White claimants and the moral community of South African land restitution

South African land restitution, by way of which the post-apartheid state compensates victims of racial land dispossession, has been intimately linked to former homelands: prototypical rural claims are those of communities that lost their rights in land when being forcibly relocated to reserves and they now aspire to return to their former lands and homes from their despised ‘homelands’. However, white farmers, who were also dispossessed (although usually compensated) by the apartheid state in the latter’s endeavour to consolidate existing homelands, have lodged restitution claims as well. While the Land Claims Court has principally admitted such restitution claims and ruled upon the merits of individual cases, state bureaucrats, legal activists, as well as other members of the public have categorically questioned and challenged such claims to land rights by whites. Focussing on white land claimaints effected by the establishment of former KwaNdebele, this paper investigates the contested field of moral entitlements emerging from divergent discourses about the true victims and beneficiaries of apartheid. It pays particular attention to land claims pertaining to the western frontier of KwaNdebele – the wider Rust de Winter area, which used to be white farmland expropriated in the mid-1980s for consolidation (that never occurred) and currently vegetates as largely neglected no-man’s-(state-)land under multiple land claims. Being the point of reference for state officials, former white farmers, Ndebele traditionalists, local residents, and other citizens, this homeland frontier is hence analysed as a fateful zone of contestation, in which the terms of a new South African moral community are negotiated.

Religion and Ethnicity in Mongolian Societies. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

This volume about religion and ethnicity in Mongolian societies is the outcome of an international seminar organized in Switzerland in 2009. Ten contributions explore the interplay of religion and ethnicity in the Mongolian and Buryat-Mongolian regions, covering four hundred years of Mongolian and Buryat history. Drawing on methods of diverse scholarly disciplines, including religious studies, Tibetan and Mongolian studies, social anthropology and history, the issues addressed include Mongolian identity formations in the light of the Tibeto-Mongolian interface in the 17th century, Buryat religious survival in the colonial setting of 18th and 19th century Russia, the interplay of religion and politics in Buryatia, a case study of the famous “Imperishable Body” of Khambo Lama Itigelov, an analysis of the religious politics of the Buryat Traditional Sangha in today’s Republic of Buryatia, the role of Shamanism in the identity practices of Modern Buryatia, as well as the revival of “traditional” religions like Buddhism and Shamanism in Mongolia and the emergence of new religions, especially Christianity. Furthermore, two contributions provide in-depth analyses of the dominant theoretical approaches that inform Russian and Anglophone scholarship dealing with these questions.

Indigene Prepräsentation im "neuen" Venezolanischen Fernsehen

Das Fernsehen hat sich in vielen Gesellschaften dieser Erde zum dominierenden Medium entwickelt und ist Gegenstand andauernder Auseinandersetzungen zwischen externer Einflussnahme und journalistischer Autonomie. Im Falle Venezuelas haben die jüngsten politischen Transformationen auch innerhalb der Medienlandschaft zu massiven Veränderungen geführt. Auf Initiative der Regierung Chávez wurden mehrere staatliche Sender gegründet, die das emanzipatorische Ziel einer Demokratisierung des Fernsehens propagieren. Das "neue" Fernsehen verspricht eine "neue" Sichtweise, ausgehend von dem Konzept einer partizipativen Repräsentation, das eine weitgehende Integration aller VenezolanerInnen, vor allem der zuvor benachteiligten Klassen, auf praktischer und inhaltlicher Ebene vorsieht. Unter ihnen auch die indigenen Gruppen des Landes, die vormals entweder weitgehend ausgeblendet, oder durch klischeehafte Inhalte und klassische Stereotypen repräsentiert wurden. Welcher Platz wird nun den Indigenen im "neuen" venezolanischen Fernsehen zuteil? Wie findet Repräsentation statt und wann kann von partizipativer Repräsentation gesprochen werden? Das sind die Fragen, denen ich anhand eines Fallbeispiels aus der Perspektive der visuellen Anthropologie in diesem Beitrag nachgehen möchte.

Constructing, Creating and Contesting Cityscapes. A Socio-Anthropological Approach to Urban Transformation in Southern Xinjiang, People’s Republic of China

This manuscript is based on a PhD thesis submitted at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Bern in 2014. The dissertation was part of the research project „Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Chinese Territoriality. The Development of Infrastructure and Han Migration into the Region“ under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Heinzpeter Znoj and financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF. Madlen Kobi analyzes the architectural and socio-political transformation of public places and spaces in rapidly urbanizing southern Xinjiang, P.R. China, and in doing so pays particular attention to the cities of Aksu and Kaxgar. As the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region lies in between China and Central Asia, it is especially characterized by differing political, cultural, and religious influences, and, furthermore, due to its being a multiethnic region, by multiple identities. One might expect cultural and social identities in this area to be negotiated by referring to history, religion, or food. However, they also become visible by the construction and reconstruction, if not demolition, of public places, architectural landmarks, and private residences. Based on ethnographic fieldwork performed in 2011 and 2012, the study explores everyday life in a continuously transforming urban environment shaped by the interaction of the interests of government institutions, investment companies, the middle class, and migrant workers, among many other actors. Here, urban planning, modernization, and renewal form a highly sensitive lens through which the author inspects the tense dynamics of ethnic, religious, and class-based affiliations. She respects varieties and complexities while thoroughly grounding unfolding transformation processes in everyday lived experiences. The study provides vivid insights into how urban places and spaces in this western border region of China are constructed, created, and eventually contested.