EthnicitiesPub Date : 2023-12-21DOI: 10.1177/14687968231219778
Sender Dovchin, Ulemj Dovchin, Graeme Gower
{"title":"The discourse of the Anthropocene and posthumanism: Indigenous peoples and local communities","authors":"Sender Dovchin, Ulemj Dovchin, Graeme Gower","doi":"10.1177/14687968231219778","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968231219778","url":null,"abstract":"Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) are characterised by their special relationships with their traditional lands and the natural world, which are essential to their physical and cultural survival, identity, knowledge, and spirituality. They are custodians of the land; however, often made invisible and voiceless in the face of irreversible destruction caused by human-induced planetary change. This Special Issue (SI) is inspired by the stories, worldviews, knowledge systems, and lived experiences of IPLCs worldwide. Based on the compounded impacts of global climate change and other human-induced crises on their ancestral lands, contributors to this SI recognise that the world has entered the Anthropocene – the epoch of human-induced planetary change. While human activities are considered geologically recent, they have profoundly impacted the planet. The contributors challenge the discourse of the Anthropocene, not only because it takes humanity as the prime reference point in understanding the world but also because of its reproduction of the onto-epistemological foundations of Eurocentric philosophy, which underpins colonialism and racial capitalism. This SI opens up space for historically marginalised IPLCs’ cosmologies, which embody their holistic, spiritually and physically interconnected, interdependent, and reciprocal relationships with land, the natural world, and non-human beings. It expands and pluralises the discourse of the Anthropocene through the concept of posthumanism to recognise alternative knowledge systems that decentre humanity’s dominant position in understanding the world. IPLCs’ onto-epistemologies align with posthuman or more-than-human ways of knowing, being, and doing, which embody their reciprocal relationships with land, non-human beings, and the natural world that are all deemed as living entities with agency. IPLCs’ voices urge us to relearn our ancestral ways of recognizing and interacting with the world and reconnect to our holistic relationships with the planet Earth and its beings to ensure the continuity of nature and culture.","PeriodicalId":47512,"journal":{"name":"Ethnicities","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138949640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthnicitiesPub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.1177/14687968231219777
Ulemj Dovchin, Sender Dovchin
{"title":"The discourse of the Anthropocene and posthumanism: Mining-induced loss of traditional land and the Mongolian nomadic herders","authors":"Ulemj Dovchin, Sender Dovchin","doi":"10.1177/14687968231219777","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968231219777","url":null,"abstract":"For over five millennia, Mongolia has been home to a remarkably resilient, land-connected, pastoral nomadic way of life and cultural heritage. Traditional local communities of Mongolian nomadic herders are custodians of the land. Since Mongolia’s transition to a democracy and neoliberal capitalist economy in the 1990s, an unprecedented mining boom has set in as large deposits of mineral resources were discovered. The mining boom and climate change impacts have put mounting pressure on herders’ ability to access their traditional land. Drawing on ethnographic research through storywork with Mongolian nomadic herders ( malchid) in their traditional land ( nutag) in the Gobi Desert region in Mongolia, this study aims to expand the discourse of the Anthropocene by engaging with the concept of posthumanism. We unpack the predominant discourse among Mongolian nomadic herders – loss of traditional land – induced by mining. In the Anthropocene – the epoch of human-induced planetary change – herders have become victims of both human-induced global environmental and climate change and the neoliberal capitalist extractive economy. Driven by mining-induced forced displacement from their traditional land and the natural resources on which they depend, herders are marginalised, resulting in the loss of their livelihood and severing of their special relationship and spiritual connection with their traditional land. We conclude that Mongolian nomadic herders’ voices urge us that it is crucial to expand and pluralise the discourse of the Anthropocene by relearning our ancestral ways of knowing, being and doing, and reconnecting to our holistic, spiritually and physically entwined, reciprocal and symbiotic relationship with land, non-human beings and the natural world that are all regarded as living and sentient entities with identity, agency and intentionality. Mongolian nomadic herders’ ancestral cosmology and onto-epistemology turn us to posthuman or more-than-human ways of understanding and interacting with the world, which decentre human exceptionalism and dominant position in the Anthropocene.","PeriodicalId":47512,"journal":{"name":"Ethnicities","volume":"66 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138954509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthnicitiesPub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1177/14687968231219774
