Journal articles on the topic 'Ethnicity – Belize'

Este artículo presenta los resultados de mi estudio sobre raza y etnicidad en el folclor de Belice, en el cual examiné tres volúmenes inéditos de canciones e historias folclóricas criollas recolectadas por Ervin Beck, asi como 400 páginas de mi colección inédita de narrativa folclórica criolla e hispana de Belice. En estos materiales encontré pocas referencias a aspectos raciales y étnicos, lo cual permite afirmar que existe un bajo nivel de tensión interracial en Belice.

SummaryData from the 1991 Belize Family Health Survey show differentials in the use of maternal and child health services between ethnic groups (Creole, Mestizo, Maya/Ketchi and Garifuna). Multivariate analysis is used to explore whether such differentials can truly be attributed to ethnicity or to other characteristics that distinguish the ethnic groups. Health services considered are: family planning, place of delivery (hospital/other), postpartum and newborn check-ups after a birth, and immunisations for children. The language usually spoken in the household is found to be important for interpreting ethnic differentials. Mayan-speaking Maya/Ketchis are significantly less likely to use family planning services or to give birth in a hospital. Spanish-speakers (Mestizos and Maya/Ketchis) are less likely to use newborn and postpartum check-ups, after controlling for other characteristics. There are no ethnic differentials for immunisations. Programmatic implications of these results are discussed.

Belize, país anglófono da América Central, é descrito,normalmente, em termos da sua diversidade cultural e da multiplicidade dos grupos étnicos que o compõem. Contudo, essa diversidade não é uma característica estável, não é gerida nem interpretada de uma única forma. Suas populações suscetíveis de serem reconhecidas como afrodescendentes têm origens múltiplas, populações essas que foram conformadas ou que chegaram a Belize em circunstâncias históricas muito diversas: alguns escravizados, outros livres, urbanos ou rurais, agricultores ou assalariados, anglófonos ou não, etc. Diante dessa complexidade de articulações, o artigo busca interpretar as práticas políticas observadas em matéria de “gestão da diversidade” (a colonial de “divide and rule”, a neoliberal, a multicultural...) em dois aspectos que determinam o campo da autonomia – ideológica ou territorial – do país e que elaboram as condiciones de existência da Nação e dos grupos que a compõem: políticas culturais e regulamentação das terras. A análise mostra que as variações nas políticas implementadas referem-se menos a composição étnica da população que ao posicionamento dos grupos sociais e governos frente às forças exógenas (o império colonial, as arenas transnacionais, a globalização dos direitos autóctones) e endógenas (o paradigma desenvolvimentista, a construção da Nação). Essas forças desenham em cada período o campo de opções políticas possíveis.Palavras-Chaves: Etnicidade, América Central, políticas públicas.---Belice: políticas públicas y la gestión del pluralismo étnicoBelice, país anglófono de América central, es descrito a menudo en términos de la diversidad cultural y de multiplicidad de los grupos étnicos que lo componen. Sin embargo, esta diversidad no es una « característica » estabilizada, ella no es gestionada ni interpretada de una sola manera. Sus poblaciones susceptibles de reconocerse como afrodescendientes tienen orígenes múltiples, constituidas o llegadas a Belice en circunstancias históricas muy diversas: esclavizados algunos, otros libres, urbanos o rurales, agricultores o asalariados, anglófonos o no, etc. Ante estas complejidades articuladas, el articulo busca interpretar las prácticas políticas observadas en materia de « gestión de la diversidad » (la colonial de « divide and rule », la neoliberal, la multicultural….) en dos aspectos que determinan los campos de autonomía – ideológica o territorial – del país y plantean las condiciones de existencia de la Nación y de los grupos que la componen: las políticas culturales y las regulaciones de tierras. El análisis muestra que las variaciones en las políticas implementadas se refieren menos a la composición étnica de la población que al posicionamiento de grupos sociales y gobiernos frente a fuerzas exógenas (el imperio colonial, las arenas transnacionales, la globalización de derechos autóctonos) y endógenas (el paradigma desarrollista, la construcción de la Nación). Estas fuerzas diseñan en cada periodo, el campo de opciones políticas posibles.Palabras-clave: etnicidad, America Central, politicas públicas.---Belize: public policies and management of ethnic pluralismBelize, an English-speaking country in Central America, is usually described in terms of its cultural diversity and in the multiplicity of their ethnic groups. However, this diversity is not a stable characteristic; it is not managed or interpreted in one single way. Their populations most susceptible to being recognized as African descent have multiple origins. These populations either have been assimilated completely or came to Belize in very different historical circumstances: some enslaved, some free, urban or rural, farmers or wage earner, Anglophone or not, etc. Given this complexity, the article seeks to interpret the political practices observed in the field of "diversity management" (the colonial "divide and rule", neoliberal, multicultural) on two aspects that determine the field of autonomy - territorial or ideological - of the country and that prepare the conditions of existence for the nation and for the groups that comprise it: cultural policies and regulations of the land. The analysis shows that changes in implemented policies refer less to the ethnic composition of the population than to the position of the social groups and Governments in the face of exogenous forces (colonial empire, transnational arenas, and the globalization of indigenous rights) and endogenous forces (the development paradigm, the construction of the Nation). In each period, these forces point out the field of possible policies.Key words: ethnicity, Central America, public policies.

