Self knowledge comes too late and by the time I’ve know myself I am no longer what I was… (Mabel Segun[Nigerian Poet],”the pigeon hole”).
Intro:
· For years, the idea was that modernization would erase ethnicities.
· Why? Because it would not be profitable to pay allegiance to ethnic groups.
· Similarly, it was thought that ethnicity would also come to an end in Africa.
· But, ethnicity has remained and strengthened.
· Most societies are plural societies containing more than one ethnic group.
· Groups do not simply assimilate.
· Ethnic boundaries are not rigid.
· Flows of individuals occur between ethnic groups. Such movement does not have negative consequences.
· Ethnic groups are special kinds of groups, in which experience and expression of identity is situational.
· There are also degrees of ethnic expression.
· Cultural behaviors are not fixed or attached to ethnic groups.
· Ethnic boundaries can give way to other cross-cutting linkages (i.e religion)
· No correlation between objectively identified categories and actual social practice.
Historical Background
· Processes of colonization, decolonization and modernization have influenced ethnicity in Malaysia.
· British East India Company ‘leased’ land from Malaysia in 1786.
· Scottish administrators believed initially that Malays could be ‘improved’, by a system or indirect rule.
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