Genealogy

8 pages, 226 KB

Open AccessArticle

Black Skins, European Masks: Transforming the Collective Unconscious in Cameroon

by Daniel John Pratt Morris-Chapman

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040113 - 15 Oct 2025

Over the last decade, Cameroon has been embroiled in a violent civil conflict. In 2016, protests within the minority Anglophone regions against the obligatory use of French in schools triggered a period of considerable unrest, in which hundreds of people have been incarcerated [...] Read more.

Over the last decade, Cameroon has been embroiled in a violent civil conflict. In 2016, protests within the minority Anglophone regions against the obligatory use of French in schools triggered a period of considerable unrest, in which hundreds of people have been incarcerated and killed. Following an increased security presence in the English-speaking regions, armed groups surfaced calling for secession—the creation of an independent nation of Ambazonia. The failure to resolve the crisis peacefully through dialogue has resulted in a spiral of violence between armed separatists and the military. Building on the work of Frantz Fanon, this paper offers an analysis of the construction of these identities before and after European colonisation. In mapping the contours of Francophone and Anglophone assimilation it seeks to explore how the current crisis might be resolved through what Fanon describes as a transformation of the collective unconscious and what the Nigerian philosopher Cyril Orji describes as a psychological transition away from prejudice against the Other. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decolonizing East African Genealogies of Power)

20 pages, 276 KB

Open AccessReview

Digital Genealogy: Aura, Liquidity, and Burnout in Online Identity

by Gil Baptista Ferreira

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040112 - 15 Oct 2025

Abstract

This article develops the concept of digital genealogy as a critical lens for understanding contemporary subjectivity in environments structured by platforms and algorithms. Building on Benjamin’s aura, Bauman’s liquidity, and Han’s burnout, the analysis traces how digital selfhood is produced through practices of [...] Read more.

This article develops the concept of digital genealogy as a critical lens for understanding contemporary subjectivity in environments structured by platforms and algorithms. Building on Benjamin’s aura, Bauman’s liquidity, and Han’s burnout, the analysis traces how digital selfhood is produced through practices of performative presence, memory curation, and visibility. Empirical studies of selfies, ephemeral stories, and Bitmojis illustrate how authenticity is negotiated through fragments that are at once intimate and replicable, while van Dijck’s work shows how digital memory shifts from archiving the past to continuously fabricating the self. The paradox that emerges—identities are performed as fleeting yet archived permanently by infrastructures—reveals the coexistence of ephemerality and machinic inscription. Read through Benjamin’s concept of aura, reinterpreted by contemporary authors such as Mirzoeff, Groys, and Hansen, this transformation situates singularity not only in artworks but in the self, which must be ceaselessly enacted and recomposed in algorithmic environments. The framework also connects to critiques of precarity and exploitation: Marcuse, Fuchs, and Varoufakis highlight how self-expression doubles as unpaid digital labor within platform capitalism. Digital genealogy thus provides both a theoretical and normative contribution: it discloses the paradox of visibility and exhaustion as the price of belonging, and it points toward future empirical research—such as ethnographies of adolescents and creators—that can test how individuals negotiate the tension between platform imperatives and the desire for rooted self-narratives. Full article

4 pages, 139 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Silence of Our Past: Why the Stories That Matter Most Are So Often Lost

by Muna Saeed Fareh Mohammed

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040111 - 14 Oct 2025

Abstract

This article reflects on the fading of personal and familial histories in the context of migration, trauma, and cultural transformation. While modern tools such as ancestry kits and digitized records promise clarity about our roots, they often fail to capture the emotional and [...] Read more.

This article reflects on the fading of personal and familial histories in the context of migration, trauma, and cultural transformation. While modern tools such as ancestry kits and digitized records promise clarity about our roots, they often fail to capture the emotional and narrative legacies that define us. Drawing on scholars such as Jan Mason, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Saidiya Hartman, this piece explores the silence that surrounds intergenerational memory. Whether caused by disruption, grief, or survival, silence is shown to be both an absence and a form of protection. The editorial calls for greater intentionality in preserving stories through conversation, documentation, and creative expression as a way to resist erasure and affirm identity in the face of historical neglect. In a world where wars, migration, and climate disasters are uprooting millions, we risk losing not just homes but the stories, languages, and rituals that carry who we are. This piece is a call to hold on to those fragile histories beyond the facts and dates, so that what is most human in our past is not silenced by the speed and forgetting of the present. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Family History)

17 pages, 347 KB

Open AccessArticle

Traces of Ancient Turkish Belief Systems in Kazakh: The Example of ‘Baksı’

by Serdar Özdemir

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 110; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040110 - 14 Oct 2025

Abstract

This study examines the figure of the baksı as a living reflection of ancient Turkic belief systems in contemporary Kazakh culture. The baksı, whose earliest attestations in Old Uyghur Turkic derive from the Chinese po-shih (“scholar, teacher”), historically denoted a wide range [...] Read more.