-Lennox Honychurch, Robert L. Paquette ,The lesser Antilles in the age of European expansion. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996. xii + 383 pp., Stanley L. Engerman (eds)-Kevin A. Yelvington, Gert Oostindie, Ethnicity in the Caribbean: Essays in honor of Harry Hoetink. London: Macmillan Caribbean, 1996. xvi + 239 pp.-Aisha Khan, David Dabydeen ,Across the dark waters: Ethnicity and Indian identity in the Caribbean. London: Macmillan Caribbean, 1996. xi + 222 pp., Brinsley Samaroo (eds)-Tracey Skelton, Ralph R. Premdas, Ethnic conflict and development: The case of Guyana. Brookfield VT: Ashgate, 1995. xi + 205 pp.-Rosemarijn Hoefte, Basdeo Mangru, A history of East Indian resistance on the Guyana sugar estates, 1869-1948. Lewiston NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1996. xiv + 370 pp.-Rosemarijn Hoefte, Clem Seecharan, 'Tiger in the stars': The anatomy of Indian achievement in British Guiana 1919-29. London: Macmillan, 1997. xxviii + 401 pp.-Brian Stoddart, Frank Birbalsingh, The rise of Westindian cricket: From colony to nation. St. John's, Antigua: Hansib Publishing (Caribbean), 1996. 274 pp.-Donald R. Hill, Peter van Koningsbruggen, Trinidad Carnival: A quest for national identity. London: Macmillan Caribbean, 1997. ix + 293 pp.-Peter van Koningsbruggen, John Cowley, Carnival, Canboulay and Calypso: Traditions in the making. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. xv + 293 pp.-Olwyn M. Blouet, George Gmelch ,The Parish behind God's back : The changing culture of rural Barbados. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997. xii + 240 pp., Sharon Bohn Gmelch (eds)-George Gmelch, Mary Chamberlain, Narratives of exile and return. London: Macmillan, 1997. xii + 236 pp.-Michèle Baj Strobel, Christiane Bougerol, Une ethnographie des conflits aux Antilles: Jalousie, commérages, sorcellerie. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1997. 161 pp.-Abdollah Dashti, Randy Martin, Socialist ensembles: Theater and state in Cuba and Nicaragua. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994. xii + 261 pp.-Winthrop R. Wright, Jay Kinsbruner, Not of pure blood: The free people of color and racial prejudice in nineteenth-century Puerto Rico. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1996. xiv + 176 pp.-Gage Averill, Deborah Pacini Hernandez, Bachata: A social history of a Dominican popular music. Philadelphia PA: Temple University Press, 1995. xxiii + 267 pp.-Vera M. Kutzinski, Lorna Valerie Williams, The representation of slavery in Cuban fiction. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1994. viii + 220 pp.-Peter Mason, Elmer Kolfin, Van de slavenzweep en de muze: Twee eeuwen verbeelding van slavernij in Suriname. Leiden: Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 1997. 184 pp.-J. Michael Dash, Jean-Pol Madou, Édouard Glissant: De mémoire d'arbes. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996. 114 pp.-Ransford W. Palmer, Jay R. Mandle, Persistent underdevelopment: Change and economic modernization in the West Indies. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach, 1996. xii + 190 pp.-Ramón Grossfoguel, Juan E. Hernández Cruz, Corrientes migratorias en Puerto Rico/Migratory trends in Puerto Rico. Edición Bilingüe/Bilingual Edition. San Germán: Caribbean Institute and Study Center for Latin America, Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, 1994. 195 pp.-Gert Oostindie, René V. Rosalia, Tambú: De legale en kerkelijke repressie van Afro-Curacaose volksuitingen. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1997. 338 pp.-John M. Lipski, Armin J. Schwegler, 'Chi ma nkongo': Lengua y rito ancestrales en El Palenque de San Basilio (Colombia). Frankfurt: Vervuert, 1996. 2 vols., xxiv + 823 pp.-Umberto Ansaldo, Geneviève Escure, Creole and dialect continua: Standard acquisition processes in Belize and China (PRC). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1997. ix + 307 pp.

