Ethiopian taxicab drivers: forming an occupational niche in the US Capital

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the relative roles of cultural and structural factors in the emergence and solidification of taxi driving as an ethnic occupational niche among Ethiopian immigrants in the Washington DC metropolitan area within the wider context of globalization and immigrant integration. An ethnic occupational niche is the concentration and specialization of members of an ethnic group in a particular occupational activity. Using data from the US Census Bureau and in-depth interviews with 25 (male) Ethiopian cab drivers and three Ethiopian cab company owners, it examines the factors that affected the entrance of first-generation Ethiopian immigrants in this occupation since the 1980s. This research demonstrates that mixed embeddedness or the interplay of structural factors such as blocked mobility as well as cultural factors such as the strong social networks that exist among Ethiopian immigrants were important in the induction of new immigrants into taxicab driving. The demographic composition of the Washington metropolitan area and policies of the DC Taxicab Commission that allow for fairly easy entry of new drivers in the taxicab business also facilitated the emergence of this occupational niche.     

Contesting and negotiating religion and ethnic identity in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

Post-Soviet Central Asia has inherited a set of circumstances conducive to the revitalization of religion. The renewal of Muslim awareness and identity in Central Asia may not be surprising, but the growth of Christianity is, especially in its Protestant form within indigenous Muslim communities. This article, based on qualitative field research, reviews one example of this development: the process of conversion to Protestant Christianity among Muslim Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan. A prominent aspect of this social movement has been the ways in which Kyrgyz Christians have entered into a dynamic process of engaging with issues of identity and what it means to be Kyrgyz – a process that has sought to locate their new Christian religious identity within, rather than on the margins of, familial and ethnic identity, and one that challenges the normative understanding of Kyrgyz identity: that to be Kyrgyz is to be Muslim. While providing the context for Kyrgyz conversion, this discussion primarily focuses on the way Kyrgyz Christians utilize a number of different discursive strategies to contest normative Kyrgyz identity constructs and to legitimize a Kyrgyz Christian identity.     

云南部分少数民族基督教信仰的社会作用分析

云南部分少数民族在宗教信仰向基督教转变后 ,基督教产生了巨大的社会影响 ;教会在民族社会各领域中充当了多重社会管理者的角色。当今的基督教与云南部分少数民族联姻的社会现象和所引起的正、负社会效应 ,应引起政府的职能部门的高度重视     

清末贵州石门坎苗族信仰基督教原因浅析

100年前由柏格里引发的石门坎苗民短时间内大规模信仰基督教的史实,有现实的原因,也有历史的原因。     

论民族文化背后的晚清乡绅社会反教情绪及表现样态

晚清乡绅是一个特殊的社会群体,在中国近代社会转型变化的关头,他们陷入了前所未有的文化困境,在民族心理上难以接受这种猝然而至并欲以主人地位取代民族文化的外来的异类文化。而仅凭过去的思想文化资源,他们又找不到解决问题的答案和出路。作为当时社会的精英,他们对现实的感受尤其敏锐和痛苦,而他们又是当时社会大众中儒家传统文化权威的具体象征,是当时民间话语权的表达者,所以,当西方基督教文化侵入中国内地,尤其是农村时,他们便责无旁贷地站出来代替大众表态。在传统面对挑战之际,他们很难心平气和地做出明智的选择,这种情感和民族心理习惯上的反抗趋势,呈现出合情却不合理的猜忌与恶感的样态,这是中国知识阶层走出传统模式的必由之路,只有经过这一盲目、自发阶段后,他们才能逐渐变化开放。     

试论台湾基督教的发展与特点

基督教在明朝天启年间开始传入台湾,在清代得以发展,日据时期受到不同程度的打压,光复后开始恢复,至60年代发展出现停滞现象。台湾基督教在传播中形成了鲜明的特点,如随着殖民主义的扩张而传入、传教的曲折起伏、教派众多、以经济物质辅助传教、独立教会的崛起等。     

海兰泡的俄名释义

海兰泡原属中国,19世纪中叶《瑷珲条约》签订后被割让与俄国,改名布拉戈维申斯克。从俄语语源、历史事实和俄罗斯传统文化来看,该俄名实非占领黑龙江左岸土地后单纯地向沙皇"报喜"之意,而是来源于该地以东正教节日命名的教堂之名。     

Jewish and Christian Sanctity under Israeli Sovereignty: Mount Zion,King David's Tomb and the Last Supper Room (1948–1967)

Abstract

The article discusses the status of the Room of the Last Supper and King David's tomb – the two central holy sites located on Mount Zion, south of the old city of Jerusalem – in the period between 1948 and 1967. The purpose of the article is to examine the way the State of Israel treated those sites: a Jewish holy site and a Christian holy site located one above the other. The status of these holy sites during this period has wider implications for the broader picture of the Jewish and Christian holy sites developed and controlled by Israel during these years. It raises questions about the Israeli attitude towards Christian holy sites in Israel in general and in Western Jerusalem in particular.     

西方传教士眼中的羌族神灵信仰

19世纪晚期到20世纪初期,基督教在羌族中的传播可谓基督教在华传播事业中的一颗流星。它留给人们的思考是多方面的。其中,基督福音的“圣灵”与羌族原始宗教的“神灵”相遇。于是,福音传播者捧着福音书,按照各自的宗教文化价值取向和经验认知,对羌族原始宗教的神灵信仰做出不同的阐释。     

Martin Wight's Thought on Diplomacy

Martin Wight was a founding member and one of the most influential thinkers of the 'English School' of International Relations. His thought on diplomacy is at the heart of his international theory. He portrays diplomacy as a defining activity of international relations; it marks the international sphere. His diplomatic thought is shaped by, more than anything else, a traditional Christian outlook that can be characterized as Augustian. Unless one comprehends that religious disposition of Martin Wight's thought one will not properly understand it.