Page 230 - Contribution To Phenomenology

ETHNIC STUDIES AS MULTI-DISCIPLINE 223

Cuban-Americans, Salvadorian-Americans, all except the aboriginal Central
and South Americans, can lay claim to the Hispanic civilizational complex.
People often use the word "culture** here, but if they were using words
as Durkheim and Mauss proposed, the proper word would be "civiliz-
ation." At the same time these same peoples will differentiate among
themselves: Mexican-Americans claim heritages very different from those
of Puerto Rican-Americans, etc. The culture/civilization confusion is built
into the very structure of ethnic expressiveness.
/ would be inclined to use '^culture*' where they use '^civilization" and
then recognte specifications. However the terms are used, the distinction
is very useful to point to some of the dilemmas and contradictions that
exist in the various geo-political units. Thus, if one takes the seaborne
empires as one of the beginnings for the issues that we are discussing,
there is the fact that these empires established various forms of polity
and hegemony over many parts of the globe. In the second half of the
Twentieth Century, the colonies established by these empires asserted
themselves, claiming not only nation statehood, but also varying degrees
of cultural self-determination. Inside the United States there are
representatives of virtually every one of the seaborne empires, in their
subcultural divisions as well as in civilizational totaUties. Since the late
1950s, there has been a variety of assertions of cultural self-determination,
some with political overtones, but none is seriously directed at nation
statehood or secessionism. Right, each wants its share of the socio-cult-
ural pie, social, cultural, and economic justice.
Let me go back to something. Besides music and food and clothes and
religion and language, doesn't locality or place have something to do with
ethnicity in many cases, who you are being related to your 'turf? Very
good point. Here, there is a very real phenomenon as well as the
disintegration of it. There are often two places of identification: The
place of origin of the people, some country or some village in Europe
or Asia, for example, or some ethno-cultural region in Africa. The latter
can be very problematic for Blacks. The second type of place, long of
interest to American sociologists, is the territorial enclave established by
a people inside the regions and cities of the United States. 'New
England,' for example. Yes, but even more significantly, the various Little
Italics, Polonias, Germantowns, Little Tokyos, Little Havanas, Chinatowns,
etc. These become loci of cultural expression, personal well being, and,
often, of a limited kind of culturally specific economic activity. They also
developed varying degrees of community autonomy vis-a-vis the state.