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ABSTRACT
Several theories of ethnicity emphasize the analysis of intergroup relations. They neglect, however, the conflation of ideas and values structuring these relations-notably the cross-cultural aggregates of shared cultural meanings that underlie forms of cooperation and competition between interacting groups. In this article, I explore this kind of process through a multisite ethnography of the Xiu gugu ("refining of orphaned bones"), a ritual that the Chaozhou people of northeast Guangdong province, an ethnic subgroup of the Han, perform periodically. The celebration of this rite in Chaozhou is compared to versions resulting of the ritual in Malay Muslim and Thai Buddhist contexts. In the latter case, close conceptions of malevolent death underlie a fascinating interethnic cooperation, with most of the unfortunate dead whose bones are "refined" during the Chaozhou ritual being Thai. [Keywords: ethnicity, acculturation, anomalous dead, overseas Chinese, Xiu gugu]
IN THIS ARTICLE, I address the modus operandi of interethnic relationships. Until recently, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two influential paradigms: namely, instrumentalism and interactionism (Banks 1996). According to them, ethnicity is interpreted either as resources that people mobilize, more or less rationally, in a context of intergroup competition (Banton 1983; Brass 1991; Cohen 1969; Eller 1999; Glazer and Moynihan 1975; Hechter 1986; Tambiah 1996) or as processes of boundaries maintenance that discriminate insiders from outsiders through socially effective signs of incorporation and exclusion (Barth 1969; Brubaker 2004; Eidheim 1971; Eriksen 1992; Woodward 1997). These approaches must be acknowledged as giving valuable insights into collective strategies and signs of ethnic affiliation. They also make it much easier to recognize the situational character of collective or individual identities. They nevertheless share a common shortcoming, which is to tackle one-sidedly or separately the motivations, prejudices, and practices structuring the relations of the interacting groups. In doing so, they neglect the cross-cultural exchanges and coacculturative processes that bridge the gap between the collective "inside" and public "outside" worlds. It is precisely on these exchanges and processes that I want to focus through the case study of a Chinese bad death ritual (Xiu gugu), as it is performed by the Chaozhou people of Guangdong province both at home and overseas. The interpretative framework that I use to support the analysis is centered on the notion of...