'The Vezo are not a kind of people': identity, difference and 'ethnicity' among a fishing people of western Madagascar

Astuti, Rita ORCID: 0000-0002-8399-0753 (1995) 'The Vezo are not a kind of people': identity, difference and 'ethnicity' among a fishing people of western Madagascar. American Ethnologist, 22 (3). pp. 464-482. ISSN 0094-0496

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Abstract

This paper presents a model of identity and difference alternative to ethnicity. It describes how the Vezo of western Madagascar construe their identity by transcending descent or descent-based features of the person. To be a Vezo is to have learnt Vezo-ness, and to perform it: identity is an activity rather than a state of being. Difference is construed by an analogous process of identification: others are different because they have acquired and perform another identity. Both identity and difference are not inherent in people, but are performative.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.anthrosource.net/Issues.aspx?issn=0094-...
Additional Information:	© 1995 American Anthropological Association
Divisions:	Anthropology
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Date Deposited:	24 Jun 2007
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 04:03
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/470

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