Grammars Of Identity/ Alterity

by Baumann, Gerd; Gingrich, Andre

• ISBN13: 9781571816986
• ISBN10: 1571816984
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-11-01
• Publisher: Berghahn Books

Summary

Issues of the construction of Self and Other, normally in the context of social exclusion of those perceived as different, have assumed a new urgency. This collection offers a fresh perspective on the ongoing debates on these questions in the social sciences and the humanities by focusing specifically on one theoretical proposition, namely, that the seemingly universal processes of identity formation and exclusion of the 'other' can be differentiated according to three modalities. All contributors directly engage with rigorous empirical testing and theoretical cross-examination of this proposition. Their results have direct implications not only for a more differentiated understanding of collective identities, but also for a better understanding of extreme collective violence and genocide.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vii
Foreword	ix
Gerd Baumann
Andre Gingrich
Acknowledgments	xv
Step I: From an Essentialised Use of `Othering' to a Differentiation of Grammars
Conceptualising Identities: Anthropological Alternatives to Essentialising Difference and Moralizing about Othering	3	(15)
Andre Gingrich
Grammars of Identity/Alterity: A Structural Approach	18	(35)
Gerd Baumann
Step II: From a Repertoire of Grammars to Hierarchies and Power
Othering the Scapegoat in Nepal: The Ritual of Ghantakarna	53	(10)
Michael Muhlich
German Grammars of Identity/Alterity: A Diachronic View	63	(16)
Anne Friederike Muller
Alterity as Celebration, Alterity as Threat: A Comparison of Grammars between Brazil and Denmark	79	(22)
Inger Sjørslev
Step III: From Power to Violence -- when Grammars Implode
Completing or Competing? Contexts of Hmong Selfing/Othering in Laos	101	(11)
Christian Postert
`Out of the Race': The Poiesis of Genocide in Mass Media Discourses in Cote d'Ivoire	112	(30)
Karel Arnaut
Dehumanization as a Double-Edged Sword: From Boot-Camp Animals to Killing Machines	142	(15)
Jojada Verrips
Step IV: From Testing Grammars to Widening the Debate
Between Structure and Agency: From the langue of Hindutva Identity Construction to the parole of Lived Experience	157	(16)
Christian Karner
Encompassment and its Discontents: The Rmeet and the Lowland Lao	173	(19)
Guido Sprenger
Debating Grammars: Arguments and Prospects	192	(13)
Gerd Baumann
Andre Gingrich
Notes on Contributors	205	(4)
Subject Index	209	(6)
Name Index	215