Anthropology – michaelcaster

Xinjiang or East Turkestan: Contending Historical Narratives and the Politics of Representation in China

July 8, 2014

July 5th marked the fifth anniversary of a series of bloody events in Xinjiang collectively labeled as the 7/5 Urumqi riots. Immediately afterward, state and international media set to reporting and analyzing the conflict, scholars and international human rights organizations soon joined. Meanwhile the government in Beijing launched damage control, exerting its monopoly of symbolic … More Xinjiang or East Turkestan: Contending Historical Narratives and the Politics of Representation in China

Revisiting Kyrgyzstan’s Bloody Summer

June 17, 2014

Originally published by The Diplomat on June 13, 2014. Available here. – Ethnicity is a convenient but misleading way of explaining the outburst of violence in 2010. Late in the night of June 10, 2010, outside a casino in Osh a skirmish broke out between several groups of young men. A catalyst for greater belligerence, … More Revisiting Kyrgyzstan’s Bloody Summer

Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part III

December 4, 2012

This is the final section in a three part essay on violence and the politics of representation. Click here for Part I and Part II. Framing: Violence by Definition It is important to first acknowledge that not all processes of framing are violent. Obviously they are not; most are benign. It is only those which … More Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part III

Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part II

November 21, 2012

This is part two in the discussion. To visit part one, see Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part I — Identities and Boundaries: A Constructivist and Discursive Approach Group formation is the product of a social process, made and remade using historical context, cultural and mythological structures (Brubaker, 2004; Wimmers, 2008). These myriad ingredients are part … More Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part II

Museumized Signification, China and Representational Violence

July 31, 2012

This is the second post in a brief series on symbolic power and minority representation in China. Although the ethnic group under specific discussion is the Uyghurs, the deconstruction of representations and symbolic power is apropos of other subaltern groups. The previous post dealt with briefly just with the notion of controlling the taxonomy of … More Museumized Signification, China and Representational Violence

Deconstructing ‘Minzu’

July 21, 2012

In a number of posts to follow I will identify three places where symbolic power operates, that is, how the Chinese State has exerted its monopoly of symbolic power to instill a signification of Uyghurs as an undeveloped singing, dancing subaltern subject. Indeed, this colonialist objectification: the predominant representation of Uyghurs, and other minzu (ethnic … More Deconstructing ‘Minzu’

michaelcaster

Human Rights Advocate and Researcher

Tag: Anthropology