Berghahn Books Difference and Sameness as Modes of Integration: Anthropological Perspectives on Ethnicity and Religion: 16 (Integration and Conflict Studies)

What does it mean to "fit in?" In this volume of essays, editors Gunther Schlee and Alexander Horstmann demystify the discourse on identity, challenging common assumptions about the role of sameness and difference as the basis for inclusion and exclusion. Armed with intimate knowledge of local systems, social relationships, and the negotiation of people's positions in the everyday politics, these essays tease out the ways in which ethnicity, religion and nationalism are used for social integration. Review "Schlee and Horstmann as the book's editors must be congratulated on combining a variety of perspectives from around the globe on how differences and sameness may either contribute to or prohibit unity. In this regard, Schlee's introduction provides a helpful analysis of four models...[It] consists of proper scholarly research well substantiated by references and would therefore serve as good scholarly material. The presentation of the data is not too difficult for a non-specialist who is interested in inter-cultural engagement. In this regard, this collection should attract a wide audience." - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI) "While conflict remains the dominant trope in the analysis of ethnic diversity, the book accrues its value in emphasising coexistence as a mode of managing diversity." - Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale About the Author Günther Schlee is Director emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. Prior to this appointment he was a Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bielefeld. His main publications include Identities on the Move: Clanship and Pastoralism in Northern Kenya (Manchester University Press, 1989), (Berghahn Books, 2008) and Pastoralism and Politics (with Abdullahi A. Shongolo, James Currey, 2012). Alexander Horstmann is Associate Professor in Southeast Asian Studies at the School of Humanities, Tallinn University, Estonia. He has held visiting positions at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Mahidol University and EHESS in Paris. He is co-editor of the Berghahn Journal . He published Building Noah’s Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities ( Palgrave, 2015) and Faith in the Future: Understanding the Revitalization of Religion and Cultural Traditions in Asia (Brill, 2012).