Grammars of Identity / Alterity

Issues of the construction of Self and Other, normally in the context of social exclusion of those perceived as different, have assumed a new urgency. This collection offers a fresh perspective on the ongoing debates on these questions in the social sciences and the humanities by focusing specifically on one theoretical proposition, namely, that the seemingly universal processes of identity formation and exclusion of the 'other' can be differentiated according to three modalities. All contributors directly engage with rigorous empirical testing and theoretical cross-examination of this proposition. Their results have direct implications not only for a more differentiated understanding of collective identities, but also for a better understanding of extreme collective violence and genocide.

Gerd Baumann (1953-2014) was Reader in Social Anthropology at the Research Centre Religion& Society of the University of Amsterdam. His other titles includedNational Integration and Local Integrity: The Miri of the Nuba Mountains in the Sudan (1986),Contesting Culture: Discourses of Identity in Multiethnic London (1996) andThe Multicultural Riddle: Rethinking National, Ethnic and Religious Identities (1999).

List of Figures

Foreword
Gerd Baumann andAndre Gingrich Acknowledgments

STEP I: FROM AN ESSENTIALISED USE OF 'OTHERING' TO A DIFFERENTIATION OF GRAMMARS

Chapter 1. Conceptualising Identities: Anthropological Alternatives to Essentialising Difference and Moralizing about Othering
Andre Gingrich

Chapter 2. Grammars of Identity/Alterity: A Structural Approach
Gerd Baumann

STEP II: FROM A REPERTOIRE OF GRAMMARS TO HIERARCHIES AND POWER

Chapter 3. Othering the Scapegoat in Nepal: The Ritual of Ghantakarna
Michael Mühlich

Chapter 4. German Grammars of Identity/Alterity: A Diachronic View
Anne Friederike Müller

Chapter 5. Alterity as Celebration, Alterity as Threat: A Comparison of Grammars between Brazil and Denmark
Inger Sjørslev

STEP III: FROM POWER TO VIOLENCE - WHEN GRAMMARS IMPLODE

Chapter 6. Completing or Competing ? Contexts of Hmong Selfing/Othering in Laos
Christian Postert

Chapter 7. Out of the Race: The Poiesis of Genocide in Mass Media Discourses in Côte dIvoire
Karel Arnaut

Chapter 8. Dehumanization as a Double-Edged Sword: From Boot-Camp Animals to Killing Machines
Jojada Verrips

STEP IV: FROM TESTING GRAMMARS TO WIDENING THE DEBATE

Chapter 9. Between Structure and Agency: From the langue of Hindutva Identity Construction to the parole of Lived Experience
Christian Karner

Chapter 10. Encompassment and its Discontents: The Rmeet and the Lowland Lao
Guido Sprenger

Chapter 11. Debating Grammars: Arguments and Prospects
Gerd Baumann andAndre Gingrich

Notes on Contributors
Subject Index
Name Index