Two divergent definitions have dominated sociologists’
discussions of the nature of ethnicity. The first emphasizes
the primordial and unchanging character of ethnicity. In
this view, people have an essential need for belonging that
(5) is satisfied by membership in groups based on shared
ancestry and culture. A different conception of ethnicity
de-emphasizes the cultural component and defines ethnic
groups as interest groups. In this view, ethnicity serves as
a way of mobilizing a certain population behind issues
(10) relating to its economic position. While both of these
definitions are useful, neither fully captures the dynamic
and changing aspects of ethnicity in the United States.
Rather, ethnicity is more satisfactorily conceived of as a
process in which preexisting communal bonds and common
(15) cultural attributes are adapted for instrumental purposes
according to changing real-life situations.
One example of this process is the rise of participation
by Native American people in the broader United States
political system since the Civil Rights movement of the
(20)1960’s. Besides leading Native Americans to participate
more actively in politics (the number of Native American
legislative officeholders more than doubled), this movement
also evoked increased interest in tribal history and traditional
culture. Cultural and instrumental components of
(25 )ethnicity are not mutually exclusive, but rather reinforce
one another.
The Civil Rights movement also brought changes in the
uses to which ethnicity was put by Mexican American
people. In the 1960’s, Mexican Americans formed
(30) community-based political groups that emphasized ancestral
heritage as a way of mobilizing constituents. Such emerg-
ing issues as immigration and voting rights gave Mexican
American advocacy groups the means by which to promote
ethnic solidarity. Like European ethnic groups in the
(35) nineteenth-century United States, late-twentieth-century
Mexican American leaders combined ethnic with contem-
porary civic symbols. In 1968 Henry Censors, then mayor
of San Antonio, Texas, cited Mexican leader Benito Juarez
as a model for Mexican Americans in their fight for con-
(40) temporary civil rights. And every year, Mexican Americans
celebrate Cinco de Mayo as fervently as many Irish
American people embrace St. Patrick’s Day (both are major
holidays in the countries of origin), with both holidays
having been reinvented in the context of the United States
and linked to ideals, symbols, and heroes of the United
States
京公网安备11010202008513号 京ICP证101109号 京ICP备12012021号
楼主
发表于 2007-12-5 23:04:00
