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Identity as a scarce resource

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1999

SIMON HARRISON
SIMON HARRISON
Affiliation:
School of Social and Community Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1SA, UK
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Abstract

This article aims to shed light on a relatively neglected aspect of ethnic identity politics: namely, situations in which groups contest the ownership of ethnic practices. These conflicts suggest that symbols of ethnic affiliation are most usefully interpreted as a type of ‘inalienable possession’, a category conceived by Annette Weiner for analysing the symbolic dimensions of property and the exchange of goods.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Anthropology , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , October 1999 , pp. 239 - 251
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Jean-Claude Galey, Andrew Sanders, Nick Dodge, members of the social anthropology seminars at Queen's University, Belfast, and LSB College, Dublin, and an anonymous referee for this journal, for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.