Grammars of Identity / Alterity

Gerd Baumann (1953-2014) was Reader in Social Anthropology at the Research Centre Religion & Society of the University of Amsterdam. His other titles included National Integration and Local Integrity: The Miri of the Nuba Mountains in the Sudan (1986), Contesting Culture: Discourses of Identity in Multiethnic London (1996) and The Multicultural Riddle: Rethinking National, Ethnic and Religious Identities (1999).

• List of FiguresForewordGerd Baumann and Andre Gingrich AcknowledgmentsSTEP I: FROM AN ESSENTIALISED USE OF 'OTHERING' TO A DIFFERENTIATION OF GRAMMARSChapter 1. Conceptualising Identities: Anthropological Alternatives to Essentialising Difference and Moralizing about OtheringAndre GingrichChapter 2. Grammars of Identity/Alterity: A Structural ApproachGerd BaumannSTEP II: FROM A REPERTOIRE OF GRAMMARS TO HIERARCHIES AND POWERChapter 3. Othering the Scapegoat in Nepal: The Ritual of GhantakarnaMichael MühlichChapter 4. German Grammars of Identity/Alterity: A Diachronic ViewAnne Friederike MüllerChapter 5. Alterity as Celebration, Alterity as Threat: A Comparison of Grammars between Brazil and DenmarkInger SjørslevSTEP III: FROM POWER TO VIOLENCE - WHEN GRAMMARS IMPLODEChapter 6. Completing or Competing ? Contexts of Hmong Selfing/Othering in LaosChristian PostertChapter 7. ‘Out of the Race’: The Poiesis of Genocide in Mass Media Discourses in Côte d’IvoireKarel ArnautChapter 8. Dehumanization as a Double-Edged Sword: From Boot-Camp Animals to Killing MachinesJojada VerripsSTEP IV: FROM TESTING GRAMMARS TO WIDENING THE DEBATEChapter 9. Between Structure and Agency: From the langue of Hindutva Identity Construction to the parole of Lived ExperienceChristian KarnerChapter 10. Encompassment and its Discontents: The Rmeet and the Lowland LaoGuido SprengerChapter 11. Debating Grammars: Arguments and ProspectsGerd Baumann and Andre GingrichNotes on ContributorsSubject IndexName Index

“A short review cannot do justice to the richness of this, or to the problems posed by its analytical framework…This is a thought-provoking, problematic even troubling volume with many excellent chapters.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI)“This book's strength is two-fold. First, as an edited volume it was delightfully cohesive, with each author considering the same set of basic questions, and utilizing the three grammars as a frame for examining identity in their various contexts…The second core strength for me is the fluid treatment of both structural and agentic aspects of identity…I found this a stimulating volume and think it has much to offer for readers interested in better understanding identity processes.” • Anthropology and Education Quarterly