Genealogy

22 pages, 1553 KB

Open AccessArticle

From Displacement to Cultural Security: Reconstructing the Conditions for Hmong Language Continuity

by Caroline Paaj Zaub Thao

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 135; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040135 - 9 Sep 2026

The forced displacement of Hmong communities following the Secret War in Laos in 1975 transformed the conditions under which Hmong language and cultural knowledge were transmitted from one generation to the next. Subsequent migration and resettlement dispersed Hmong communities across the globe, particularly [...] Read more.

The forced displacement of Hmong communities following the Secret War in Laos in 1975 transformed the conditions under which Hmong language and cultural knowledge were transmitted from one generation to the next. Subsequent migration and resettlement dispersed Hmong communities across the globe, particularly in the United States. Although research has documented language shift, revitalization efforts, intergenerational learning, and educational responses, less attention has been given to the individuals who sustain Hmong language continuity and the conditions that make this continuity possible. Drawing on a portraiture study of six Hmong cultural practitioners in California and Minnesota, this article asks: Who sustains Hmong language continuity after displacement, and what makes continuity possible? Across portrait narratives, practitioners sustained Hmong language and cultural knowledge through everyday cultural labor, relationships, mentorship, ceremonial practice, documentation, interpretation, and adaptation. Their pathways into cultural practice differed, yet their work also created conditions through which others could access, learn, participate in, and carry cultural knowledge forward. This work is conceptualized as condition-making, the ongoing and deliberate cultural labor through which practitioners keep Hmong language and cultural knowledge available and meaningful beyond isolated opportunities for cultural participation. By shifting attention from opportunities to conditions, this article broadens understandings of intergenerational language continuity in diasporic communities, expands recognition of who can be considered a Hmong language and cultural practitioner, and demonstrates how culturally grounded reconstruction can create pathways for future practitioners. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resettling Histories: Hmong Migrations and Identity Beyond Borders)

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11 pages, 542 KB

Open AccessSystematic Review

The Genealogy of Pastoral Power: Ritualized Care and the Regulation of Gender Diversity in Botswana—A Systematic Review

by Tshenolo Jennifer Madigele

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 134; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040134 - 9 Sep 2026

Abstract

Botswana provides a setting in which to examine pastoral power. Customary authority, Christian institutions, public-health programmes, and state law have each helped to shape the social regulation of gender and sexuality. This systematic review brings together Botswana-specific scholarship on the ways care, counselling, [...] Read more.

Botswana provides a setting in which to examine pastoral power. Customary authority, Christian institutions, public-health programmes, and state law have each helped to shape the social regulation of gender and sexuality. This systematic review brings together Botswana-specific scholarship on the ways care, counselling, scriptural interpretation, and institutional support affect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and other gender- and sexually diverse people. The review followed PRISMA 2020. Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, and Google Scholar were searched from database inception to 15 May 2024, and a supplementary search of publisher sites, indexes, and citation networks was updated to 31 July 2026. Five independent sources met the eligibility criteria: one qualitative interview study, one field-informed country report, and three documentary, legal, church-historical, or biblical analyses. The CASP qualitative checklist and the JBI text-and-opinion checklist were used for design-appropriate appraisal. Across this small and varied literature, four patterns recurred: the moral authority assigned to scripture and culture; care that was conditional or incomplete; interaction among religious, health, legal, and civil-society institutions; and dialogical alternatives to exclusion. Evidence is strongest for public discourse, institutional positions, and reported counselling experiences; no included source directly observed a pastoral ritual. Religious care may offer belonging and support, but it may also carry expectations of conformity. Broader claims will require ethnographic and participatory research developed with, and responsive to, LGBTIQ+ Batswana. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Gender Roles and Identities in African Rituals and Culture)

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14 pages, 253 KB

Open AccessArticle

Exile in Ancestral Lands: A Genealogical and Theological Analysis of Displacement, Gender and Cosmology Among Basarwa Communities in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve

by Tshenolo Jennifer Madigele and John Motswai

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 133; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040133 - 9 Sep 2026

Abstract

This article asks how Basarwa communities of Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) came to be represented as populations requiring protection, development, conservation management and relocation, and what those shifts meant for land, gender and cosmological life. It presents a critical genealogical review [...] Read more.