This study examines the figure of the baksı as a living reflection of ancient Turkic belief systems in contemporary Kazakh culture. The baksı, whose earliest attestations in Old Uyghur Turkic derive from the Chinese po-shih (“scholar, teacher”), historically denoted a wide range of roles, including religious guide, scholar, scribe, healer, bard, and shaman. Employing an interdisciplinary methodology that integrates philological, lexicographic, folkloric, and ethnographic perspectives, the research traces the semantic development of the term across Turkic and Mongolic traditions, its uses in historical texts, and its representations in Kazakh oral literature such as proverbs, idioms, epics, and fairy tales. The findings show that while the baksı has been idealised as a healer, sage, and spiritual mediator, it has also been depicted with suspicion as a deceiver or figure associated with jinn, particularly in the post-Islamic period. Ethnographic insights further reveal that becoming a baksı involves a sacred calling, initiation rituals, and distinctive clothing and performance practices, situating the figure at the intersection of religion, medicine, and art. The study concludes that the baksı is not only a historical heritage but also a dynamic cultural institution, mediating between past and present, nature and society, and continuing to shape Kazakh identity today. Full article

17 pages, 636 KB

Open AccessArticle

Migration to Italy and Integration into the European Space from the Point of View of Romanians

by Vasile Chasciar, Denisa Ramona Chasciar, Claudiu Coman, Ovidiu Florin Toderici, Marcel Iordache and Daniel Rareș Obadă

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 109; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040109 - 9 Oct 2025

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Abstract

This study investigates the determinants of Romanian workers’ migration intentions towards Italy, integrating economic, social, and psychological perspectives. Based on a sample of 358 respondents, four hypotheses were tested concerning perceived living standards, working conditions, quality of public services, and anticipated integration difficulties. [...] Read more.

This study investigates the determinants of Romanian workers’ migration intentions towards Italy, integrating economic, social, and psychological perspectives. Based on a sample of 358 respondents, four hypotheses were tested concerning perceived living standards, working conditions, quality of public services, and anticipated integration difficulties. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rho correlation, Mann–Whitney U, Chi-square, ANOVA, and ordinal logistic regression. The results confirm that higher perceived living standards and better working conditions in Italy significantly increase the likelihood of expressing migration intentions, while favourable evaluations of healthcare and education act as additional pull factors. Conversely, anticipated integration difficulties, particularly language barriers and cultural adaptation, reduce migration intentions, indicating that socio-psychological obstacles can counterbalance economic incentives. By combining non-parametric and multivariate analyses, the study demonstrates that migration is a multidimensional process shaped not only by structural opportunities but also by behavioural and psychological appraisals. These findings are consistent with recent research on European labour mobility and contribute to the literature by highlighting the role of subjective perceptions in shaping migration decisions. Implications for policy include the need to address both economic disparities and integration barriers to support more balanced mobility within the European space. Full article

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13 pages, 406 KB

Open AccessArticle

Afro-Brazilian Returnee Festivals: From Brazilian Bumba-Meu-Boi to Contemporary Lagos Carnival

by Niyi Afolabi

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040108 - 9 Oct 2025

Viewed by 230

Abstract

Drawing upon the works of Kazadi wa Mukuma, Gerhard Kubik, Carlos de Lima, Vivian Gotheim, Wilson Nogueira, Temitope Fagunwa, and Alaba Simpson, this study traced the evolution of Bumba-Meu-Boi from its regional origins in Maranhao, Brazil, to its adaptation in Lagos, Nigeria, as [...] Read more.

Drawing upon the works of Kazadi wa Mukuma, Gerhard Kubik, Carlos de Lima, Vivian Gotheim, Wilson Nogueira, Temitope Fagunwa, and Alaba Simpson, this study traced the evolution of Bumba-Meu-Boi from its regional origins in Maranhao, Brazil, to its adaptation in Lagos, Nigeria, as an Afro-Brazilian returnee festival within the context of Lagos carnival. Beyond serving as a crucible for the historical return of repatriated Africans from Brazil following abolition of slavery in Brazil, the study also documents how the Afro-Brazilian community has been fully integrated into the Nigerian society. Through the formation of a thriving Brazilian Descendants Association, the Brazilian community has been able to sustain their Afro-Brazilian heritage through social events and community impact by preserving Brazilian architecture, culinary knowledge, festivals, teaching of Portuguese language, and the celebration of their Afro-Brazilian genealogical past. Full article

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16 pages, 250 KB

Open AccessArticle

More than Economic Contributors: Advocating for Refugees as Civically Engaged in the Midwest

by Fatima Sattar and Christopher Strunk

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 107; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040107 - 9 Oct 2025

Viewed by 221

Abstract

In the context of an increasingly hostile national political environment and federal cuts to refugee resettlement programs in the United States, advocates often highlight the economic contributions of immigrants and refugees to garner local support, especially in regions with histories of economic and [...] Read more.