Tetiana Bogachenko, Olga Oleinikova
{"title":"The ghosts of “internal colonisation”: Anthropogenic impacts of Russian imperial ambitions in Ukraine","authors":"Tetiana Bogachenko, Olga Oleinikova","doi":"10.1177/14687968231219774","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968231219774","url":null,"abstract":"The Anthropocene denotes an era of accelerated human impact on the environment. Although discourses of the Anthropocene are often criticized for representing colonial and specifically capitalist interests of economic growth, this paper examines, in the case of Ukraine, how these discourses can be applied to uncover and address social (post)colonial impacts of non-capitalist regimes (those also not classified as “Global North”). In particular, the analysis focuses on the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant accident on local communities in Ukraine. As academics of Ukrainian background, authors share their first-hand experiences of such impact on their lives and wellbeing of their families, communities, and land. The narrative research framework is used to engage with the modern Ukrainian community and discuss the implications of geopolitical and cultural proximity of the coloniser, with a particular focus on displacement and forced migration. This is especially relevant as it is reflected in the current refugee crisis and tactics of nuclear terrorism used by the Russian government in the war against Ukraine. This paper is a valuable resource for promoting and giving a voice to the Ukrainian people and potentially other peoples in post-Soviet space to unveil their colonial legacy and utilise the discourses of the Anthropocene to aid more effective decolonisation processes in the future of the region.","PeriodicalId":47512,"journal":{"name":"Ethnicities","volume":"44 46","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138588514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sustainable mindsets: Combining traditional indigenous knowledge with non-aboriginal understanding to address environmental risks","authors":"Rhonda Oliver, Rachel Sheffield, Ronita Bradshaw, Jacqui Hunter, Sarah Nowers, Briana Taylor-Ellison","doi":"10.1177/14687968231219284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968231219284","url":null,"abstract":"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the traditional owners of Australia. It has been predicted that they have been the custodians of these lands for at least 60,000 years. Their traditional lands are inextricably linked to their languages, cultural practices and spiritual being. As the custodians they have used their traditional Indigenous knowledge to care for the land – its plants, animals and waterways, protecting unique ecosystems and maintaining sustainability. In fact, their traditional understanding reflects what has been described in the literature as a sustainable mindset. We come together as non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal educators to explore how environmental threats within the epoc of Anthropocene may be addressed using such a sustainable mindset – one reflecting both indigeneity and posthumanism perspectives. We describe three case studies showing how the use of traditional knowledge held by local Indigenous communities (IPLCs) can be used with non-Indigenous knowledge to address human induced planetary changes to protect important animal species and the land on which they live. We draw on written and oral reports from our Indigenous co-authors and data obtained informally from them by way of ‘yarning’. We describe how in the north-west of Western Australia areas of significant ecological and cultural value are being negatively affected by human-induced change threatening different animal species and ecosystems. We outline the effects of light pollution in Port Hedland and how this is disrupting the life cycle of the flatback sea turtle - culturally significant sea animals. As a point of comparison, we next describe how green back turtle and Dugong populations are being protected and sustained on the Dampier Peninsula using traditional knowledge more recently supplemented through the work of the Bardi Jawi Rangers. Finally, we examine how the Fitzroy River catchment area is increasingly under threat from water extraction and mining, but how a sustainable mindset can be used to obviate these environmental risks.","PeriodicalId":47512,"journal":{"name":"Ethnicities","volume":"4 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138600939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthnicitiesPub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.1177/14687968231219582
Toni Dobinson, Graeme Gower, Tania Fahey-Palma