<p align="center"><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>The figure of Gus Dur is a unique figure and his thoughts are typical. For most people, his thoughts are difficult to guess and difficult to digest by ordinary lay people, making him a controversial figure as well as being admired. Gus Dur as a teacher of the nation and an intellectual figure is a person who upholds the values of humanism. His struggle in upholding human rights made him highly respected by people from various backgrounds and different identity backgrounds. In particular his defense of the rights of oppressed minorities from both religion and ethnicity. Solving problems during conflicts by promoting dialogue that upholds human values makes Abdurrahman a reliable mediator. His thinking about humanism, is ideally implemented in interfaith dialogue, he offers a concept that is more focused on the human side, human rights themselves rather than dialogue that is theological in nature. , "Here a Humanist Is Buried". That is, he wants to be remembered as a humanitarian fighter. The title of a humanist figure seems more appropriate for him. Because Gus Dur's humanism really departed from the deepest values of Islam, which transcended ethnicity, territoriality, to the limit of statehood.</p><p><strong> Abstrak</strong></p><p>Sosok Gus Dur merupakan sosok yang unik dan pemikirannya tergolong tipikal. Bagi kebanyakan orang, pemikiran beliau yang susah di tebak dan sulit dicerna oleh orang awam kebanyakan, menjadikannya sebagai sosok yang kontroversial sekaligus dikagumi. Gus Dur sebagai guru bangsa dan tokoh intelektual adalah sosok yang sangat menjunjung tinggi nilai-nilai humanisme. Perjuangannya dalam menegakkan hak asasi manusia menjadikannya sangat disegani oleh masyarakat dari berbagai kalangan dan latar belakang identitas yang berbeda. Terkhusus pembelaannya terhadap hak-hak kelompok minoritas yang tertindas baik dari agama maupun etnis. Pemecahan masalah saat terjadi konflik dengan mengedepankan dialog yang lebih menjunjung nilai-nilai kemanusiaan menjadikan Gus Dur sebagai sosok mediator yang handal. Pemikirannya tentang humanism, sangat ideal diimplemantasikan dalam dialog antar agama, beliau menawarkan konsep yang lebih focus kepada sisi kemanusiaan, hak-hak manusia itu sendiri daripada dialog yang sifatnya teologis.Gus dur merupakan sosok yang sangat humanis beliau pernah berpesan agar di pusaranya dipahat sebuah tulisan, “Di Sini Dimakamkan seorang Humanis”. Artinya, dia ingin dikenang sebagai pejuang kemanusiaan. Gelar tokoh humanis agaknya lebih tepat disematkan kepadanya. Sebab, humanisme Gus Dur benar-benar berangkat dari nilai-nilai Islam paling dalam, yang melampaui etnis, teritorial, hingga batas kenegaraan.</p>

-Valerie I.J. Flint, Margarita Zamora, Reading Columbus. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. xvi + 247 pp.-Riva Berleant-Schiller, Historie Naturelle des Indes: The Drake manuscript in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York: Norton, 1996. xxii + 272 pp.-Neil L. Whitehead, Charles Nicholl, The creature in the map: A journey to Eldorado. London: Jonathan Cape, 1995. 398 pp.-William F. Keegan, Ramón Dacal Moure ,Art and archaeology of pre-Columbian Cuba. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996. xxiv + 134 pp., Manuel Rivero de la Calle (eds)-Michael Mullin, Stephan Palmié, Slave cultures and the cultures of slavery. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995. xlvii + 283 pp.-Bill Maurer, Karen Fog Olwig, Small islands, large questions: Society, culture and resistance in the post-emancipation Caribbean. London: Frank Cass, 1995. viii + 200 pp.-David M. Stark, Laird W. Bergad ,The Cuban slave market, 1790-1880. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. xxi + 245 pp., Fe Iglesias García, María Del Carmen Barcia (eds)-Susan Fernández, Tom Chaffin, Fatal glory: Narciso López and the first clandestine U.S. war against Cuba. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996. xxii + 282 pp.-Damian J. Fernández, María Cristina García, Havana USA: Cuban exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959-1994. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. xiii + 290 pp.