This article asks how Basarwa communities of Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) came to be represented as populations requiring protection, development, conservation management and relocation, and what those shifts meant for land, gender and cosmological life. It presents a critical genealogical review of a purposively assembled corpus of 45 legal, policy, ethnographic, historical and theological sources. The analysis traces four formations: colonial protection, post-independence development and sedentarisation, conservation-led relocation, and rights-based recognition accompanied by administrative restriction. CKGR-specific evidence documents the loss of access to land, water, hunting and services even after important court victories. Evidence on gender is narrower. Studies of New Xade and other Botswana San communities suggest that relocation could devalue women’s foraging knowledge and reduce autonomy, but comparative research also shows that sedentarisation alone does not determine gender inequality. Missionary discourse is therefore treated as part of a longer representational archive, not as a proven direct cause of contemporary relocation policy. The article argues that “exile in ancestral lands” is best understood as an interpretive description of material and relational estrangement. A decolonial theological reading makes visible the moral and spiritual significance of land while avoiding claims that all Basarwa communities share a single cosmology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Gender Roles and Identities in African Rituals and Culture)

19 pages, 290 KB

Open AccessArticle

Beyond the Binary Code: African Ritual Epistemologies and the Design of Artificial Intelligence That Serves Women and Girls

by Vathiswa Papu-Zamxaka and Dorcas Khosa

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 132; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040132 - 9 Sep 2026

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is being adopted across African public administration; health; education and finance; and the systems concerned act on a recorded or inferred gender value before they deliver anything at all. The problem this article addresses is that the categories operating in digital [...] Read more.

Artificial intelligence is being adopted across African public administration; health; education and finance; and the systems concerned act on a recorded or inferred gender value before they deliver anything at all. The problem this article addresses is that the categories operating in digital identity registers; automated facial analysis; biometric enrolment for social grants and language technologies are binary; anatomically grounded and administratively fixed; and that this specification reached the continent as a colonial import rather than as a description of how gendered standing is actually held. The article traces the descent of that binary; recovers from one southern African site a documented account of how gendered personhood is conferred and revised; and converts that account into design requirements. The design is conceptual and genealogical, reading three corpora against one another: the ethnographic record of the Balobedu of Bolobedu in Limpopo, South Africa; principally the Krige corpus and later commentary upon it; the technical and audit literature on gender classification; and South African identification law. Yoruba and Igbo scholarship is retained for comparison. Standing at the site is shown to be conferred through office; seniority; cattle and marriage rather than read from the body; so that a woman may hold the position of husband and a queenship may pass through a line of women. Systems in current use represent none of the properties by which such standing is held; and the article specifies thirteen changes to datasets; taxonomies; interfaces and procurement through which they could do so. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Gender Roles and Identities in African Rituals and Culture)

16 pages, 569 KB

Open AccessArticle

Constructing Noble Memory Across the Atlantic: Genealogy and Legitimacy in the Villafañe Lineage (16th–17th Centuries)

by Valentina Villafañe and Jorge Hugo Villafañe

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 131; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040131 - 8 Sep 2026

Abstract

This study examines the role of genealogy in the construction of noble identity and social legitimacy through the case of the Villafañe lineage between the Kingdom of León and Spanish America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Drawing upon archival documentation, genealogical records, [...] Read more.

This study examines the role of genealogy in the construction of noble identity and social legitimacy through the case of the Villafañe lineage between the Kingdom of León and Spanish America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Drawing upon archival documentation, genealogical records, heraldic sources, and colonial evidence from León (Spain), La Rioja, Tucumán, and Córdoba (present-day Argentina), the article combines historical genealogy, social history, and Atlantic studies to reconstruct the trajectory of the lineage and its transregional networks. The findings indicate that the continuity of the Villafañe family was sustained through the interaction of documented descent, kinship alliances, municipal participation, Atlantic mobility, and the preservation of genealogical narratives that reinforced lineage identity and noble status across geographically distant settings. Migration to Spanish America did not represent a rupture with Leonese origins; rather, it facilitated the adaptation and projection of pre-existing forms of social organization and collective identity within colonial environments. The study argues that genealogy functioned simultaneously as a documentary practice and as a mechanism through which noble memory, social distinction, and historical continuity were articulated and reproduced. More broadly, the Villafañe case illustrates how family networks connected local Iberian societies with colonial elite environments, contributing to the formation and persistence of noble identities across the Atlantic world. Full article

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19 pages, 298 KB

Open AccessArticle

Batida do Gueto and the Genealogy of Descompasso: Peripheral Electronic Music and the Politics of Postcolonial Belonging in Lisbon

by Meno Del Picchia

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 130; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040130 - 8 Sep 2026

Abstract

This article analyzes the creative and social practices surrounding batida do gueto (ghetto beat), an emerging Afro-diasporic electronic music genre developed by Lisbon’s peripheral youth. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2025—including participant observation in home studios, semi-structured interviews, and digital netnography—this [...] Read more.

