Limit search to available items
Record 38 of 42
Previous Record Next Record
Book Cover
E-book
Author Schlegel, Simon, author.

Title Making ethnicity in southern Bessarabia : tracing the histories of an ambiguous concept in a contested land / by Simon Schlegel
Published Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2019]

Copies

Description 1 online resource (x, 276 pages) : illustrations
Series Eurasian studies library, 1877-9484 ; volume 14
Eurasian studies library ; v. 14.
Contents Intro; Contents; Acknowledgements; List of Maps and Figures; Notes; Chapter 1; Introduction; 1 Central Questions; 2 History and Anthropology, Some Methodological Implications; 3 Locating the Field Site and Choosing a Name for It; 4 A Brief Historical Outline; 5 Ethnicity, Natsional'nost', and Nationality: Definitions and Translations; 6 Chapter Structure; Chapter 2; Administering the Periphery from Horseback; 1 The State's Hunger for Tax and Men; 2 Colonists out of the State's Sight; 3 Keep It Separate, Keep It Simple; 4 Bureaucracy Evolving: the Church Gives Way to the State
5 The Categories of the Census Taker and the Ethnographer6 Ethnicity in Revolutionary Minds; Chapter 3; Persuasion and Paranoia-Romania's Rule in Bessarabia 1918-44; 1 Newcomer Elites in a Hostile Land; 2 Spying on Minorities; 3 Counting and Categorizing Minorities; 4 Ethnicity as a Proxy for Trustworthiness; 5 Bringing the Past into Line; 6 Eugenics and Ethnic Cleansing; Chapter 4; Politically Desirable Theory and Its Way into Folk Theory; 1 The Imperial Roots of Diverging Ethnicity Concepts; 2 Self-Identification vs. Ascription-Who Gets to Draw Ethnic Boundaries?
3 State-Approved Concepts of Ethnicity in Post-War Soviet Academia4 Gut Feeling and Folk Theories of Ethnicity; 5 Grand Scheme Planning and the "Primordial Trap"; Chapter 5; Ethnic Minorities and Soviet Newcomers; 1 Ethnicity and the Hierarchy of Trust in Post-War Southern Bessarabia; 2 The Stewards of a New Model State; 3 Ethnicity Performed in Public; 4 Soviet Education and the Friendship of Peoples; 5 Stagnation and Revived Ethnic Consciousness; Chapter 6; Post-Soviet Instability, Clientelism and the Persistence of Ethnic Boundaries; 1 The Power of Benefaction
2 The Roots of Clientelism in Ethnic and Non-Ethnic Networks3 Ethnicity in Local Politics: Three Strategies; 4 Political Representation and the Pressure to Choose a Clear-Cut Ethnic Identity; 5 When Clear-Cut Boundaries Encounter Fuzzy Identities; Chapter 7; The Narratives and Techniques that Maintain Ethnic Boundaries; 1 Pure and Impure Language; 2 Religion's Ambiguous Role in Marking Ethnicity; 3 Common Historical Experience and Collective Memory; 4 Processed Folklore; 5 Genetic Narratives of Ethnic Belonging; 6 Generalizing the Inside, Omitting the Outside; Chapter 8
Conclusion-Delimiting Ethnic Groups as a Tool of Statecraft1 The Significance of Ethnicity: Continuities and Ruptures; 2 When Ethnic Boundaries Become Obstacles; 3 Ethnic Boundaries, Whom Do They Serve?; 4 Narratives and Techniques; 5 The Trouble with Fuzzy Boundaries; 6 Ethnicity as a Beacon of Stability; References; Bibliography; Index of Authors; Index of Subjects and Names
Summary "In Making Ethnicity, Simon Schlegel offers a history of ethnicity and its political uses in southern Bessarabia, a region that has long been at the crossroads of powerful forces: in the 19th century between the Russian and Ottoman Empires, since World War I between the Soviet Union and Romania, and since the collapse of the Soviet Union between Russia and the European Union's respective zones of influence. Drawing on biographical interviews and archival documents, Schlegel argues that ethnic categories gained relevance in the 19th century, as state bureaucrats took over local administration from the church. After mutating into a dangerous instrument of social engineering in the mid-20th century, ethnicity today remains a potent force for securing votes and allocating resources."-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on November 28, 2022)
Subject Ethnicity -- Bessarabia (Moldova and Ukraine)
Moldovans -- Ethnic identity
Ukrainians -- Ethnic identity
Ethnic relations.
Ethnicity.
Ukrainians -- Ethnic identity.
SUBJECT Bessarabia (Moldova and Ukraine) -- History. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85013428
Bessarabia (Moldova and Ukraine) -- Ethnic relations
Subject Europe -- Bessarabia.
Genre/Form History.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2019022538
ISBN 9789004408029
9004408029
Other Titles Tracing the histories of an ambiguous concept in a contested land