Week 8

Have you answered the course questions What is Ethnicity? and What is Race?

Essay Abstracts

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"Evaluate how the PRC has attempted to homogenise Tibetan culture with Chinese culture, and to an extent completely remove it, in relation to Gellner's theory" - abstract by Rose Delamare.
This essay explores the many claims that Tibetan culture has been systematically targeted and corroded by the People's republic of China with their aim being to completely marginalise it. Using examples such as the Chinese destruction of the Tibetan monasteries, restrictions on the use of Tibetan language in schools and the workplace, and allegations that Tibetans who have tried to escape from Chinese control have been imprisoned, tortured and used for shooting practise, this essay argues that China's policies towards Tibet and its people has been inhumane and discriminatory. Using the techniques to homogenise a nation which are outlined by Gellner, it seems that China's ambition to engulf Tibet and its people into Chinese culture and territory has been and still is being demonstrated.

Lecture Reading

Appadurai, A. 1999. ‘Dead certainties. Ethnic violence in the era of globalization’. In Meyer, B. (ed.) Globalization and Identity.
Baumann, Gerd. 1999. The Multicultural Riddle. New York: Routledge. Chapter 6, ‘Religion: baggage or sextant?’
Eller, J.D. 1999. ‘Quebec: Masters of our Own House’. Chapter 7 of J.D. Eller, From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict.

Summary of Lecture

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Seminar Reading

Tambiah, Stanley J. 1988. “Ethnic conflict in the world today”. American Ethnologist, 16(2): 335-349 Direct Link.

Bhatt, Chetan and Mukta, Parita. 2000. ‘Hindutva in the West: mapping the antonomies of diaspora nationalism. Ethnic and Racial Studies 23(3):407-41.
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Summaries and Notes from Seminar and Reading

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External Materials and Links

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