Intenet Exercises

Internet Exercises

1. Read the article entitled "Ethnicity in Nigeria" by Simon A. Rakov at http://landow.stg.brown.edu/post/nigeria/ethnicity.html.
   1. What are the major ethic groups in Nigeria?
   2. What are the identifying characteristics and history of each of the major ethnic groups?
   3. Before reading this article, how much ethnic diversity did you think was is Africa? Or Nigeria?
   4. In the United States, people with European ancestry distinguish between groups with different ethic backgrounds, for instance Irish-American, Italian-American, German-American, etc. However, these distinctions are usually not so fine for people of African descent, who are usually classified as African-Americans. Is this difference because Africa is less ethnically diverse than Europe? What role may the slave trade have played in homogenizing the identities of African-Americans?
      
      
2. Ethnicity in the Balkans: Read Mary Kay Gilliland Olsen's article entitled "Bridge on the Sava: Ethnicity in Eastern Croatia", 1981-1991 at http://www.depaul.edu/~rrotenbe/aeer/aeer11_1/gilliland.html.
   1. What are the nationalities and the ethnicities mentioned in this article?
   2. In the early 1980's, under a Communist government, how were relationships between these different ethnic groups? What was discussed publicly? What was discussed privately?
   3. What changing economic conditions prompted the movement to succession?
   4. In what ways do the modern day residents of the Balkans link together nationalism, ethnicity, and religion to form their identities? Is it possible to completely separate them?
   5. According to the author, the question that remains unresolved in her own mind at the end of the article is "how people move from a disagreement about who should control what resources to hatred based on nationalism." In your opinion, how do these changes come about?