Will of the People

ETHNIC A UTONOMY

Edited by Professor Raymond L. Hall Pergamon, 1979. 458 pp. $10.95 ($43.50, hardcover)

One of the unanticipated developments in the modern world is the survival of strong ethnic and religious feelings in what was thought of as an increasingly secularized society. Both social scientists and the educated public were un- prepared for this survival. The survival of nationalistic feelings is somewhat different, since it seems that nationalism has become a sentiment towards which all societies may tend at various times. The survival of ethnicity is unique.

This is an extremely useful collection of es- says, edited by Raymond L. Hall, associate professor of sociology, whose previous work has focused on black separatism in the United States. He has provided a fascinating series of case studies of the suryival of ethnicity. The papers focus upon what Professor Hall calls "ethnic autonomy," which means essentially the near identity of ethnic and nationalistic sen- timents. The timeliness of this topic is readily confirmed by reading either the domestic or the international news in any issue of the New York Times. The internal problems of both Afghanistan and Iran are only the most topical examples.

The volume cannot possibly cover all of the relevant examples of ethnic claims f°r autonomy. The focus is upon blacks and native Americans in the U.S.; the French in Canada, the Indians (native Peruvians?) in Peru; the Basques in France and Spain; Catholics versus Protestants in Northern Ireland; the Scots in Scotland; the Asian minority populations in the Soviet Union; the Hindus and Muslims in India; the Ankole and the Bairu in Uganda; &nC numerous minority groups in both West Africa and Ethiopia.

The authors of these essays are anthropologists, geographers, historians, political scientists, and sociologists in many colleges and universities. In addition to Hall, other Dartmouth professors who contributed to the volume are Hoyt S. Alverson, associate professor of anthropology; Sara Castro-Klaren, associate professor of comparative literature; William W. Cook, associate professor of English and chairman of the Black Studies Program; Michael Dorris, associate professor of anthropology and chairman of Native American Studies; Howard L. Erdman, professor of government; David T. Lindgren, associate professor of geography; Bernard E. Segal, professor of sociology; Richard W. Sterling, professor of government; and George F. Theriault, professor emeritus of sociology.

This is an astonishing array of knowledgeable contributors an array which should go far to challenge the all-too-common perception of Dartmouth as an essentially "north country," provincial institution, isolated from the realities of the Third World.

The book does not attempt to propose solutions for the disruptive aspects of ethnicity in modern society; in fact, it raises very clearly the policy question of how to manage the con- flict between the meaning that ethnicity gives to people's lives and the challenge it presents to the established order. "Understanding," not dogmatic solutions, is the goal of the book, and it succeeds admirably in providing it. Hall and his colleagues should be congratulated for this intelligent, well-documented, and interesting discussion of the enormous strengths and crucial importance of ethnicity in the contemporary world.

Sociologist Sills is the editor of the Inter- national Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences and executive associate of the Social ScienceResearch Council in New York.