Suchergebnisse

Zusammenfassung: Today's New Zealand is home to many ethnic groups. However, the idea of biculturalism that originates from colonial times and constitutes the two main groups - New Zealand Europeans and indigenous Māori - as equal partners still lingers on. This concept greatly influences iden-tity constructions of members of both groups.During a fieldwork research project in Auckland I gained greater insight into those issues based on the investigation of motivations of non-Māori learning the Māori language. Only a little over 20 percent of the Māori population and around 4 percent of the total population are able to hold conversations in Te Reo Māori. New Zealand English is usually the language of all matters. So why would a non-Māori be interested in studying the 'other's' language? While motivations for acquiring a language are usually connected to communicative reasons, this is not the case here. However, language also has symbolic functions.This thesis closely examines the significance of the Māori language for non-Māori learners in the context of identity constructions in New Zealand. Language thus becomes a symbol for a national identity that fosters feelings of togetherness as well as demarcation to other nations and between the groups

Schon längst sind auch in der Bundesrepublik die Grenzen zwischen einheimisch und eingewandert fließend, denn immer mehr Menschen leben in bikulturellen Beziehungen und immer mehr Kinder haben Eltern verschiedener nationaler Herkunft. Bikulturalität in möglichst vielen Facetten des Alltags aber auch der Wissenschaft vorzustellen, ist ein Ziel dieses Buches. Es geht der Frage nach, wie junge Menschen mit Mehrfachzugehörigkeiten umgehen und wie sie ihre Identitäten jenseits starrer Kategorisierungen konstruieren. Dabei bringen Begriffe wie der der kulturellen Hybridität neue Ansatzpunkte in die Debatten zu Identität und Zugehörigkeit. Die einzelnen Fallstudien dieses Buches zeigen, wie unterschiedlich solche Identitätsdiskurse in verschiedenen Gesellschaften verlaufen können und wie viele Experimente unbemerkt von der breiten Öffentlichkeit bereits stattfinden. Was diese für die Lebenspraxis der Individuen und für das Selbstverständnis der Gesellschaften bedeuten, ist eines der spannenden Zukunftsthemen, das insbesondere den Verband binationaler Familien und Partnerschaften beschäftigt.

"Today's New Zealand is an emerging paradigm for successful cultural relations. Although the nation's Māori (indigenous Polynesian) and Pākehā (colonial European) populations of the 19th century were dramatically different and often at odds, they are today co-contributors to a vibrant society. For more than a century they have been working out the kind of nation that engenders respect and well-being; and their interaction, though often riddled with confrontation, is finally bearing bicultural fruit. By their model, the encounter of diverse cultures does not require the surrender of one to the other; rather, it entails each expanding its own cultural categories in the light of the other. The time is ripe to explore this nation's cultural dynamics for what we can learn about getting along. This anthropological inquiry focuses on religion and related symbols, forms of reciprocity, the operation of power and the concept of culture as these themes have developed in modern New Zealand society."-Provided by publisher--