This article analyzes the creative and social practices surrounding batida do gueto (ghetto beat), an emerging Afro-diasporic electronic music genre developed by Lisbon’s peripheral youth. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2025—including participant observation in home studios, semi-structured interviews, and digital netnography—this study explores how young Afro-descendant DJs transform digital music production software, specifically FL Studio, into technologies of postcolonial belonging. The discussion is structured around three main dimensions: first, the emergence of the “Fox clan,” a symbolic kinship network and musical lineage built through peer-to-peer knowledge transmission; second, the analysis of home studio musicking, highlighting the emic category of descompasso (rhythmic micro-displacement) as an esthetic and identity element that encapsulates postcolonial experiences of racialization and displacement; and finally, the urban and transnational circulation of batida do gueto through parties that challenge the boundaries between peripheral neighborhoods and Lisbon’s central neighborhoods. By bringing digital musicking into dialog with contemporary debates on the Black Atlantic and the politics of belonging, this article argues that the sonic subversions embedded in the genre operate as crucial resources of contestation, allowing peripheral youth to claim spatial visibility, citizenship, and historical recognition within contemporary Portuguese society. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Race, Identities and Transnational Soundscapes)

20 pages, 314 KB

Open AccessArticle

Changing Dynamics in the Burial and Mourning Traditions in Africa: Lessons from Zimbabwe and Lesotho

by Makamohelo Malimabe, Tenson Muyambo and Paul Leshota

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 129; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040129 - 8 Sep 2026

Abstract

Burial and mourning practices in Africa have long been embedded in deeply rooted cultural, spiritual and communal value systems. However, these traditions are undergoing significant transformation through modernisation, urbanisation, migration, religious change and economic pressure. This study examines the changing dynamics of burial [...] Read more.

Burial and mourning practices in Africa have long been embedded in deeply rooted cultural, spiritual and communal value systems. However, these traditions are undergoing significant transformation through modernisation, urbanisation, migration, religious change and economic pressure. This study examines the changing dynamics of burial and mourning practices in Southern Africa, with particular attention to Zimbabwe and Lesotho. Drawing on qualitative insights from existing scholarship, cultural analysis and the researchers’ contextual observations, the paper explores how mourning periods, communal participation, ritual ceremonies, ancestral relations and attachment to burial land are being reconfigured rather than simply abandoned. In both countries, prominent shifts include the professionalisation and commercialisation of funerals, the influence of Pentecostal Christianity, the growing role of funeral assurance schemes and the disruption of expected rites by COVID-19. Using functionalist, symbolic interactionist and African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS) perspectives, the paper identifies a continuing tension between cultural identity and contemporary practical realities. It argues that some indigenous practices have weakened, while others have been adapted or hybridised into new cultural forms. The comparison contributes to debates on cultural continuity, genealogy, identity and social change by showing how communities preserve the social and spiritual functions of mourning even when its outward forms change. The paper is positioned primarily within cultural studies, specifically the interdisciplinary study of religion, ritual and social change. Among the factors considered, Pentecostal reinterpretation and ritual substitution, the professionalisation and commodification of funerals, and migration, together with pressure on burial land, appear most influential. COVID-19 is retained as a historically bounded accelerator rather than the dominant continuing force. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Critical Reflections on the Erosion of African Burial and Mourning Traditions)

13 pages, 295 KB

Open AccessArticle

Brother Betraying Brother: Obadiah, Xenophobia and the Politics of Space in Contemporary South Africa

by Canisius Mwandayi

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 128; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040128 - 8 Sep 2026

Abstract

Post-apartheid South Africa continues to grapple with a paradox. Constitutionally, the country is founded on values of human dignity, equality and the advancement of human rights. Socially and politically, however, the country has witnessed recurrent episodes of intra-communal violence, particularly directed at foreign [...] Read more.