-Myrna García-Calderón, Carmen Luisa Justiniano, Con valor y a cómo dé lugar: Memorias de una jíbara puertorriqueña. Río Piedras: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1994. 538 pp.-Jorge Pérez-Rolon, Ruth Glasser, My music is my flag: Puerto Rican musicians and their New York communities , 1917-1940. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995. xxiv + 253 pp.-Lauren Derby, Emelio Betances, State and society in the Dominican Republic. Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1995. xix + 162 pp.-Michiel Baud, Bernardo Vega, Trujillo y Haiti, Volumen II (1937-1938). Santo Domingo: Fundación Cultural Dominicana, 1995. 427 pp.-Danielle Bégot, Elborg Forster ,Sugar and slavery, family and race: The letters and diary of Pierre Dessalles, Planter in Martinique, 1808-1856. Elborg & Robert Forster (eds. and trans.). Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1996. 322 pp., Robert Forster (eds)-Catherine Benoit, Richard D.E. Burton, La famille coloniale: La Martinique et la mère patrie, 1789-1992. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1994. 308 pp.-Roderick A. McDonald, Kathleen Mary Butler, The economics of emancipation: Jamaica & Barbados, 1823-1843. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. xviii + 198 pp.-K.O. Laurence, David Chanderbali, A portrait of Paternalism: Governor Henry Light of British Guiana, 1838-48. Turkeyen, Guyana: Dr. David Chanderbali, Department of History, University of Guyana, 1994. xiii + 277 pp.-Mindie Lazarus-Black, Brian L. Moore, Cultural power, resistance and pluralism: Colonial Guyana 1838-1900. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press; Mona, Kingston: The Press-University of the West Indies, 1995. xv + 376 pp.-Madhavi Kale, K.O. Laurence, A question of labour: Indentured immigration into Trinidad and British Guiana, 1875-1917. Kingston: Ian Randle; London: James Currey, 1994. ix + 648 pp.-Franklin W. Knight, O. Nigel Bolland, On the March: Labour rebellions in the British Caribbean, 1934-39. Kingston: Ian Randle; London: James Currey, 1995. viii + 216 pp.-Linden Lewis, Kevin A. Yelvington, Producing power: Ethnicity, gender, and class in a Caribbean workplace. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995. xv + 286 pp.-Consuelo López Springfield, Alta-Gracia Ortíz, Puerto Rican women and work: Bridges in transnational labor. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996. xi + 249 pp.-Peta Henderson, Irma McClaurin, Women of Belize: Gender and change in Central America. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996. x + 218 pp.-Bonham C. Richardson, David M. Bush ,Living with the Puerto Rico Shore. José Gonzalez Liboy & William J. Neal. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995. xx + 193 pp., Richard M.T. Webb, Lisbeth Hyman (eds)-Bonham C. Richardson, David Barker ,Environment and development in the Caribbean: Geographical perspectives. Mona, Kingston: The Press-University of the West Indies, 1995. xv + 304 pp., Duncan F.M. McGregor (eds)-Alma H. Young, Anthony T. Bryan ,Distant cousins: The Caribbean-Latin American relationship. Miami: North-South-Center Press, 1996. iii + 132 pp., Andrés Serbin (eds)-Alma H. Young, Ian Boxill, Ideology and Caribbean integration. Mona, Kingston: The Press-University of the West Indies, 1993. xiii + 128 pp.-Stephen D. Glazier, Howard Gregory, Caribbean theology: Preparing for the challenges ahead. Mona, Kingston: Canoe Press, University of the West Indies, 1995. xx + 118 pp.-Lise Winer, Richard Allsopp, Dictionary of Caribbean English usage. With a French and Spanish supplement edited by Jeanette Allsopp. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. lxxviii + 697 pp.-Geneviève Escure, Jacques Arends ,Pidgins and Creoles: An introduction. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1995. xiv + 412 pp., Pieter Muysken, Norval Smith (eds)-Jacques Arends, Angela Bartens, Die iberoromanisch-basierten Kreolsprachen: Ansätze der linguistischen Beschreibung. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1995. vii + 345 pp.-J. Michael Dash, Richard D.E. Burton, Le roman marron: Études sur la littérature martiniquaise contemporaine. Paris: L'Harmattan. 1997. 282 pp.

