Ethnicization

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Ethnization (from ancient Greek éthnos "[foreign] people ") describes a process in which people are assigned to an ethnic group because of their origin, their appearance or their way of life ; this ascription does not have to be correct. The behavior of the people is primarily explained on the basis of a (supposed) ethnic affiliation. If the external attribution has not an ethnic but a cultural basis, the term culturalization is often used (compare ethnoculturalism ).

Definitions

Margarete Hunter from Duisburg Institute for voice and Social Research (DISS) distinguishes between political and racial forms of ethnicisation be attributed in persons natural properties ( "static ethnicisation"), and ethnocentric forms of ethnicisation, wherein the variable cultural characteristics and features attributed become ("dynamic ethnicization").

Comparable to this is culturalization , in which the actions of people are explained on the basis of (supposed) cultural attributions. Context, situation and the individual and their ability to learn and change are not given enough consideration. In social discourse, “all social conflicts are articulated as cultural differences in order to evade direct political debate,” writes journalist Jost Müller in 1995 (compare also racism without races ). The function of creating meaning and identity for people or groups is assigned to culture .

In the course of ethnicization, culture is not understood as an individual and, in important parts, contingent process of identity formation, but as a static system of binding regulations ( social norms ).

The historian and former Stanford professor George M. Fredrickson also stated in 2004 that culturalization is based on the idea that culture shapes the actions of people in a non-changeable, normative and determining way. Differences between ethnic groups are indelible or unbridgeable. Fredrickson also uses the term "cultural essentialism ".

Consequences of ethnicization

Ethnicization is seldom neutral. This often results in an ethnocentric hierarchization of the ethnic groups (or cultures) concerned, with the assumption that one's own ethnic group or culture is more valuable than the foreign ethnic group (culture). The ethnocentric attitude is held to be true and passed on as “knowledge”. In addition,  demands for assimilation are characteristic in this context - especially in the immigration society .

Ethnization and culturalization have an ideological meaning in identity politics , in which rhetorically races , nations , ethnic groups or clans are conjured up. The ideas can be instrumentalized “in order to legitimize one's own culture and existing relationships of rule”.

Countermovement

Resistance to ethnicisation is mainly of immigrants ( immigrants ) and persons belonging to minorities formulated. In the post-colonialist discourse of many scholars and artists in particular , identity politics is rejected and experiences of minority and exclusion through ethnicization are discussed. Known in this context are, for example, the migrant group Kanak Attak or the German-Turkish author Feridun Zaimoglu .

Ethnicization problem in legislation

In the debate about the legal protection of minorities , the demand for “recognition of ethnic and cultural identity” against the background of possible ethnicization is particularly controversial where a collective right is demanded. For Alex Suttner and the German political scientist Samuel Salzborn , for example, it is unproblematic if, comparable to the right to freely practice one's religion, these rights are granted to everyone individually. So every citizen as a person could individually sue for this right. In contrast, demands that demand this claim for a collective of people argue, in the opinion of Suttner and Salzborn, in such a way that they stipulate lifestyle habits for a homogeneous group. Laws such as the “Volksgruppengesetz” in Austria, so the critics of such demands, are based on the ethnicizing assumption that a community of people can be proven who, for example, have to demonstrate a certain “ ethnicity ”.

With the “recognition of cultural identity” approach, people are perceived according to Alex Suttner “not as individuals with certain cultural preferences, but as the embodiment of a collective culture ”. If a person wants to enforce this right in court, the court is “forced to make objectifying judgments about the 'cultural identity' of a group and an individual ” and would legally advance the process of ethnicization.

In 2003, Samuel Salzborn also sees ethnocultural concepts such as ethnic group politics as an ethnicization of politics:

“In the political tradition of the Enlightenment, all kinds of discrimination should be prevented by creating a legal protection system. The political goal is to overcome historically determined inequality through political and social integration into existing social contexts. The counterpart of this model is the ethnicization approach of the national minority law, arguing in terms of collective law, which is based on a völkisch-anti-Galitarian foundation. "

See also

literature

  • Christoph Antweiler : Ethnization and Ethnocentrism. Concentric dualism as a ubiquitous tolerance barrier. In: Hamid Reza Yousefi , Klaus Fischer (ed.): Intercultural Orientation. Foundation of the tolerance dialogue, part I: methods and concepts. Traugott Bautz, Nordhausen 2004, ISBN 3-88309-134-0 , pp. 261-287.
  • Christoph Antweiler : Concentric dualism as an obstacle to humanity. In: Same: Man and World Culture. For realistic cosmopolitanism in the age of globalization. Transcript, Bielefeld, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-1634-7 , pp. 141–162, Chapter 6 ( full text in the Google book search).
  • Margret Jäger : Fatal effects. The criticism of patriarchy in the immigration discourse. DISS, Duisburg 1996, ISBN 3-927388-52-1 (doctoral thesis 1995 University of Oldenburg: Ethnicisation of sexism in the everyday discourse of immigration ).
  • Annita Kalpaka, Nora Räthzel: Effects of racism and ethnocentrism. In: The Same: The Difficulty Not To Be Racist. Dreisam, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-89452-413-8 .
  • Jost Müller: Myths of the Right. Nation, ethnicity, culture. ID archive, Berlin / Amsterdam 1995, ISBN 3-89408-037-X .
  • Samuel Salzborn : Ethnicization of Politics. Theory and history of ethnic group law in Europe. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-593-37879-5 .
  • Samuel Salzborn: Fight against the Enlightenment. The ethno-cultural concept of ethnic group politics. In: Forum Wissenschaft January 2003, pp. 19–22 ( PDF file; 105 kB, 4 pages at salzborn.de).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Barmeyer: Pocket Lexicon Interculturality . V&R, Göttingen 2012, p. 96/97 .
  2. ↑ Jost Müller: Myths of the Right: Nation, Ethnicity, Culture. ID archive, Berlin / Amsterdam 1995, ISBN 3-89408-037-X , p. 57.
  3. ↑ George Fredrickson: Racism - A Historical Outline . Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2004, p. 12-16 .
  4. ↑ George Fredrickson: Racism - A Historical Outline . Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2004, p. 185 .
  5. ↑ Anja Weiß: Racism against the will . Springer, Wiesbaden 2014, p. 24/25 .
  6. ↑ Margret Jäger: Fatal Effects. The criticism of patriarchy in the immigration discourse. ISBN 3-927388-52-1 .
  7. ↑ Compare Joanna Breidenbach, Ina Zukrigl: Dance of Cultures. Cultural identity in a globalized world. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-499-60838-3 .
  8. ↑ Alex Sutter: Compensation instead of recognition. To justify special rights for members of cultural minorities. (PDF: 120 kB, 19 pages) In: Humanrights.ch . 2000, accessed on June 7, 2019 (also published in: Gerhard Seel (Ed.): Minorities, Migrants and the Community of Nations. Peter Lang, Bern 2006).
  9. ↑ Samuel Salzborn : Fight against the Enlightenment. The ethno-cultural concept of ethnic group politics. In: Forum Wissenschaft . No. 1, January 15, 2003, pp. 19-22 ( online at bdwi.de).