Suchergebnisse

An examination of the relations between Jews of Oriental & European origin in Israel. The facts of the situation are reviewed; the basic ones are a rapidly rising proportion of Oriental (ie Asian & North African) Jews, & the emergence of a 2-tier society with the European Jews on top. Questions are asked about the existence of ethnic prejudice in Israel (it exists, but so does ethnic self-hatred, eg among North African Jews); discrimination (it exists in housing, work, marriage, but there are countervailing tendencies); ethnic hostility (fear of it is more prevalent than its experience); & oppression (its existence is undeniable; but the evidence can be variously interpreted). Several theoretical approaches to the problem are outlined: (1) R. Patai: Israel should enacourage a blending of Eastern & Western cultures as represented by the 2 types of Jew. (2) ,vi. Seltzer: the Eastern European Jews hate the Oriental Jews because they remind them of their own inferior & 'oriental' status in their European countries of origin. (3) J. Shuval: ethnic prejudices are dormant in periods of nat'l tension & effort but re-appear with 'normalization.' (4) The author: ethnic diff's & difficulties are derived from mass immigration from culturally divergent areas. I. Langnas.

A discussion of the concept of Volk in the light of proposals to reform European boundaries on the basis of ethnic & regional principles to promote peace. As presently constituted, Europe's nationalist federations seem to promote conflict (eg, WWI & WWII). Ethnically homogeneous regions, with shared features promoting regional consciousness, provide a much more logical basis for societal formation than nations where boundaries are arbitrarily drawn without consideration for ethnic relatedness. The concept of regionalism has been legitimated by history & in international law & political science. However, the impracticality of allowing complete regional autonomy is overwhelming. It is suggested that nations & the European community will at present best be served by encouraging regional consciousness based on ethnically harmonious groups. D. Dunseath.

By drawing on ideas developed in evolutionary psychology, this article attempts to contribute to improved understanding of ethnic group formation and change. Specifically, the article asks whether and to what degree evolved mental capacities and dispositions, in interaction with human social environments, account for ethnic group formation. The central arguments are that, in recent millennia, evolved reasoning capabilities of humans have led to a revolution in the technologies of human mobility—and that this development has severed the nearly perfect association between social group formation based on functional advantages and social group formation based on perceived kinship. The scale, composition, and durability of contemporary ethnic groups are the consequence of individual tradeoffs in functionality and kinship values.

Individual electoral clientelism involves the allocation of handouts to voters around elections. Why is this strategy common in some contexts but not in others? This article demonstrates that ethnic group institutional structure helps to explain this variation. Where ethnic groups are organized hierarchically and have centralized leadership, politicians leverage this infrastructure to mobilize voters wholesale. Where they are not, politicians forge linkages directly with voters, resulting in more electoral clientelism. I provide evidence from a set of African countries, where there is variation in the social structure of ethnic and religious groups. I show that electoral clientelism is more widespread in countries where ethnic groups have a decentralized organization. An individual-level analysis of electoral clientelism in 15 African countries further shows that members of decentralized groups are most likely to receive electoral handouts. The findings contribute to the comparative literature on clientelism and highlight how the organizational structure of intermediaries can shape strategies of clientelism.