{"title":"Anthropogenic impacts of mining on indigenous peoples in Western Australia: Divergent values","authors":"Toni Dobinson, Graeme Gower, Tania Fahey-Palma","doi":"10.1177/14687968231219582","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968231219582","url":null,"abstract":"The Anthropocene epoch is known as the time when the actions of humans began to impact the planet in unprecedented ways. There is consensus that the “golden spike” coincided with the advent of colonialism and especially settler colonialism. Indigenous Peoples have been impacted by what has been called contemporary colonialism or new colonialism. This has had implications, not only for their local environment, but also for their cultures, languages, health, economies, and political self-determination. Our study is framed by theories of contemporary and new colonialism as well as cultural colonialism and how this is manifested in the discourses of mining companies as they trivialise or ignore community and fuse Indigenous futures with extractive industries, also failing to recognise the non-human rights of the land and post-humanist/new materialist perspectives. The auto-ethnographic yarn (knowledge sharing) told in this article is the voice of an Indigenous Aboriginal Yawuru man living in Western Australia. Through thematic analysis of his, and other Aboriginal people’s yarns, we reveal Indigenous values and beliefs of permanence, community care, and the ensoulment of nature. Thematic analysis of the scripted narratives of the value statements of two mining companies operating in Western Australia uncovers a notion of community care discordant with that of Aboriginal people as well as a focus on courage and curiosity. The occlusion of any traditional, bottom-up understandings of human/non-human relationships in the values statements of the mining companies contrast with the way that Indigenous People’s narratives point towards ecological, social and economic sustainability in an Anthropocene dystopian future.","PeriodicalId":47512,"journal":{"name":"Ethnicities","volume":"131 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138599046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthnicitiesPub Date : 2023-11-30DOI: 10.1177/14687968231219521
Urmee Chakma, Shaila Sultana
{"title":"Colonial governmentality and Bangladeshis in the anthropocene: Loss of language, land, knowledge, and identity of the Chakma in the ecology of the Chittagong Hill tracts in Bangladesh","authors":"Urmee Chakma, Shaila Sultana","doi":"10.1177/14687968231219521","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968231219521","url":null,"abstract":"“Can they do whatever they please. . . Turn settlements into barren land. Dense forests into deserts. Mornings into evenings. Turn fertile into barren. Why shall I not resist!. …. I become my whole self. . . Why shall I not resist”!. This is a section from a poem - ‘Joli No Udhim Kittei’ a Chakma poem written in Bengali script as ‘Rukhe Darabo Na Keno?’ (‘Why shall I not resist!’) by the author Kabita Chakma in 1992, translated into English. It epitomizes the ongoing violation of human rights that Chakmas (members of one of the Indigenous communities in Bangladesh) experience in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) where the highest number of Indigenous people in Bangladesh live. In this paper, the first author, a member of the Chakma community and a Lecturer at an Australian university is in conversation with the second author, a Professor at a university in a Bangladeshi university. With reference to Phillipson’s linguicism, and Foucault's notion of governmentality in the era of the Anthropocene, in their conversation, they reflect on the Anthropocene – the forced migration, displacement of Indigenous communities in Bangladesh from their traditional land, extinction of Indigenous languages, disengagement with Indigenous and local languages, and consequently, and the destruction of biodiversity of Chittagong Hill Tracts.","PeriodicalId":47512,"journal":{"name":"Ethnicities","volume":"57 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139206800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthnicitiesPub Date : 2023-11-27DOI: 10.1177/14687968231219022
Susan Chiblow, P. Meighan
{"title":"Anishinaabek Giikendaaswin and Dùthchas nan Gàidheal: concepts to (re)center place-based knowledges, governance, and land in times of crisis","authors":"Susan Chiblow, P. Meighan","doi":"10.1177/14687968231219022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968231219022","url":null,"abstract":"Land is not a commodity, and dominant western society is unsustainable. Examples of unsustainability include severance of peoples from lands and waters; separation of peoples from centers of decision-making; and dispossession of the lands, and traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). IPLCs at the frontlines of the climate crisis are often excluded on vital decisions regarding land management and protection. Taking an emic interpretation by means of lived experiences and auto-ethnographic responses to question prompts, this paper explores the international implications of Anishinaabek Giikendaaswin and Dùthchas nan Gàidheal as concepts that can (re)center IPLC place-based knowledges, sustainable governance, and lands in times of climate crisis. Anishinaabek Giikendaaswin is about the learning from the lands, N’ibi (the waters), and the sky world. It is a lived knowledge that has guided and continues to guide Anishinaabek Peoples. G’giikendaaswinmin informs Anishinaabek interconnectedness and interrelationality