Minorities Within Minorities

The way we exist in society defines our place in its social structures and reaffirms our belonging, identity, and dignity. Europe is a continent characterized by many internal conflicts and ongoing struggles inside societies. The battlefield is society itself, where state law clashes with ethnic law over the very identity of society. Exploring debates from Scandinavia to Spain about the religious and political autonomy and freedom, this book explains that the violation of the rights of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, such as the Sami and Basque peoples, remains a problem in Europe. In addition to these political conflicts, Magdalena Butrymowicz analyzes the legal and religious culture within minority ethnic structures themselves. Ultimately, this book raises timely questions about the balance between state control and legal autonomy for ethnic minorities across Europe advocating for a new definition of ethnic law as the right of ethnic minorities, creating their legal and ethnic identity. The book will interest anyone exploring the dynamic between European states and the ethnic minorities that live in them.

Groups around the world are increasingly successful in maintaining or winning autonomy. However, what happens to individuals within the groups who find that their group discriminates against them? This volume brings together sixteen distinguished scholars who examine the balance between group autonomy and individual rights in relation to conflicts involving gender, religion, culture, and indigenous rights in the national and international sphere.

This book offers fresh insights to enhance and diversify our understanding of the modern history of the state and societies in today’s Jordan, while also providing examples of why and how scholars can challenge the static and discursively government-minded approaches to minorities and minoritisation – especially the traditional emphasis on demographic balances. Despite its small size and initial appearance of homogeneity, Jordan provides an excellent case of a dynamic, relational, historically contingent and fluid approach to ethnic, political and religious minorities in the context of the imposition of a modern state system on complex and varied traditional societies. The editors and contributors present dynamic and relational perspectives on the status of and historical processes involved in the creation and absorption of minority groups within Jordan.

Contents.

Contention has surrounded the status of minorities throughout Indonesian history. Two broad polarities are evident: one inclusive of minorities, regarding them as part of the nation’s rich complexity and a manifestation of its “Unity in Diversity” motto; the other exclusive, viewing with suspicion or disdain those communities or groups that differ from the perceived majority. State and community attitudes towards minorities have fluctuated over time. Some periods have been notable for the acceptance of minorities and protection of their rights, while others have been marked by anti-minority discrimination, marginalisation and sometimes violence. This book explores the complex historical and contemporary dimensions of Indonesia’s religious, ethnic, LGBT and disability minorities from a range of perspectives, including historical, legal, political, cultural, discursive and social. It addresses fundamental questions about Indonesia’s tolerance and acceptance of difference, and examines the extent to which diversity is embraced or suppressed.

This book, stemming from an international conference, mainly explores the “private sphere” of minority cultures. To date, insufficient attention has been paid to ethnic minorities’ sense of subjecthood, e.g. their construction and articulation of self-understanding formed through lived experiences, sensibilities, emotions, sentiments, empathy, and even tempers and moods. Social misunderstanding, not to mention stereotyping, mystification and discrimination, often stems from neglecting the surprising and enlivening texture of minorities’ emotional world. Taking the important cue of the “affective turn” in cultural theory in recent years, the contributors address questions such as: what are the representations of affective/emotional energies and intensities surrounding the ethnic figures/strangers in visual culture (e.g. passivity, shame, anger, joy, empathy, charm, belonging, etc.)?; how do ethnic minorities respond to these visual narratives, and how can their self-representation through visual discourse reveal and transform their lived experiences?

Throughout the world, certain ethnic groups have made a living through trade and have found a place for themselves in their societies' middle strata. At times, these 'middlemen minorities' have aroused the envy of their neighbors and been subjected to a variety of persecutions. In this book, Walter P. Zenner examines explanations for this phenomenon and analyzes such groups as the Jews, the Chinese, the Scots, and the South Asians abroad.

The struggle for independence by minorities in the Middle East (those people who are non-Arab or non-Muslim) is affecting the political climate around the world. War and terrorism are threatening the safety of many minority communities and repression of minorities still remains standard state policy in some countries. This updated and revised edition of the 1991 original provides a wealth of historical and political detail for all the indigenous peoples of the Middle East. Pressed to persist in a threatening environment, these minorities (Kurds, Berbers, Baluchi, Druzes, 'Alawites, Armenians, Assyrians, Maronites, Sudanese Christians, Jews, Egyptian Copts, and others) share similar experiences and have been known to cooperate for shared goals. Important events and new trends regarding the welfare of these groups are covered, and numerous oral histories add to the new edition. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

A critical analysis of how international law operates in the ideology of the postcolonial state to marginalise minority groups.

This book focuses on trend-setting judgments in different parts of the world that impacted on the rights of persons belonging to minorities and Indigenous people. The cases illustrate how the judiciary has been called upon to fill out the detail of minority protection arrangements and how, in doing so, in many instances the judiciary has taken the respective countries on a course that parliament may not have been able to navigate. In this book authors from various backgrounds in the practical application of minority protection arrangements investigate the role of the judiciary in constitutional arrangements aimed at the protection of the rights of minorities and Indigenous peoples.