Post-apartheid South Africa continues to grapple with a paradox. Constitutionally, the country is founded on values of human dignity, equality and the advancement of human rights. Socially and politically, however, the country has witnessed recurrent episodes of intra-communal violence, particularly directed at foreign nationals and marginalized groups within its own borders. While scholarship on themes such as justice, Ubuntu, reconciliation and liberation is well developed in South African theology, there remains a need to engage biblical texts that directly address brotherhood betrayal within the rainbow of nations. The Book of Obadiah provides such a resource. Using historical-critical, literary and intertextual exegesis, African biblical hermeneutics and theological reflection, the study seeks to find how Obadiah can be used both as a critique and source of hope in the South African context. The main research question guiding this study is: How can a contextual African reading of Obadiah contribute to theological and ethical reflection on community violence and restoration in contemporary South Africa? From the findings, it is quite clear that the prophetic text resonates with current realities in South Africa, including nationalist gloating, politics of space and xenophobic violence. In light of the message in Obadiah, the study recommends that South Africa needs to rethink kinship, restitution and pan-African solidarity. Just as Edom forgot its shared womb with Jacob, South Africa risks forgetting the assistance it received from fellow African states. The politics of space demands memory work. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Transnational Genealogies: The Politics of Space, Migration, and Identity in Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts)

18 pages, 1120 KB

Open AccessReview

Antigypsyism and Compulsory Education in Catalonia: A Scoping Review

by Manuela Fernández Ruiz

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 127; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040127 - 7 Sep 2026

Abstract

This article presents a scoping review of antigypsyism in compulsory education, with particular attention to the Catalan context. Its aim is to map the state of knowledge, identify the main mechanisms through which structural racism against Roma people is reproduced in education, and [...] Read more.

This article presents a scoping review of antigypsyism in compulsory education, with particular attention to the Catalan context. Its aim is to map the state of knowledge, identify the main mechanisms through which structural racism against Roma people is reproduced in education, and identify existing gaps in the research. Following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, of the 282 records initially identified across five databases, 48 academic studies and institutional sources meeting the inclusion criteria were analysed. The conceptual framework brings together the definition proposed by the Alliance Against Antigypsyism with critical pedagogy, critical communicative methodology, critical race theory, and intersectionality. The analysis is organised around four levels: discourse, pedagogical practices, school organisation, and educational outcomes. The findings show that educational antigypsyism is a structural phenomenon, with both explicit and implicit manifestations, which produces profound gaps in achievement, graduation, and academic continuity. Its most persistent expressions are school segregation, low teacher expectations, and curricular invisibility. In Catalonia, despite an advanced legal framework, specific research remains virtually non-existent. These findings indicate that educational antigypsyism must be addressed as embedded structural racism, requiring Catalonia-specific research and policies that move beyond deficit-based thinking and recognise Roma agency. Full article

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16 pages, 663 KB

Open AccessArticle

Overlap and Obstacles in Decision-Making Across Scientific, Indigenous and Local Knowledge Systems

by Johannes Persson and Anna Kvist

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 126; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040126 - 5 Sep 2026

Abstract

In this exploratory review and conceptual analysis, we examine cases and debates in the theoretical literature that highlight biodiversity and conservation decision-making contexts in which knowledge systems, and their interactions or lack thereof, are central concerns. A review of scientific articles indexed in [...] Read more.

In this exploratory review and conceptual analysis, we examine cases and debates in the theoretical literature that highlight biodiversity and conservation decision-making contexts in which knowledge systems, and their interactions or lack thereof, are central concerns. A review of scientific articles indexed in the Web of Science reveals a notable trend in the conservation literature: the growing prominence of knowledge systems, particularly Indigenous knowledge systems. Framing knowledge as systems, we suggest, draws attention to both differences and similarities among scientific, Indigenous, and local forms of knowledge. Such discussions are increasingly common in the literature, including recent IPCC and IPBES reports. Against this backdrop, the present paper explores the potential role of multiple knowledge systems in identifying and, where possible, addressing knowledge gaps relevant to biodiversity conservation and environmental decision-making. The paper distinguishes between epistemic and non-epistemic motivations for including different knowledge systems and offers conceptual tools for clarifying both their internal structure and the relationships through which knowledge exchange occurs. Rather than advocating full integration, we argue that selective overlap and dialogical interaction may provide more practical pathways towards inclusive and evidence-informed decision-making. By focusing on how different knowledge systems can contribute to filling specific knowledge gaps, the paper seeks to advance a more nuanced understanding of their role in conservation policy and practice. Full article

