The core of the thesis is, taking Chinese and Taiwanese identities in the contemporary Taiwanese society as cases, to discover how people perceive, formulate, and interact with identities. The research implements the grounded theory and in-depth interview research method, conducting 108 interviews in different regions of Taiwan from 2010 to 2013. The main argument is that identity in and of itself is merely a generic label, which does not cause emotions or behaviours - people know they are ascribed to certain categories, but they lack of motivations to take actions for the categorical groups. Only those identities articulated with 'emotion- or value-oriented discourses' can gain the capacity of provoking people's feelings and mobilising people to act. My research identifies and gives explicit discussions on two types of emotion-oriented discourses - imagined nostalgia and ethical narrative (which is also a value-oriented discourse), and three kinds of value-oriented discourses. They are: (1) Ethical narrative sets moral values for its audience; (2) cultural hierarchy defines socio-cultural values in society; and (3) political ideology signifies core political values of its audience. By treating identity as emotion- or value- oriented discourse, the thesis challenges traditional stereotypes of Taiwanese and Chinese identities in the society - such as identifying as Taiwanese means desiring independence, or all waishengren group would claim Chinese identity - and offers adequate theories to explain why it is not the case. The thesis emphasises that there is no determinant identity in the society, and it is possible for people to have a certain degree of free will choosing to accept or to reject the operation of an identity. The thesis takes critical views on identity politics, deeming it as a risky, double-edged sword in the contemporary politics, which should be carefully examined and substituted with another ideology capable to achieve political emancipation.

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With the conflict ongoing in Syria since 2011, many Syrian Kurds have been forced to leave their homes to seek safety and security in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Their displacement to KRI is a distinctive experience of migration as it has happened within an intra-ethnic setting of Syrian Kurds, as refugees, encountering Iraqi Kurds, as hosts. Sharing ethnic identification and imagination of a historical homeland but holding different nationalities, has turned identity and belonging into sites of contestation between the refugees and the hosts. Within this intra-ethnic setting of displacement, the study has investigated the construction of home and politics of identity and belonging among the refugees in relation to protection regimes and forms of inclusion and exclusion. This has been done through a content analysis of relevant policy and regulations for refugees in KRI and Iraq and a thematic analysis of individual narrative interviews with the refugees themselves. Research results from the policy analysis have indicated the lack of a comprehensive protection regime in Iraq and KRI, and the deployment of the ‘guests’ rhetoric towards the refugees as a responsibility evasion mechanism. Results from the interviews have revealed that home for the participants is plural, and it connects to Syria and Kurdistan to varying degrees. Their identity as Kurds is contested when their Syrianness is evoked with boundaries limiting their recognition to be both Syrian and Kurdish. Similarly, their belonging is challenged with their social position as refugees and their legal belonging to Syria. With this, they get involved into a continuum of politics of identity and belonging ranging between the situational demonstration of their Syrian identity and the role of ‘the successful Syrian refugee’, and the accentuation of their attachment to Kurdishness through belonging to Rojava. These politics have been discussed as reflecting a process of reconstructing Syrian Kurdish identity in the light of the experience of displacement and the intra-ethnic encounter. Contextualizing the research results in a wider perspective, it is argued that they carry further implications related to the Kurdish struggle with identity and belonging, not only in KRI, but in all the other parts of Kurdistan.

Founded in the eighth Century CE by Anan ben David, the basic tenet of this breakaway Jewish sect was that the Bible was the only divine script. Over the ensuing years, a long line of sages consolidated this dictum, establishing a set of rules which at times was even more rigid than the Rabbanite teachings they had rejected. From the tenth to the twentieth centuries the Karaites were dispersed and persecuted as were their Rabbanite brethren. By the middle of the 20th century, their largest settlement, a flourishing community in Egypt, came to an end with the eruption of hostilities between Israel and her Arab neighbours. Most of this community settled in Israel where they met with opposition or indifference from the Rabbanite establishment. This work describes the history of the Karaites, their present situation and the barriers they have overcome in the fulfillment of their special brand of Judaism. / Religious Studies & Arabic / M.A. (Semitics)

