In "Ethnicity, Inc." anthropologists John L. and Jean Comaroff
analyze a new moment in the history of human identity: its rampant
commodification. Through a wide-ranging exploration of the changing
relationship between culture and the market, they address a
pressing question: Wherein lies the future of ethnicity?
Their account begins in South Africa, with the incorporation of
an ethno-business in venture capital by a group of traditional
African chiefs. But their horizons are global: Native American
casinos; Scotland's efforts to brand itself; a Zulu ethno-theme
park named Shakaland; a world religion declared to be intellectual
property; a chiefdom made into a global business by means of its
platinum holdings; San "Bushmen" with patent rights potentially
worth millions of dollars; nations acting as commercial
enterprises; and the rapid growth of marketing firms that target
specific ethnic populations are just some of the diverse examples
that fall under the Comaroffs' incisive scrutiny. These phenomena
range from the disturbing through the intriguing to the absurd.
Through them, the Comaroffs trace the contradictory effects of
neoliberalism as it transforms identities and social being across
the globe.
"Ethnicity, Inc." is a penetrating account of the ways in which
ethnic populations are remaking themselves in the image of the
corporation--while corporations coopt ethnic practices to open up
new markets and regimes of consumption. Intellectually rigorous but
leavened with wit, this is a powerful, highly original portrayal of
a new world being born in a tectonic collision of culture,
capitalism, and identity.
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