The document discusses the concepts of community, ethnicity, race, and nation from an anthropological perspective. It explains how early anthropology viewed "community" as a taken-for-granted concept but now anthropologists study how communities are formed and imagined. Communities are imagined and defined by shared beliefs and identities rather than physical co-location. Race, ethnicity, and nationality are also socially constructed concepts with shifting and arbitrary definitions over time. Census categories in Singapore from 1871 to 2000 demonstrate how racial and ethnic classifications have changed.

1. SC2218: Anthropology and the Human Condition Lecture 9: Ethnicity, Nation, and Other Imagined Communities Eric C. Thompson Semester 1, 2011/2012

2. Where Are We Going? Part 1: What is Anthropology? Strangers Abroad, Race, Culture Part 2: What do Anthropologists Study? Kinship Gender Economy Community Part 3: Current Debates and Trends Representing Others, The Poetry of Culture, World Anthropologies YOU ARE HERE

3. Lecture Outline What is are “Communities”? Race, Ethnicity, Nation Types of Communities Census, Map, Museum Technologies of Communities Beyond Census, Map, Museum…

4. Anthropology and Communities Early modern Anthropology (19 th to mid-20 th century) took “community” for granted. Anthropologists studied small groups, villages Community and shared culture were taken-for-granted Now, anthropologists take “community” as a topic of research. How are “communities” formed and imagined? What counts as a “community”?

5. Community : Dictionary Definitions People with common interests , living in a particular area . A group of people with common characteristics living together within a larger society. A body of persons having a common history or common social , economic and political interests. A body of persons of common interests scattered through a larger society .

6. Community: Co-location, Commonality Co-location (people living in one area) Although “community” is still often used in this sense; this is increasingly seen as irrelevant. Social and cultural processes not bound by co-location (esp. with tele communication). People standing at a bus-stop are not a “community” Commonality How is this determined? (Will come back to this)

7. Comparing Communities and Networks Social Networks and Communities are distinct sociological and cultural things. A Social Network is defined by exchange and relationship between persons. Exchange takes place on the basis of difference not similarity (though can create relationship and a sense of ‘commonality’) A network is not necessarily a “community”.

8. Unbounded Communities A community of academics, scholars NUSS = the NUS alumni community The “Malay community” (or any other “ethnic community”) A national community (do you cease to be Singaporean if you take a trip to Australia?) The “YouTube” community. Communities are based in senses of belonging and identity.

9. “ Imagined Communities” Markers of commonality are arbitrary ; they are socially and culturally agreed upon. Communities exist because people imagine them to exist. (They are fundamentally cultural – shared belief, ideas, feelings). Communities are not “fictional”… They are social and cultural realities – produced by human imagination.

10. Culture is… A system of shared meanings. “Webs of Significance” A system for signaling and reproducing those shared meanings. How is community culturally produced? How do we signal and represent commonality among a group of people?

11. Census Singapore Census 1871 to 2000 Shifting categories, shifting relationships between categories. What happens to: European? African? Chinese? Malay? Eurasian? Bugis? Hindoo? Tamil? In each census, how would you categorize yourself?

12. Census Categories: Straits Settlements 1871 Europeans and Americans (18 subcategories) Armenians Jews Eurasians Abyssinians Achinese Africans Andamanese Arabs Bengalees & other Natives of India Boyanese Bugis Burmese Chinese Cochin-Chinese Dyaks Hindoos Japanese Javanese Jaweepekans Malays Manilamen Mantras Parsees Persians Siamese Singhalese

13. Census Categories: Straits Settlements 1901 I. Europeans and Americans (23 subcategories) II. Eurasians III. Chinese Cantonese Hokkien Kheh Straits-born Teo-Chew Tribe Not Stated (2 other categories) IV. Malays & Other Natives of the Archipelago Aborigines Achinese Bugis Javanese Malays (4 other subcategories) V. Tamils & Other Natives of India Bengalis Burmese Parsees Tamils VI. Other Nationalities Africans Annamese Arabs Armenians Japanese Jews Persians Siamese Sinhalese Not Stated

