Search results

For more than century, race was a major interest in anthropology. Buildingon Johan Blumenbach's 1795 color classificaiton dividing humanity into white, black, brown, yellow and red, anthropologists further subdivided the people of the world into finer taxonomic categories. Hair form, shape of the nose, pigmentation of the eyes and the hair, stature, and the shaps of the head were among the many characteristics race classifiers added to skin color to enable them to fit populations into the typologies they designed. By the end of the 19th century, numerous races and subraces had been described, laying the groundwork for the direction the discipline would follow until the mid-20th century. It was expected that the development and refinement of a racial typology would lead to a framework for tracing lines of human evolution and routes of human migration.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO DEVELOP A POLITICALLY EFFECTIVE, CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE ON IDENTITY POLITICS. COMMON SENSE SUGGESTS THAT IDENTITY POLITICS, MOST CLEARLY EVIDENCED IN POLITICAL MOBILIZATIONS AROUND RACE, ARE PART OF A FUNDAMENTAL ATTACK ON THE CORE VALUES OF OUR POLITICAL CUTURE. THIS ARTICLE SUGGESTS THAT OUR SOCIAL APPETITE FOR IMAGES OF BLACK MEN MISBEHAVING SKEWS OUR PERCEPTIONS OF ALL INDENTITY POLITICS--AND PLAYS INTO THE HANDS OF THE RIGHT.

THIS ARTICLE EXPLORES THE IMPLICATION THAT THE STUDY OF ETHNICITY BECOMES OF CENTRAL CONCERN AS THE STUDY OF POLITICAL CHANGE SHIFTS TOWARD A FOCUS ON THE ROLE OF CULTURE AND ON THE CHARACTER OF THE STATE. EXPLORED IN RELATION TO THE ABOVE IMPLICATION ARE: STATE ELITE, NATIONAL INDENTITY, STATE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK; ETHNIC, CLASS, PATRIMONIAL AND BUREAUCRATIC ELITES. THE IDEOLOGIES OF MONO-ETHNIC, ETHNICALLY NEUTRAL AND CONSOCIATIONAL NATIONALISM ARE DETAILED.

A CATALYTIC STATE IS ONE THAT SEEKS ITS GOALS LESS BY RELYING ON ITS OWN RESOURCES THAN BY ACTING AS A DOMINANT ELEMENT IN COALITIONS OF OTHER STATES, TRANSNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, AND PRIVATE SECTOR GROUPS, WHILE RETAINING ITS DISTINCT INDENTITY AND ITS OWN GOALS. THE GOALS OF THE STATE REMAIN THE SAME--LEGITIMACY, PROSPERITY AND SECURITY. THIS ARTICLE REVIEWS THE MODERN STATE FROM SUZERAIN TO INTEGRAL STATE, GLOBAL TRENDS, THE RESURGENC OF SOCIETY, AND THE REINVENTION OF THE STATE. THE BIG QUESTION IS: CAN AMERICA ADAPT?

Contrary to expectation, and the generally accepted belief
that ethnicity defines one's primordial indentity and is, therefore,
relevant and functiooal only in a pre-modem context, the phenomenon of
ethnicity has surfaced in the modem world as a fOICe more vital than
class contIi::t and a source more pertinent to resolving peICeived
inequalities and thereby affecting desired social change. This paper
examines the ethnic garb assumed by the uprisings and armed conflicts
currently ravaging Karachi. The examination is undertaken within the
framework of Hannan's model of the dynamics of interactions between the
centre and the periphery (as based on Barth's niche theory). The paper,
thus, seeks to understand the conditions which caused the definition,
reinfoICement, and functional relevance of ethni:: boundaries, as well
as the consequent salience of the phenomenon in the modem urban
context.