In the context of an increasingly hostile national political environment and federal cuts to refugee resettlement programs in the United States, advocates often highlight the economic contributions of immigrants and refugees to garner local support, especially in regions with histories of economic and population decline. While these narratives continue to be a centerpiece of pro-immigrant and -refugee advocacy, in practice advocates and refugees themselves use a diverse set of frames to promote belonging. In this paper, we examine pro-refugee advocacy frames in a small, nontraditional destination in the Midwest. We draw on survey and focus group research with young adult refugees and nonprofit advocates and content analysis of online stories about refugees. We found that pro-refugee values frames (humanitarian and faith-based) and contributions frames (economic, cultural and civic) coexisted across the local landscape and were used by not only nonprofit advocates and local officials, but also by refugees themselves. While advocacy groups emphasized the dominant frame highlighting refugees’ economic contributions, they were also strategic in using overlapping frames to highlight a less public frame, refugees’ contributions to civic engagement through community service and volunteering. Advocates tended to reproduce the economic contributions frame to appeal to key stakeholders, which consequently obscures refugees’ diverse contributions, but we argue that refugee self-advocates’ use of the civic engagement frame pushes back against economic and other frames that limit their contributions and helps them to create spaces of belonging. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue (Re)Centering Midwest Refugee Resettlement and Home)

18 pages, 271 KB

Open AccessArticle

Tribal Self-Determination in Child Protection in the United States: Returning to Cultural Foundations

by Sarah L. Kastelic and Miriam Jorgensen

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 106; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040106 - 6 Oct 2025

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight Tribes’ efforts to Indigenize their child welfare systems through the instrument of Tribal law. Since its founding, the United States has strategically focused on Native children in its efforts to assimilate Native Peoples. By the [...] Read more.

The aim of this paper is to highlight Tribes’ efforts to Indigenize their child welfare systems through the instrument of Tribal law. Since its founding, the United States has strategically focused on Native children in its efforts to assimilate Native Peoples. By the mid-twentieth century, federal and state governments removed nearly one in four Native children from their homes—and permanently placed most in non-Native care. In 1978, Congress recognized Tribes’ inherent authority to protect their children through the Indian Child Welfare Act. Tribal nations responded by creating their own child welfare laws and programs, but at least initially, most were not predicated on their respective Tribes’ cultures, values, and worldviews. This article considers the more recent shift among Tribal nations toward Indigenization of their child welfare systems and points to examples of this shift found in Tribal law. It reviews statements of purpose within the codes, which lay the groundwork for culturally infused child protection; statements about “best interests,” which communicate Tribal concepts about the foundations of children’s wellbeing; and definitions of “family,” which can vary greatly from western views. Reflection on these changes yields several lessons for U.S.-based Tribal nations in their ongoing efforts to promote their own visions of child wellbeing and, more generally, for other governments whose responsibilities include improving child welfare. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Self Determination in First Peoples Child Protection)

12 pages, 207 KB

Open AccessArticle

“It Changed Everything”: Challenges to Indigenous Recovery Practices Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Melinda S. Smith, Andria B. Begay, Chesleigh Keene, Alisse Ali-Joseph, Carol Goldtooth-Begay, Manley A. Begay, Jr. and Juliette Roddy

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 105; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040105 - 1 Oct 2025

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Abstract

(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing health inequities for Native American communities, intensifying the challenges faced in accessing addiction and recovery services. As part of a tribal-university collaborative effort in Arizona, our team explored the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental [...] Read more.