14. Census Categories: British Malaya 1921 The European Pop. by Race (20 subcategories) Eurasians The Malay Pop. by Race Malays Javanese Boyanese Bugis Achinese Sakai (5 other subcategories) The Chinese Pop. by Tribe Hokkien Cantonese Tie Chiu Kheh Northern Provinces (6 other subcategories) The Indian Pop. by Race Tamil Telugu Bengali Hindustani Burmese Gurkha (6 other subcategories) The “Other” Pop. By Race Arabs Armenians Filipinos Japanese Negros Siamese Sinhalese Turks (Asiatic) (4 other subcategories)

15. Census Categories: Malaya 1957 Malaysians Malays Indonesian All Aborigines Negrito Semai (4 other subcategories) Chinese Hokkien Tiechiu Khek (Hakka) Cantonese Hainanese Hokchia Hokchiu Kwongsai Henghwa Other Chinese Indians Indian Tamil Telegu Malayali Other Indian Others Eurasian Ceylon Tamil Other Ceylonese Pakistani Thai (Siamese) Other Asian British Other European Others (not European or Asian)

16. Census Categories: Singapore 2000 Chinese “ Persons of Chinese origin” Hokkien Teochew Cantonese Hakka Hainanese Hockchia Foochow Henghua Shanghainese Etc. Malay “ Persons of Malay or Indonesian origin” Javanese Boyanese Bugis Etc. Indian “ Persons of Indian, Pakistani, Bangledeshi and Sri Lankan origin” Tamil Malayali Punjabi Bengali Singhalese Etc. Other Ethnic Group “ All persons other than Chinese, Malays and Indians” Eurasians Europeans Arabs Japanese Etc.

17. Census Singapore Census 1871 to 2000 Shifting categories, shifting relationships between categories. What happens to: European? African? Chinese? Malay? Eurasian? Bugis? Hindoo? Tamil? In each census, how would you categorize yourself?

18. Racial, Ethnic, National Communities Markers of commonality are arbitrary… Race = use of biological, physiological characteristics as markers of similarity and difference. Ethnicity = use of culturally expressed characteristics as markers of similarity and difference. Nationality = political affiliation with a state (citizenship); but also combined with senses of ethnicity (ethno-nationalism)

19. “ Caucasian” Term used by Blumbach (1775) People from the Caucuses taken to be prototypes of the race For Blumbach this included people from across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa By the Twentieth Century = “White” Europeans What are you?... Caucasian, White, Ang Moh, Mat Salleh, Gaijin, Gwai-Loh… are these really all “the same thing”?

20. “ Malay”/Melayu Jambi-Melayu, center of “Srivijaya” trade empire c.12 th century. Melayu = Royal Lineage (“Bangsa” pre-20 th C.) Melayu = Having a Raja ( Kerajaan ) Melayu = Malay “race” (“Bangsa” 20 th C.) Melayu = Muslim ( synonymous ?) The same sorts of historical shifts can be found with every ethinic name… are Chinese subjects of the Qin Emperor? (That is the origin of “Chinese”)

21. Race, Ethnicity and Nation Historical Perspective From the 19 th to 20 th centuries, race was replaced (displaced) by ethnicity. From the 19 th century onward, “nationality” has straddled an unclear conceptual area between ethnicity (a ‘culturally similar’ group of people) and affiliation with a territorial-state (citizenship).

22. The shift from RACE to ETHNICITY

23. Race, Ethnicity, Lineage Race (Biological Difference) appears as a effect of biological, reproductive isolation Ethnicity (Cultural Difference) appears as an effect of cultural isolation Over time, isolated groups of people develop biological (genetic) and cultural (ethnic) distinctiveness. Lineages are lines of descent. Everyone has multiple lineages (through their mothers and fathers).