<p class="EW-abstract"><strong>Abstract:</strong> Using as a case study Vladimir Beliaev’s popular young-adult novel <em>The Old Fortress</em> and its two film adaptations, this article examines evolving Soviet representations of the Ukrainian Revolution. Its main focus is on the cultural construction of “Petliurites” as the “other” of Soviet Ukrainian identity. The article demonstrates that the Stalinist model of historical memory required a strong Ukrainian nationalist enemy in order to highlight the heroic deeds of the positive protagonists, who are encoded as pro-Russian or culturally Russian. By the 1970s, Soviet cinema turned to satirical depiction of the weak nationalist enemies, but the portrayal of Soviet Ukrainians also became more ambiguous, with few markers of ethnicity. Like Soviet Ukrainian culture in general, the book and the films presented Taras Shevchenko’s legacy as the central field of contestation between the nationalist and Soviet versions of Ukrainian identity.</p><p class="EW-Keyword"><strong>Keywords:</strong> Vladimir Beliaev, Cinema, Propaganda, Symon Petliura, Identity, “Other”</p>

To listen to them talk, you'd think most Americans hate television. Everyday discourse about television abounds with condemnation of television content. Television is a wasteland, a stream of idiotic material insulting to the intelligence of the viewer. When people deem a particular program worth watching, they often articulate it in contradistinction to the vast majority of awful stuff out there. This almost universal discourse of condemnation does not mean Americans do not watch television, of course. They do, and they watch a great deal of it. Thus we have a conundrum. If it is so awful, why do people watch television? When Americans construct stories about themselves, they construct themselves as choice--making individuals (Polanyi). Sane, mature Americans are expected to be able to make intelligent choices and to live with the consequences of their choices. How, then, can Americans articulate themselves as television viewers, as individuals who choose to view what is clearly awful stuff? In this paper, I want to discuss 'veging out' as an American category of media viewing that resolves this conundrum. In framing their discourse about watching television in terms of 'veging out,' Americans are able to construct themselves as sensible, choice--making persons, and yet explain why they watch large amounts of television. I want to use this example to explore ways that media scholars might supplement explorations of the self as mediated by texts with attention to the ways the viewing self is articulated in everyday discourses about television by viewers. An American Folk Category of Pleasure I said I'm sorry this is late. I just couldn't work on it over the weekend. I just veged out in front of the TV the whole weekend. I realise that's not much of an excuse…but…I had my Arabic test Thursday and I was too burned out afterward to do anything. I had to let my brain recharge. [text one] Let's just veg out tonight. We both had a big lunch, let's just make some popcorn and watch whatever stupid stuff is on TV. Unless you want to get a video. [text two] God, we didn't do anything this weekend. We just sat in front of the TV. (laughs) It was a total veg out weekend, we ordered out every night. John was on the rig for two weeks and then he's had to work late every night since he's been back, and I've had this activity and that activity with the kids, and girl scouts and soccer... We really needed the break. [text three] In the interest of brevity, I offer only three texts here.1 Anyone who has listened to Americans talk about television can probably multiply these examples many times; most Americans of my generation or later have almost certainly been producers of such discourse at one time or another. Each of these examples is drawn from a different context: a student's explanation for handing in a late paper [text one], a wife's suggestion for evening plans [text two], a friend sharing information about her family [text three]. And each is part of the language of experience – the language people use to describe emotions, sensations, and thoughts and, in so doing, articulate a self. 'Veging out' -- the 'veg--' prefix is borrowed from the word 'vegetable' and pronounced with a soft g -- is a nice example of a local taxonomic category of pleasure and the way it is embedded in more complex discursive formations, which it both replicates and refracts. In American society, where sitting in front of the television when there are other things to do is condemned as a waste of time that makes one a 'couch potato,' 'veging out' allows actors to reconstitute 'being a vegetable' as an empowering choice, an intentional and temporary vegetative state one escapes into as a means to relax, reduce stress and 'get away' from one's troubles. Veging out involves escape but specifies that one is escaping to nowhere, that an avoidance of critical mental activity is precisely what is sought. The claim to be veging out thus accepts the general American public discourse of television as a wasteland – the 'waste' in particular involving waste of time -- and