to the lands, all beings, and the sky world. Dùthchas is a millenia-old kincentric concept, informing a Gàidheal (Gael) way of life and traditional land governance that predate the formation of the United Kingdom. Dùthchas transmits a sense of belonging to, not possession of the land, and stresses an interconnectedness and ecological balance among all entities. The authors (Anishinaabe and Gàidheal) respond to critical questions, such as How do Giikendaaswin and Dùthchas center knowledges that can ensure collective continuance of life? Through a common theme of interconnectedness and what this means for reconstitutive real-life practice, they demonstrate how Indigenous concepts and science based on the expertise of IPLCs can address continued colonial atrocities and current crises. Giikendaaswin and Dùthchas have international and transnational implications as discourses of resistance not only to the Anthropocene, but also to ongoing processes of dispossession.","PeriodicalId":47512,"journal":{"name":"Ethnicities","volume":"119 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139230321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthnicitiesPub Date : 2023-11-08DOI: 10.1177/14687968231209448
Marat Iliyasov, Victoria Bogdanova, Liliya Yakova
{"title":"Governing religion in Russia and Bulgaria: Between religious diversity and religious nationalism","authors":"Marat Iliyasov, Victoria Bogdanova, Liliya Yakova","doi":"10.1177/14687968231209448","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968231209448","url":null,"abstract":"After the collapse of Communism, a major overhaul of the systems of religious governance took place in Bulgaria and Russia. Policies of liberalisation were pursued in both states which created conditions for the revival of religion and growth of religious diversity. This research article analyses the state approaches and policy orientations characterising the governance of religious diversity in Russia and Bulgaria in the post-Communist years as well as challenges to the fulfilment of religious freedom and religious equality. Using the lens of religious nationalism, it demonstrates that religious nationalistic tendencies are significant in both states when it comes to the governance of religious diversity. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that such tendencies are inscribed in a contradiction between constitutionally-established principles and nationalism-tainted practices when it comes to the treatment of some minority religions or/and groups.","PeriodicalId":47512,"journal":{"name":"Ethnicities","volume":"47 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135342563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rejoinder to article, “Health Inspector Ratings of Asian Restaurants during the Early COVID-19 Pandemic,” published by Cherng et al. On Nov. 29, 2022","authors":"Wendy McKelvey, Carolyn Olson, Adria Zern, J. Bryan Jacobson, Corinne Schiff","doi":"10.1177/14687968231211944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968231211944","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47512,"journal":{"name":"Ethnicities","volume":"47 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135682316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EthnicitiesPub Date : 2023-11-03DOI: 10.1177/14687968231213080
Myra A. Waterbury
{"title":"Competing external demoi and differential enfranchisement: The case of the 2022 Hungarian election","authors":"Myra A. Waterbury","doi":"10.1177/14687968231213080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968231213080","url":null,"abstract":"This analysis of the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election highlights the phenomenon of competing external demoi, a situation that emerges when an incumbent government differentially enfranchises and mobilizes different external national communities for electoral purposes, thus triggering a competing mobilization of external voters by non-incumbent political actors. Hungarian parliamentary elections have increasingly become battlegrounds between the ethnic Hungarians living in countries neighboring Hungary, who have access to non-resident Hungarian citizenship and the right the vote in Hungarian elections by mail; and Hungarian emigrants in Western Europe who must vote in person at home or at embassies. These differences in voting access and the highly partisan mobilization of these two external demoi came to a head during the 2022 parliamentary election. This article seeks to explain the development of two different sets of external enfranchisement policies within a single case, a variation that is undertheorized in the literature, and uncovers the causes and consequences of the unique structure of external partisan polarization that emerged in the 2022 election. It argues that we must look at Hungary’s competitive authoritarian regime type in the context of “divided nationhood” and the relationship between incumbent hegemony and opposition mobilization in different types of external communities to explain this outcome.","PeriodicalId":47512,"journal":{"name":"Ethnicities","volume":"9 10","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135872923","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}