24. Imagining Race, Ethnicity, Nation Racial, Ethnic or National communities are based on beliefs which make biology (race), culture (ethnicity), or political affiliation (nationality) meaningful. None of these are meaningful outside of their social construction as “imagined communities”.

25. Race Idea of Race is based on coherence of traits (esp. biological). Traits do not cohere. 95% of biological/ genetic variation occurs within human populations 5% occurs between populations Race remains a popular idea but scientifically useless and socially divisive

26. “ None of the Above” What are the effects of racial categorization for the people interviewed in the film? What purpose does racial categorization serve? How would these people identify (or be identified) if they lived in Singapore?

27. INTERMISSION…

28. What about CULTURAL variation?

29. Shift from Race to Ethnicity 18 th - 19 th Century: “Race” = groups who share physical traits, customs, habits and other characteristics. (Biology AND Culture) 20 th Century: Ethnicity = groups who share customs, language, social views. Ethnicity = Race minus Biology Ethnicity became a more acceptable way of categorizing similarity and difference

30. Ethnicity: Two Theories Primordialism Coherence (“Sharing”) of Cultural Traits Assumed Blood Ties, Race, Language, Region, Religion, Custom Circumstantialism (Situationalism) Identity depends on Circumstances Individual circumstantialism Social, historical circumstantialism Problem: Evidence supports Circumstantialism Peoples’ feelings support Primordialism

31. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries Ethnicity is based on a sense of difference. Symbols & practices are not ‘ethnic’ until they become signifiers of difference. Examples: Japanese Shinto Malay Adat

32. What is a “Nation”? A European (Primordialist) Theory One “people” living on one territory governed by one state (French people, German people, Chinese people) A Nation = An Ethnic Group with a State. Problems: 1. People move around! 2. Culture (the marker of ethnicity) changes over time and space (without clear ‘boundaries’ between groups)

33. Shifting meaning of “Nationality” 19 th and 20 th Century: A “nation” is a “people” (defined in terms of a blurred combination of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’) 20 th to 21 st Century: Nationality is defined by a person’s association with a territorial-state (what passport do you hold?) States create “nations” (more than “nations” being a justification for states) “ Peasants in to Frenchmen” (Eugen Weber) Singapore, Indonesia and other post-colonial ‘nation-states’

34. Imagined Communities (Benedict Anderson… and beyond) All communities – Racial, Ethnic, National, etc. – are products of cultural processes, symbols, and practices. Communities exist because people imagine them to exist. We can study distinct processes and practices that enable such imagining.

35. Census, Map, Museum* Cultural Practices Governmentality Ethnicity & Nationalism *From Ben Anderson (1991) Imagined Communities , Revised Ed.

36. Map Do maps show nations or create nations? What is the relationship between maps and national identity?

37. Siam Mapped (Thongchai Winichakul, 1994)

38. Thai Buddhist Pilgrimage Map

39. “ History of Thailand’s Boundary”

40. “ Wake Up, Thai People”

41. The “Geo-body” of the Nation: Culturally Produced through Maps

42. Museum Sites for interpreting and reinterpreting the past National and other frameworks

43. Beyond Census, Map, Museum Census, Map, and Museum are just three practices, symbols and institutions that enable imagined communities. What other practices, symbols or institutions that enable imagined communities? How do these practices, symbols, institutions… Make us feel we are part of a community? Signal to others that we are part of a community?

44. Communities / Identities Identity = Personal relationship to a community. Other “Imaged Communities” Beyond Race, Ethnicity, Race: Religious (Faith/Belief) Communities Gender, Sexuality, Kinship Class, Professional, Hobbies, etc… Online Communities (the “YouTube community”) Institutional Communities (the “NUS community”) Is this class a community? Does the Wiki create a stronger sense of community?

45. Final Thoughts… Community is created through … Imagination and Practice We make our communities through imaginative practices and practical imagination. What communities are you part of? What are the practices through which you imagine yourself part of those communities?