Contemporary Ethnogenesis or Identity Politics?: On Naturalization in Social Sciences

Abstract

In his response to A.V. Golovnevs article on modern identities, the author tackles on the attempt to represent the current emergence of new identities as a version of contemporary ethnogenesis. He offers an alternative way to conceptualize the emergence of new ethnicities, where new identities develop as an outcome of actions and decisions in three areas of contemporary policy making: ethnicity and language categorization, which are chiefl y practiced by scholars; recognition policy towards ethnic communities effected by the state; and the identity politics of the communities, in which the ethnic categorizations that have been offi cially approved and granted a legal status begin to be used as an asset and resource.