中村 寛
中央大学社会科学研究所年報 / 中央大学社会科学研究所 編 (17) 51-78 2012年
This article, at the most manifest level, is an ethnographic report on the relationship between African-American Muslims and new-coming African Muslim immigrants in Harlem, New York. It specfically deals with the narratives and gestures of an African-American Muslim man regarding his position toward the African Muslims. Based on my fieldwork conducted from 2002 to 2004, the article describes several events and scenes, in which conflicts and dis-communication among the two ethnic groups were observed. It examines the way in which several African-American Muslims differentiate themselves from the Muslim immigrants, frequently employing such visual markers as clothes and beard. The article, at somewhat more theoretical level, also seeks to pose several questions over the notion of "difference" and "differentiation,"(thus of "identity" and "identification"). It argues that the constructivistsʼ views on "difference" are useful in provoking the power within discourses and narratives of a certain social system, but often overlook the "exceptional" moments, at which the representative forces within the system fail to structure oneʼs practice. The article, therefore, is an attempt to capture such moments and locate them in the form of ethnographic episodes.