. Using empirical findings, this article examines the changes to architectural practices of lowland and highland groups in the socially and ethnically complex region of the Chittagong Hills. Narrowing the discussion to the toungtha Mru ethnic group, this article also examines religious patterns, building techniques and spatial changes in a remotely placed, relatively inaccessible part of the hills where the built environment is still a strong cultural priority.     

Defining Difference from China's Margins

Uniformities and discontinuities in Chinese culture have long animated anthropological debates. The books reviewed here reflect an emerging scholarly consensus about the diversity of China, expressed not only in religions and populations marginal to more mainstream Chinese culture, but among the Han Chinese themselves. Much of the discussion of China's diversity hinges on identity, a social phenomenon freighted with rhetoric and sentiment and inflected by the forces of local and national politics.