simultaneously challenges it by claiming, in essence, that one has a right to do nothing if one has been working 'too hard'. There is nothing fanciful or even insightful in this analysis; discourses in which Americans talk about their television viewing activity tend to be both straightforward and redundant. Americans who say they spent an evening veging out are likely to follow the statement with an explanation of why they are entitled to veg out -- a litany of stresses or labours -- and sometimes also assertions to confirm that the world they escaped to was indeed a place that involved minimal mental activity. For example, the student in Text One quoted above followed it up with the comment, 'There was absolutely nothing on worth watching'. The woman who produced Text Three commented a few lines later, 'It was practically all commercials, nothing could hold my interest because it was always being interrupted. I hardly ever watch TV, I hadn't realised how many commercials there are'. This latter comment also positions the activity as a rare one for this person, emphasising the strategic nature of veging out as a life choice and hence acceptable within American understandings of choice.2 People's own modes of articulation may thus even deny their motivations involve pleasure.3 Choosing to enter the wasteland of television certainly can be, and often is, constructed as a bad choice. As Beeman demonstrates in his analysis of the language of choice in American advertising, making a choice is often constituted as not enough -- one must make the 'right' choice. Discourse about 'veging out' partly forecloses the possibility of the instance described being a bad choice by embedding the choice in the matrix of suffering. Yet as Carbaugh discovers in his sociolinguistic appraisal of TV talk shows, doing something 'wrong' can nonetheless be valorised in America by its formulation as a deliberate exercise of one's right to choose. The moral wrongness of the particular choice is redeemed by the articulation of a self exercising its right to make its own choices, and taking responsibility for those choices. The power of 'veging out' as a representation of social action thus lies in its ability to simultaneously embrace the widespread discourse that 'television is a wasteland' while at the same time subsuming it under the important American discourse of choice. In so doing, it allows Americans to construct themselves as hard--working individuals who choose to waste time as a strategy for resolving the stresses and discomforts of hard work. One articulates a viewing self, that is, which is consonant with the fundamental values of American culture. The Viewing Self The 'viewing self' is that self, or that aspect of the self, constructed through experiences of viewing events and activities in which the person is not a participant. In the contemporary world, such viewing has increased as an activity, accommodated and mediated by film, television, video and other technologies. These technologies offer, among other things, the opportunity for virtual experiences, events and activities that we do not experience with our bodies but which nonetheless offer us comparable fodder for our cognitive processes (Drummond). Studies of the self as viewer have long been dominated in media studies by attention to these virtual experiences as internal. From the early argument that the self is 'interpellated' by the culture industry (Adorno), to the argument that the self is socially and politically positioned in dominated, negotiating or resistant ways (Hall), to the idea of the self as simultaneously occupying multiple (and shifting) spectator positions (Modleski, Williams, Clover, Caton), emphasis has long been on how the viewer experiences structured sets of symbols, appropriates them at various levels of cohesion, cognitively and affectively orders them with regard to pre--existing understandings of and feelings about the world, and uses them in the ongoing construction of the self. I am suggesting here the utility of turning our attention from internal to external articulations of self as viewer. I want to argue that in addition to engaging with the content of the viewing experience, people usually engage with the meaning of the viewing experience as an activity. The viewing experience is never just about engagement with content about what one watches. It is also about the activities of 'watching TV,' 'renting a video,' and 'going to the movies.' Each of these is an experience that must be internally evaluated with regard to one's pre--existing sense of self, and which may have to be verbally articulated in interaction with others. In the latter case, it provides yet more fodder for the construction of the self, as we see versions of ourselves mirrored in the responses of the other to our own self--performance. Given the plethora of media, genres, places and events in which visual media are watched, speaking with others about one's television viewing maps one onto a complex terrain of distinctions about one's taste. One's 'taste' is never innocent, because it ties in to a complex social code that relates it to class, gender, ethnicity, education, and other social