Analysis of NORC and DAS data from 1956 to 1980 shows continuous increases in support for equal treatment or equal status for minority group members. This change is found to result largely from a shift in the overall cultural environment in America. Education is found to have a constant effect in reducing prejudice even in periods of time and in subcultures generally hostile toward egalitarianism. Evidence shows the more educated have more access to sources of correct information. It is asserted that on the question of basic equality among men, women, and various racial or ethnic minorities the answer supported by facts is that all groups are quite equal in all innate abilities and potentials. Education is seen to give one greater access to this truth. Regional differences between the non-South and South, while large forty years ago, have continuously decreased. By 1980 there remain only small differences with the South still less egalitarian on most measures. It is predicted that egalitarian attitudes toward all groups will continue to increase in America because all factors associated with more egalitarianism, interdependence, organization and power of minority groups, and sharing of a common culture are increasing.

My dissertation examines Muslim-Christian relations in Palestine during the British mandate period, specifically, around the question of what constituted Palestinian-Arab identity. More broadly speaking, the dissertation addresses the topic within the context of the larger debate concerning the role of material factors (those related to specific historical developments and circumstances) versus that of ideological ones. in determining national identities. At the beginning of the twentieth, century, two models of Arab nationalism were proposed-a more secular one emphasising a shared language and culture (and thus, relatively inclusive of non-Muslims) and one wherein Arab identity was seen as essentially an extension of the Islamic religious community, or umma. While many historians dealing with Arab nationalism have tended to focus on the role of language (likewise, the role of Christian Arab intellectuals), I would maintain that it is the latter model that proved determinative of how most Muslim Arabs came to conceive of their identity as Arabs. Both models were essentially intellectual constructs; that the latter prevailed in the end reflects the predominance of material factors over ideological ones. Specifically, I consider the impact of social, political and economic changes related to the Tanzimat reforms and European economic penetration of the nineteenth century; the role of proto-nationalist models of communal identification-particularly those related to religion; and finally, the role played by political actors seeking to gain or consolidate authority through the manipulation of proto-nationalist symbols.

Justice and reconciliation are both highly complex concepts that are often described as incompatible alternatives in the aftermath of violent conflicts, despite the fact that both are fundamental to peacebuilding in societies divided by the legacies of political violence, oppression and exclusion. This thesis examines the relationship between justice and reconciliation, pursued as essential ingredients of peacebuilding. After advancing an inclusive working conceptual framework in which seemingly competing conceptions regarding justice and reconciliation are reconceived to work compatibly for building peace, the thesis presents the results of an in-depth case study of Rwanda's post-genocide justice and reconciliation endeavour. The thesis focuses on Rwanda's justice and reconciliation efforts and their relationship to the ongoing challenge of reformulating Rwandans' social identities. A field research conducted for this study revealed that issues of victimhood, justice and reconciliation were highly contested among individuals and groups with varied experiences of the country's violent history. Resolving these conflicting narratives so that each Rwandan's narrative/identity is dissociated from the negation of the other's victimhood emerged as a paramount challenge in Rwanda's quest for justice and reconciliation. Rwanda's approach to justice and reconciliation can be seen as an innovative both/and approach that seeks to overcome dichotomous thinking by addressing various justice and reconciliation concerns in compatible ways. However, by limiting its efforts to the issues that arose from crimes committed under the former regimes, the justice and reconciliation endeavour of the Rwandan government fails to reconcile people's conflicting narratives of victimhood, which will be essential to transform the existing racialised and politicised ethnic identities of Rwandan people.