(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing health inequities for Native American communities, intensifying the challenges faced in accessing addiction and recovery services. As part of a tribal-university collaborative effort in Arizona, our team explored the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental well-being and resilience among the Indigenous substance use recovery community. (2) Methods: We conducted qualitative analysis of transcribed individual interviews (n = 19) to understand the factors of resilience and mental well-being for providers of Western addiction treatment services and Indigenous community members who were in addiction recovery or engaged in addiction treatment during the pandemic. (3) Results: Four major themes that impacted mental well-being among the Indigenous recovery group during the pandemic were identified: (1) healthcare barriers; (2) culture in recovery; (3) the impact of colonization/historical trauma; and (4) the importance of relationships. (4) Conclusions: This work provides insight into the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Indigenous communities and vulnerable populations such as the recovery community. Findings from this study highlight the need for Indigenous-grounded and culturally informed recovery interventions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Health and Wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples)

20 pages, 1449 KB

Open AccessArticle

Marital Status as a Determinant of Life Expectancy and Wellbeing: The Case of Greece

by Vasilis S. Gavalas

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 104; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040104 - 1 Oct 2025

Viewed by 438

Abstract

It has been proven that marital status affects health outcomes, with marriage often linked to greater longevity and wellbeing. However, while married individuals generally exhibit higher life expectancy, the ordering among other marital statuses (never married, divorced, widowed) can vary by gender and [...] Read more.

It has been proven that marital status affects health outcomes, with marriage often linked to greater longevity and wellbeing. However, while married individuals generally exhibit higher life expectancy, the ordering among other marital statuses (never married, divorced, widowed) can vary by gender and socio-cultural context. This study examines the evolving relationship between marital status and life expectancy in Greece over a 30-year period (1991–2021). Utilizing Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data specifically commissioned for this research, it constructs life tables by marital status, incorporating, for the first time in Greece, life tables for those in civil partnerships for 2021. While life expectancy improved across all marital statuses, married individuals consistently had the highest longevity, whereas those in civil partnerships are expected to live less than married individuals. Furthermore, widowers experienced a substantial increase in life expectancy, while by 2021, divorced males had the lowest life expectancy among men and divorced females showed the highest mortality rates at older ages among women. The relative position of never-married individuals improved over the period. Never-married women generally outlived never-married men, with this gap widening for the divorced. The most compelling finding is that the difference in mortality among family status categories appears to have diminished over time in Greece. Full article

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12 pages, 252 KB

Open AccessArticle

Governance Strategies in a Global Context from a Gender Perspective: Narratives of Migrant Women

by Teresa Terrón-Caro, Rocío Cárdenas-Rodríguez and Fabiola Ortega-de-Mora

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 103; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040103 - 1 Oct 2025

Viewed by 255

Abstract

In recent decades, migratory processes have experienced growing feminization, with women accounting for about 50% of international migrations. However, they are not always recognized as social actors with the capacity for agency—that is, as subjects in decision-making, the formulation of proposals, and transformation [...] Read more.

In recent decades, migratory processes have experienced growing feminization, with women accounting for about 50% of international migrations. However, they are not always recognized as social actors with the capacity for agency—that is, as subjects in decision-making, the formulation of proposals, and transformation both in their lives and in those of the societies in which they participate. This article, from a critical and gender perspective, analyzes the narratives of migrant women interviewed in Spain within the framework of two research projects carried out during the period between 2021 and 2023. Through a qualitative analysis of their resistance strategies and demands, a series of comprehensive policy recommendations are proposed, which are aimed at providing theoretical and practical tools that would allow us to move towards more just and equitable societies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tracing Roots, Shaping Futures: The History of Social Movements and Perspectives (Feminist, Indigenous, Masculinity, Political, Human Rights and Social Policy), Experiential Community Development, Resilience and Social and Gender Justice)

8 pages, 214 KB

Open AccessArticle

Music and Song: Tom Munnelly’s View of Ownership

by Therese Smith

Genealogy 2025, 9(4), 102; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9040102 - 1 Oct 2025

Viewed by 219

Abstract

In the tradition of Irish traditional music, ownership of music is vague and sometimes contested. Tunes are not generally associated with a “composer”, but, if identified with anyone at all, are generally associated with the person most well-known for performing them, or a [...] Read more.

In the tradition of Irish traditional music, ownership of music is vague and sometimes contested. Tunes are not generally associated with a “composer”, but, if identified with anyone at all, are generally associated with the person most well-known for performing them, or a person identified with a tune, or a particular version thereof. This article will examine some of the songs and performances/singers in the collection of the late Tom Munnelly (1944–2007), collector of the most extensive collection of English-language songs in Ireland and not only an avid collector but also a very talented singer. Of primary concern will be Tom Munnelly’s attitude to song and its ownership, shedding light on a field long contested and much debated. Drawing on Tom Munnelly’s field recordings of specific songs, the article will endeavour to shed fresh light on how traditional music in Ireland is viewed. Full article

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Genealogy, Volume 9, Issue 4 (December 2025) – 12 articles

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