categories (Bourdieu). To represent ourselves to others as viewers of any particular kind of media is to position ourselves as particular kinds of persons in relation to others. One can use this code to articulate oneself as a particular kind of person vis--à--vis those with whom one is interacting: an equal who shares common tastes, a superior who enjoys more refined discernment, a populist who revels in his or her common tastes. To speak of our viewing allows us to generate social contact on grounds of shared experience. It allows us to confirm our tastes with regard to the social others who serve as mirrors to our selves. Of course, persons are never omnicompetent in their self--presentations, and efforts to present the self in particular ways can backfire, so that instead of appearing as a woman of discernment one appears pompous; and instead of appearing as a common Joe, one comes across as vulgar. Talking about viewing, in other words, always involves risk. In examining how people manage this risk in their social interactions, as through framing their experience as 'veging out,' we can learn much about how people construct themselves as viewers. Conclusion 'Veging out' is not the only verbal strategy by means of which Americans solve the conundrum of the viewing self. Nor is there anything unique in this American conundrum. Ethnographic accounts clearly demonstrate that many societies offer public condemnatory discourses about television that are at odds with actual viewing practices. The content of television in Belize is 'destroying a whole generation' (Wilk), in Egypt it's a flood of 'moral pollution' (Armbrust), in the Netherlands it's 'an embarrassment' (Alasuutaari). People's ways of speaking about themselves as viewers are clearly often a result of an ambivalence born of their pleasure, on the one hand, and their understanding that one should not be getting pleasure from such stuff, on the other. The result is often discourse that expresses guilt, or embarrassment, as summed up by Alasuutari's informant who said 'I'm ashamed to admit it, but I watch Dallas.' Alasuutari's reliance on interviewing, though, captures the conundrum but not the cultural solutions. An interview with a sociologist is a very different kind of speech act from the quotidian contexts in which people construct themselves as television viewers in interaction with friends, family, the person sitting next to you at the bar, and so forth (Briggs). My objective in this brief exercise is to draw our attention away from interviewing toward ethnography, and away from attention to internal subjectivities to the interactive contexts in which the self is constructed in everyday life. Notes 1 These three examples were all collected among American expatriates while I was teaching at the American University in Cairo. 2 Individual performances of this discourse are always strategic, of course; their articulation shaped by the speakers understanding of the speech event in which they take place. 3 The American discomfort with spending one's leisure pleasurably has been long chronicled. As early as the 1920s the Lynds found the people of Middletown uncomfortable with talking about reading for pleasure rather than instruction and profit. People did not want to articulate themselves as persons who wasted time (Lynd and Lynd 1929: 225) References Adorno, Theodor. 'The Culture Industry Reconsidered.' The Adorno Reader. Ed. Brian O'Connor. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. 230-38. Alasuutari, Pertti. ''I'm Ashamed to Admit it, but I have Watched Dallas:' The Moral Hierarchy of Television Programmes.' Media, Culture and Society 14 (1992): 561-582. Armbrust, Walter. Mass Culture and Modernisation in Egypt. Cambridge: University Press, 1996. Beeman, William O. 'Freedom to Choose: Symbolic Values in American Advertising.' The Symbolisation of America. Ed. Herve Varenne. Omaha: University of Nebraska Press, 1986 Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Trans. Richard Nice. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1984. Briggs, Charles. Learning How to Ask: A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Carbaugh, Donal. Talking American: Cultural Discourses on Donahue. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1989. Caton, Steven C. Lawrence of Arabia: a Film's Anthropology. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Clover, Carol. Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992. Drummond, Lee. 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Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Peterson, Mark Allen. "Choosing the Wasteland" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.5 (2002). [your date of access] < http://www.media-culture.org.au/mc/0210/Peterson.html &gt. Chicago Style Peterson, Mark Allen, "Choosing the Wasteland" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5, no. 5 (2002), < http://www.media-culture.org.au/mc/0210/Peterson.html &gt ([your date of access]). APA Style Peterson, Mark Allen. (2002) Choosing the Wasteland. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5(5). < http://www.media-culture.org.au/mc/0210/Peterson.html &gt ([your date of access]).