Taiwan recently witnessed a sudden increase of opposition political activities among the Taiwanese. Given that the social, economic, political and cultural developments Taiwan experienced during the past four decades were expected to facilitate assimilation between the Mainlanders and the Taiwanese, the Taiwanese insurgence at this time was somewhat unexpected. To account for this development, this dissertation examines: (1) the causes and pattern of ethnic assimilation between the two groups; and (2) the connection of ethnic assimilation and the recent insurgence. The central thesis of this dissertation is that development of the opposition movement after 1986 was a result of a successful ethnic mobilization among the Taiwanese who rose to request for renegotiating the ethnic distribution of political power. The ethnic mobilization was facilitated by the change in the external environment of the movement, which included: (1) the increase of regime permissiveness, (2) the emerging opportunities of political competition, and (3) the emerging regional persistence of ethnic differences. Ironically, all three elements were caused by the pattern of ethnic assimilation. The main body consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 raises the question of the unexpected resurgence among the Taiwanese and proposes a framework of ethnic mobilization to its explanation. Chapter 2 provides a historical overview of the formation of the two ethnic groups, and patterns of intergroup relation during the past four decades. Chapter 3 examines two dimensions of cultural assimilation among the Taiwanese: language shift and identification with China. Using a survey data set collected by the Global Views Monthly in 1987, chapter 3 shows that the two major elements of ethnic differences were well preserved among the less-educated Taiwanese who reside outside the northern region of Taiwan. Chapter 4 investigates the alleged ethnic discrimination in the labor market by analyzing a data set coded from the Managers of the Creditable Enterprises in the R.O.C.. A pattern of ethnic assimilation similar to chapter 3 is found. Chapter 5 examines the various forms of participation in the opposition movement to test the ethnic mobilization argument. The development of the opposition after 1986 was found to begin in more assimilated areas and rapidly spread to the less assimilated areas through the tactic of ethnic mobilization. Chapter 6 draws a brief conclusion of what has been found.

<p>This thesis makes an ethnographic contribution to the anthropological debates about the contested nature of &lsquo / culture&rsquo / as a central term in the discipline. It examines discourses as tools that create, recreate, modify and transmit culture. The research was done in the town of Rundu in Kavango region, northeastern Namibia. In attempting to understand the local notions of culture this study focused on two main events: the Independence Day celebration on 21 March 2006 and a funeral that was held earlier in the month of January. During the study two particular media through which cultural ideas are negotiated, language and clothing were observed.</p>

This study examines the issue of ethnocentrism that has become so detrimental to Christian unity within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cameroon, as it is pulling apart Christians of different ethnic groups. The study puts forward the indigenous practice of Mang-Djala as a possible indigenous resource that can be used as an added value not only in enhancing the Christian understanding of unity, but also in advocating for peace, justice and reconciliation in ordinary social life. In this regard, the study investigates the possibility of Mang-Djala functioning in the secular sense as social contract and in a religious sense as covenant. The study argues that the rejection of African cultures by the colonisers and the first missionaries was a big mistake, and that the Gospel needs to be incarnated in every culture and context. Contextualization therefore needs to be used to integrate African cultures and the Gospel. Hence, the study posits that Mang-Djala is a preparation for the Gospel, which can be defined as anything within a culture that can become an entry point, facilitating the transmission, clarifying the understanding of the Gospel and allowing the openness of the local people to that Gospel. The basic research question of the study is: in view of the challenges being presented to church and society by ethnic diversity in Cameroon is there a possibility that the indigenous concept of Mang-Djala may act as a reconciling or unifying agent? The study suggests that the concept of Mang-Djala should be introduced into the church at different levels via its structures in order to popularise it and integrate it into the church‘s theology and practice. In this way, the ethnic groups that are not accustomed to the concept will come to understand and appropriate it, as a new paradigm of understanding and living the Gospel of unity. The problem of ethnicity and the possibility of using Mang-Djala as a possible antidote needs to be introduced as part of the training of the clergy. Other institutions in the church where it could be introduced are The Women for Christ Fellowship and the Christian youth organisation. It should also be introduced at synodical level. More importantly, the study suggests that the Church should create and insert in its constitution a clause that should declare ethnocentrism a sin against which every Christian should stand because it promotes discrimination which is against God‘s commandment of love. The study also acknowledges, however, that Mang-Djala should not be considered as an ultimate solution to the problems posed by ethnocentrism. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.