エスニシティの地理学　方法論的展望

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タイトル別名
  • Ethnic Geography: A Methodological Review.
  • エスニシティ ノ チリガク ホウホウロンテキ テンボウ
  • A Methodological Review
  • 方法論的展望

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This paper is an inquiry into the methodological problems of ethnic geography, or geography of ethnicity, through a review of geographical studies of immigrant ethnic groups. The term ethnic group means here a more or less distinct group of people which can be identified by themselves as well as by others within the framework of a modern national society. The term ethnicity is used to refer to the socio-cultural characters of the members of an ethnic group manifested due to their ethnic background (cf. Takezawa, 1994), or simply the state of being ethnic; of possessing ethnic quality or affiliation (cf. Jordan and Rowntree, 1986).<br>Hitherto, the methodology of ethnic geography has been discussed mainly by cultural geographers. For example, Jordan and Rowntree (1986) defined ethnic geography as the study of the spatial aspects of ethnicity and classified its subject into five main themes from the viewpoint of cultural geography; i. e. ethnic culture regions, cultural diffusion and ethnic groups, cultural ecology and ethnicity, cultural integration and ethnicity, and ethnic landscapes. Raitz (1979) discussed the themes in the cultural geography of European ethnic groups in the United States focusing on Americanization, acculturation and assimilation, cultural transfer, ethnicity and religion, and integration and ethnic identity. This paper attempts to examine the methodo-logical characteristics and problems of existing studies which approached ethnicity or ethnic groups mainly in North America and Britain from the viewpoint of human geography, especially of social and cultural geography, classifying their themes into five main categories; formation and historical development of ethnic groups and geographical dimension, residential patterns and segregation, formation and changing characters of ethnic territories, ethnicity and regional socio-cultural integration, and ethnic cultural landscapes.<br>It is noteworthy that these five themes are structurally interrelated in the settlement process of an immigrant ethnic group. An ethnic group starts its own history with the process of immigration into a foreign country. After struggling to adapt to the new environment of the country, the members of the group establish a certain subsystem in the socio-cultural and economic system of the host society which shows a degree of regional socio-cultural integration, and its visible imprints on the earth-surface can be observed as the components of an ethnic landscape. We can also speak of an ethnic territory and ethnic residential segregation when the members of the ethnic group occupy a more or less defined residential area. The degree of segregation is usually decreasing as the members of the group are being assimilated into the host society; that means they are gradually transforming the nature of their own territory and changing their socio-cultural characters within the host society. All these situations and processes compose the whole process of the historical development of an ethnic group to which geographical conditions are closely related. Therefore, when we think of any one of these five themes, all the others come automatically into perspective; in other words our study of ethnic geography can be organised around the above-mentioned five themes. Finally, it should be noted that more humanistic and radical approaches on the ethnicity-related spatial processes will further expand our perspective in ethnic geography. This paper is an inquiry into the methodological problems of ethnic geography, or geography of ethnicity, through a review of geographical studies of immigrant ethnic groups. The term ethnic group means here a more or less distinct group of people which can be identified by themselves as well as by others within the framework of a modern national society. The term ethnicity is used to refer to the socio-cultural characters of the members of an ethnic group manifested due to their ethnic background (cf. Takezawa, 1994),

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