An intriguing element of the Pueblo and Hispanic villages of New Mexico is the Matachines Dance. It is performed on different, mostly religious occasions and requires a great personal and financial commitment on the part of the participants. Where the dance tradition disappeared in the past, it is being revived in the present, and where it continues to be danced in an uninterrupted tradition, it is becoming ever more costly and exuberant. The dance draws on European Middle-Age dance dramas, but it is heavy with indigenous layers of meaning. On face value, its key protagonists - Montezuma, Malinche, Abuelos, Montezuma’s entourage and the Bull - reenact the victory of Christianity in the New World. That is the meaning the dance has for the Hispanic villages, in addition to a number of place- and time-specific meanings. While seemingly identical, the dance often carries a different set of meanings in the Pueblos, symbolizing the banishment of foreign elements and the restoration of indigenous rule. In both the Pueblo and Hispanic villages, aside from the religious and mythical significance, the dance serves to delineate and reinforce ethnic boundaries while promoting a sense of community and solidarity. The Matachines Dance thus serves as a fascinating and paradoxical example of a shared cultural praxis which reinforces perceived cultural difference.
This article focuses on the intersection of gender, class and racial/ethnic inequalities. The intersection theory draws on the feminist critique of traditional class theory and on the challenge to feminism posed by ethnic women. The article develops thinking about various configurations of the intersection of inequalities and addresses mainly the case of marginalized women. However, the argument goes that the intersection of gender, class and racial/ethnic inequalities is not just a matter for disadvantaged groups because it has an impact on all groups in various relations. Class, gender and race/ethnicity should be understood as interlocked systems of both disadvantage and privilege. The intersection of inequalities is an approach intertwined with the development of social movements (women’s, labour and civil rights movements) in the USA and Western Europe. The article looks at why the intersection theory elaborated in the West mainly in the 1990s has not been reflected in Czech gender studies. Is it possible to connect the study of gender in a post-communist East European country with the predominantly American intersection theory?, Marta Kolářová., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The paper is designed as a set of reflections of a rather general nature. It describes the presence of Vietnamese in the Czech Republic during the last twenty years. The text captures changes describable only in trends. These are gradual transformations of local communities into modern Central European diaspora or a transnational community. For Vietnamese in the Czech Republic, the impulse to solve their economic situation dominates in terms of objective causes as well as the subjective reasoning of individual participants of the transfer. Business activities played a major role in the development of the community life of Vietnamese. These were either uncontrolled (unofficial) street sales of goods, variously organized retail or sales in wholesale markets. Phases of Vietnamese entrepreneurship in the Czech environment: 1.
Uncontrolled street stall selling (1990-1992) following previous business activities from the 1980s, 2. forming of urban and border zone markets (1992-1995), 3. so-called golden times of markets (1995-1998), 4. gradual decline in stall sales in markets and shift of Vietnamese business into stores (1998–today). A significant difference of Vietnamese existence is the fact that it does not seek a new identity when it moves to another country. A Vietnamese businessman is more strongly enclosed in his own cultural habits; after moving he prefers financial profit not only for himself but also for his family back in Vietnam. The dominant form containing
classic purchasing and sales of cheap goods is slowly
disappearing, the interest in making money is transforming and the tendency to establish new associations is apparent.
The paper examines theoretical discourses of ethnicity and has three main objectives: (1) to categorize and compare three academic approaches to-wards ethnicity, nation and nationalism, (2) to identify the core distinction between ethnic and national identity, and (3) to analyze the differences between approaches through activity and objectivity of ethnicity. The traditional distinction between primordialist and modernist/situationist approaches is enhanced by adding the ethicist approach to the interjacent boundary. There are three core lines of distinctions between these approaches. Firstly, it is, more or less, the dis-tinction between primordiality of ethnicity and modernity of nation, not primordiality and modernity itself, which divides the discussed approaches. Secondly, most academic theories, regardless of their background, interpret the ethnicity (nation) as situational rather than objective or subjective phenomenon. Lastly, it is the scale of activity of ethnicity (activity of individuals - components - systems) which differs among the theories.
Etnogeneze Slovanů zůstává frekventovaným tématem historického a archeologického výzkumu. Etnicitu nahlížejí nyní archeologové i historici v zásadě jako akt vědomého přihlášení, což vysvětluje důraz kladený na identitu jako kategorii historické analýzy. Na základě rozboru historického a archeologického dokladového materiálu vztahujícího se k 6. a 7. stol. předkládá článek argumentaci v tom smyslu, že v zájmu dalšího rozvoje poznání by se bádání o (slovanské) etnogenezi mělo oprostit od opakování stereotypů uložených v pozdně antické etnografii. Současně autor předkládá nový analytický model, odvozený ze současných přístupů ke konstrukci etnicity prostřednictvím hmotné kultury, a ilustruje některé důsledky, které z něho pro české a moravské země vyplývají and The ethnogenesis of the Slavs remains a popular topic of historical and archaeological research. Ethnicity is now viewed by both archaeologists and historians as fundamentally performative, which explains the emphasis placed on identity as a category of historical analysis. On the basis of an analysis of the historical and the archaeological evidence pertaining to the 6th and 7th centuries, this paper argues that in order to make any progress the research on (Slavic) ethnogenesis needs to distance itself from the practice of perpetuating the stereotypes embedded in the late antique ethnography. At the same time, the author advances a new model of analysis derived from recent approaches to the construction of ethnicity through material culture, and illustrates some of its implications for the Czech and Moravian lands.