Del 14 - Eurasian Studies Library

Making Ethnicity in Southern Bessarabia

Tracing the Histories of an Ambiguous Concept in a Contested Land

Inbunden, Engelska, 2019

2 329 kr

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In Making Ethnicity, Simon Schlegel offers a history of ethnicity and its political uses in southern Bessarabia, a region that has long been at the crossroads of powerful forces: in the 19th century between the Russian and Ottoman Empires, since World War I between the Soviet Union and Romania, and since the collapse of the Soviet Union between Russia and the European Union’s respective zones of influence.Drawing on biographical interviews and archival documents, Schlegel argues that ethnic categories gained relevance in the 19th century, as state bureaucrats took over local administration from the church. After mutating into a dangerous instrument of social engineering in the mid-20th century, ethnicity today remains a potent force for securing votes and allocating resources.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2019-08-29
Mått155 x 235 x 23 mm
Vikt595 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieEurasian Studies Library
Antal sidor278
FörlagBrill
ISBN9789004349902

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ContentsAcknowledgementsList of Maps and FiguresNotes1 Introduction1 Central Questions 2 History and Anthropology, Some Methodological Implications3 Locating the Field Site and Choosing a Name for It4 A Brief Historical Outline5 Ethnicity, Natsional’nost’, and Nationality: Definitions and Translations 6 Chapter Structure 2 Administering the Periphery from Horseback1 The State’s Hunger for Tax and Men2 Colonists out of the State’s Sight 3 Keep It Separate, Keep It Simple 4 Bureaucracy Evolving: the Church Gives Way to the State 5 The Categories of the Census Taker and the Ethnographer 6 Ethnicity in Revolutionary Minds 3 Persuasion and Paranoia—Romania’s Rule in Bessarabia 1918–441 Newcomer Elites in a Hostile Land2 Spying on Minorities 3 Counting and Categorizing Minorities 4 Ethnicity as a Proxy for Trustworthiness5 Bringing the Past into Line6 Eugenics and Ethnic Cleansing4 Politically Desirable Theory and Its Way into Folk Theory1 The Imperial Roots of Diverging Ethnicity Concepts 2 Self-Identification vs. Ascription—Who Gets to Draw Ethnic Boundaries? 3 State-Approved Concepts of Ethnicity in Post-War Soviet Academia 4 Gut Feeling and Folk Theories of Ethnicity 5 Grand Scheme Planning and the “Primordial Trap” 5 Ethnic Minorities and Soviet Newcomers1 Ethnicity and the Hierarchy of Trust in Post-War Southern Bessarabia2 The Stewards of a New Model State 3 Ethnicity Performed in Public 4 Soviet Education and the Friendship of Peoples5 Stagnation and Revived Ethnic Consciousness6 Post-Soviet Instability, Clientelism and the Persistence of Ethnic Boundaries1 The Power of Benefaction 2 The Roots of Clientelism in Ethnic and Non-Ethnic Networks 3 Ethnicity in Local Politics: Three Strategies 4 Political Representation and the Pressure to Choose a Clear-Cut Ethnic Identity5 When Clear-Cut Boundaries Encounter Fuzzy Identities 7 The Narratives and Techniques that Maintain Ethnic Boundaries1 Pure and Impure Language2 Religion’s Ambiguous Role in Marking Ethnicity3 Common Historical Experience and Collective Memory 4 Processed Folklore 5 Genetic Narratives of Ethnic Belonging6 Generalizing the Inside, Omitting the Outside 8 Conclusion—Delimiting Ethnic Groups as a Tool of Statecraft1 The Significance of Ethnicity: Continuities and Ruptures 2 When Ethnic Boundaries Become Obstacles3 Ethnic Boundaries, Whom Do They Serve? 4 Narratives and Techniques 5 The Trouble with Fuzzy Boundaries6 Ethnicity as a Beacon of Stability ReferencesBibliographyIndex