Papers by Caroline Brettell
Recherches En Anthropologie Au Portugal, 1989
American Anthropologist, Sep 1, 1994
Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control. David ... more Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control. David I. Kertzer E1 Castillo: The Politics of Tradition in an Andalusian Town. Richard Maddox
Routledge eBooks, May 5, 2022
Routledge eBooks, May 5, 2022
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2012
In an interview about her novel, If Today Be Sweet, Thrity Umrigar, a writer who was born in Mumb... more In an interview about her novel, If Today Be Sweet, Thrity Umrigar, a writer who was born in Mumbai but who came to the United States at the age of 21, reflects on her central character Tehmina Sethna. Tehmina’s husband has died and she must decide if she is going to live permanently in the United States with her son Sorab, his white American wife Susan, and her grandson Cavas. Umrigar observes: In middle age, [Tehmina] is being asked to give up everything that she once knew and called her own—home, country, neighbors, friends. Her son has gone through a similar process many years earlier, but even he cannot help her. It is a journey she has to travel alone. But while faced with the larger choice of whether to stay in America, Tehmina is confronted with another more urgent choice: whether to live in America as a stranger or as a citizen. Citizenship implies connection, participation, joining in. Destiny beckons in the form of two young, troubled children next door. It is the plight of these two boys that forces Tehmina to choose. To decide whether she will forever straddle the fence and live in a no-man’s land. Or whether she will jump into the fullness of her new life in America. Tehmina jumps. And in doing so, she fulfills the long-ago promise of her forbearers, to sweeten the life of the people in her new country with her presence. The irony is that she expands the fabric of community in suburban America by stubbornly holding on to her own Indianness.1
City and society, Jun 1, 2007
The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, Feb 4, 2013
Physical anthropologists would argue that the migration of human populations is as old as the eme... more Physical anthropologists would argue that the migration of human populations is as old as the emergence of hominids. Anthropological archaeologists point to early migratory movements among prehistoric hunters and gatherers as well as among the people who built the ancient civilizations of the old and new worlds. Historical anthropologists who have worked with archival records have demonstrated that the movement of individuals in and out of local communities in Europe, Latin America, China, and Japan has been going on for centuries. Assumptions about migratory human populations were also clearly embedded in the diffusionist theoretical approaches of early 20th century cultural anthropology in both Europe and the United States. However, much of the research carried out by social and cultural anthropologists during the first half of the 20th century paid little attention to migration because many ethnographers were working with a bounded concept of culture and a static structural-functional theoretical paradigm. Keywords: identity politics; anthropology; community; cultural diversity; ethnic conflict; globalization; political economy
Ethnohistory, 1986
... Can something about nineteenth century French peasant life be learned, for example, from Emil... more ... Can something about nineteenth century French peasant life be learned, for example, from Emile Zola's rendering of it in his novel La Terre?' Clearly, part of Herbert's (1980) aim in his skillful analysis of three dif-ferent "Marquesan Encounters" (those of the missionary Alexander ...
American Behavioral Scientist, Sep 1, 2006
This article compares identity and citizenship among four immigrant populations in the Dallas–For... more This article compares identity and citizenship among four immigrant populations in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area to explore the distinctions that immigrants themselves draw between political and cultural belonging. The article addresses the differences between the rights/responsibilities dimensions of citizenship on one hand, and the identity dimensions of citizenship on the other hand. It demonstrates the significance of immigration status in shaping attitudes toward naturalization, citizenship, and the construction of identity, arguing that immigrants have a bifocal outlook on belonging.
The spatial, social, and political incorporation of Asian Indian immigrants in Dallas-Fort Worth,... more The spatial, social, and political incorporation of Asian Indian immigrants in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, involves a process of inclusion through which one's own cultural identity is retained while a new identity is adopted. Indians reinforce their identity as Indians in the context of regional and religious organi- zations that celebrate cultural differences and cultural traditions. They also claim identity as Americans by using these organizations as vehicles for civic engagement. Organizations and media com- munication networks, both of which facilitate the process of social incorporation as well as the construction of new identities, are important to community development. In addition to facilitating social incorporation, organizations and the media also foster po- litical incorporation, but in distinct ways. The media inform while organizations serve as training grounds for community leaders. All these activities demonstrate that Asian Indians in Dallas-Fort Forth are challenging the centrifugal forces of suburbanization with centripetal actions, creating localized formal and informal places and spaces where they can gather and where a sense of community and community leadership can be developed.
