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Book Review: Contesting Culture: Discourses of Identity in Multi-Ethnic London

Gerd Baumann's Contesting Culture is an excellent contribution in developing a broad and comprehensive framework for understanding the social and cultural dynamics of a multiethnic settlement. The study does not focus on London, as the title suggests,but on Southall, a London Borough which is a heavily studied, multiethnic settlement Sikhs (the majority), Hindus, Muslims, AfroCaribbeans, and whites (primarily Irish) comprise the prominent groups. The value of Baumann's work is in his methodological approach and theoretical orientation. Instead of focusing on one group, such as the Sikhs, he uses Southall as his unit of analysis. He argues that focusing on a specific ethnic group tends to result in a cultural determinist explanation, e.g., people who are Sikhs have this culture or behavior because they are Sikhsother influences such as place of employment, television or school are neglected. Such studies, he states, reenforce stereotypes by reducing a people's culture to their ethnic identity, such as, "whatever an Asian informant says is interpreted in stunning regularity as a consequence of their ''Asiannes,'' their "ethnic identity" or the "culture" of their "community." Baumann first presents a good explanation of his methodological and theoretical frameworks as well as relevant background information concerning Southall. Then, by using quantitative and qualitative data, he sets forth the dominant discourse which "equates ethnic categories with social groups under the name 'community' and it identifies each community with a reified culture." After setting forth the various ways groups form and change their identity reinforcing the fact that identity is mutable Baumann then focuses on the processes and forces denying or challenging the dominant discourse. The counterprocess, or demotic discourse, focuses on the divisive forces affecting ethnic communities as well as those contributing to the creation of new ethnic groupings. Last he sets forth the relationship between these two discourses and how they context each other in multiethnic Southall. This study is an excellent contribution by providing a methodological and theoretical supplement to analyzing and understanding rnultierhnic settlements. It is a framework that can be built on, refined, and developed. Also, Baumann demonstrates an excellent understanding of ethnic dynamics in Southall. The explanations of his theory and methodology are clear, concise, and understandable. His concluding chapter is especially good. The book, however is weak in that it omits any consideration of the transnationalist approach or literature that considers the ongoing influence of the sending society. Second, it neglects the variety of practices concerning institutions such as marriage and caste as practiced in the sending society such as India. Last he assumes that anthropologists agree on the definition of such concepts as culture. In spite of these limitations, I highly recommend ContestingCulture as a book well worth reading.