American Ethnologist, Nov 1, 1992
Border crossing, May 15, 2016
It focuses on civic engagementi political participation and citizenship practices of Asian Indian... more It focuses on civic engagementi political participation and citizenship practices of Asian Indians in Dallas Fort Worth Metropolitan area drawing on qualitative field research material. Community participation is a process. Embedded in this observation is an understanding that as the individual branches out, he or she is becoming involved with associations with great civic and/or political presence, moving from one community of practice to another, and from a peripheral position to one of greater participation to invoke the ideas of Lave and Wenger. But equally, these activities illustrate how new immigrants construct their own sense of belonging as they engage with and interpret what it means to be an American and what kind of an American they want to be.
International Migration Review, Sep 1, 2006
One of the most important characteristics of US immigration during the last two decades of the 20... more One of the most important characteristics of US immigration during the last two decades of the 20th century has been the settlement of newcomers in parts of the country where they had not settled before in any significant numbers – in new gateway cities such as Minneapolis and Atlanta; in smaller towns in North Carolina, Virginia, Iowa, and Nebraska, and in rural areas of Arkansas and Wisconsin. This book represents the first collection to describe and analyze this important trend, and to assess the responses (“best practices”) to increasing diversity in these new settlement areas. The book begins with a very useful demographic chapter that compares “traditional” and “new” receiving states. The reader learns, for example, that the percentage of foreign-born Asians living outside traditional states is higher than that of foreign-born Latinos. The chapter also draws attention to the extremely important phenomenon of secondary migration. This chapter is followed by six case studies of new settlement areas: the North Carolina Piedmont Triad, Metropolitan Atlanta, Minnesota, the Shenandoah Valley, Utah, and Arkansas. These case studies are largely descriptive and, despite the fact that the research in each of these places was launched as part of a multiyear coordinated project under the auspices of the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, the chapters are structured quite differently and the unit of analysis (city, state, region) varies. It is therefore difficult to draw internal comparisons – for example, about the impact of Hispanics or of refugees; or the level of xenophobia that has emerged, particularly in the wake of 9/11; or the significance of employment or housing markets. It is also difficult to arrive at a complete understanding of the significance of place to the integration process. Finally, despite the “factoid” cited above about Asians, most of the chapters concentrate on Latinos. The authors of the chapter on North Carolina offer some constructive information on how various local institutions – the public schools, the health care system, churches, the legal system – have had to respond to newcomers. This is a topic also taken up by the authors of the chapter on the Shenandoah Valley. They explore in particular the role of an organization called Latino Connection in mediating the interface between Hispanics and other mediating institutions. Although the chapter on Atlanta is titled “Black and White and Other,” it does not offer much information on how black and white populations may have responded differentially to newcomers. The chapter on Arkansas is the only one that wrestles with the interesting question of home ownership and financial literacy. Part III contains the chapter on “best practices” in arenas such as education, health care, community development, and law enforcement. The authors caution that these are practices that worked by trial and error in particular places and are not necessarily replicable. This caution aside, practitioners, both public and private, will find this discussion, which draws on the case studies, extremely useful. The authors note that the most successful integration practices are based on partnerships that encourage interaction among different groups of stakeholders and the host society and that give immigrants agency.
Uploads
Papers by Caroline Brettell
ENGLISH ABSTRACT
This paper originally delivered as a keynote speech at the Turkish Migration Conference 2015 in Prague, Czech Republic on June 25, 2015. It focuses on civic engagementi political participation and citizenship practices of Asian Indians in Dallas Fort Worth Metropolitan area drawing on qualitative field research material. Community participation is a process. Embedded in this observation is an understanding that as the individual branches out, he or she is becoming involved with associations with great civic and/or political presence, moving from one community of practice to another, and from a peripheral position to one of greater participation to invoke the ideas of Lave and Wenger. But equally, these activities illustrate how new immigrants construct their own sense of belonging as they engage with and interpret what it means to be an American and what kind of an American they want to be.