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19 pages, 288 KB

Open AccessArticle

Cultivating Family Intergenerational Encounters Through a Family–School Project on Cultural Heritage: Adults’ Voices

by Maria Papandreou and Zoe Konstantinidou

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 125; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040125 - 2 Sep 2026

Abstract

This study examined parents’ and grandparents’ perspectives on intergenerational interactions within an innovative school–family partnership in early childhood education (ECE). Drawing on sociocultural concepts of learning and a ‘more-than-parents’ approach to intergenerational learning (IGL), this research project adopted a two-way partnership perspective, encouraging [...] Read more.

This study examined parents’ and grandparents’ perspectives on intergenerational interactions within an innovative school–family partnership in early childhood education (ECE). Drawing on sociocultural concepts of learning and a ‘more-than-parents’ approach to intergenerational learning (IGL), this research project adopted a two-way partnership perspective, encouraging children and their family members to explore and reconstruct local cultural heritage sites together by utilising their lived experiences and cultural resources. A qualitative case study approach was employed, with data derived from an online open-ended questionnaire completed by 20 adult participants (i.e., 14 parents and six grandparents). Inductive thematic analysis revealed five core themes: (a) acknowledging children as capable agents; (b) identifying children’s learning; (c) adults as learners; (d) shared activities as a space for fostering family connection; and (e) challenges and suggestions for future implementation. The findings demonstrate that the shared exploration of cultural heritage can enhance mutual learning and foster vivid intergenerational communication, thereby strengthening family relationships. By observing the active role of young learners in intergenerational activities, participants acknowledged capabilities that they had previously overlooked in their children and/or grandchildren. However, challenges relating to time constraints, available resources and practical issues suggest that schools need to provide families with tailored information about such initiatives. Overall, this study emphasises the pivotal role of early childhood education in fostering IGL through reciprocal school–family partnerships. Full article

28 pages, 320 KB

Open AccessArticle

Queer Hmong American Genealogies: Belonging, Responsibility, and Cultural Continuity in the Diaspora

by Pa Nhia Xiong and Chali Lee

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 124; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040124 - 2 Sep 2026

Abstract

This article examines queer Hmong identity and cultural change in the United States over the past fifty years, a period shaped by refugee resettlement, intergenerational negotiation, and evolving family practice. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with ten queer Hmong individuals and analyzing the findings [...] Read more.

This article examines queer Hmong identity and cultural change in the United States over the past fifty years, a period shaped by refugee resettlement, intergenerational negotiation, and evolving family practice. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with ten queer Hmong individuals and analyzing the findings through two frameworks centering Hmong epistemologies, this article argues that queer Hmong belonging is negotiated through placement: the positioning of queer Hmong children in Hmong genealogical structures. Participants describe acceptance not only through “coming out” or verbal acceptance, but through everyday acts of care, inclusion, and protection that sustain family life. By centering acceptance, obligation, and sacrifice, this article reframes queerness as an act of cultural continuity emerging through intergenerational care, mutual accommodation, and shared responsibility, rather than through the rejection of Hmong tradition. These findings show how Hmong parents and queer children actively negotiate shifting norms while reconfiguring belonging, family cohesion, and cultural responsibility within the diaspora. In doing so, this article contributes to critical Hmong studies, queer of color critique, education, and social work by offering a framework for understanding queer identity formation that is grounded in Hmong genealogical and epistemological terms, rather than measured against Western models of visibility and disclosure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resettling Histories: Hmong Migrations and Identity Beyond Borders)

20 pages, 295 KB

Open AccessArticle

Competing Faces of Citizenship Beyond Naturalization: Hmong Refugees and the Politics of Recognition in the United States After the Vietnam War

by Karen Sasakura

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 123; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040123 - 1 Sep 2026

Abstract

This paper explores the historical relationship between refugee administration and refugees’ negotiations over citizenship through an analysis of Hmong refugees’ experiences in the United States. During the Vietnam War, approximately 50,000 Hmong soldiers were mobilized into the CIA-backed guerrilla unit as part of [...] Read more.

This paper explores the historical relationship between refugee administration and refugees’ negotiations over citizenship through an analysis of Hmong refugees’ experiences in the United States. During the Vietnam War, approximately 50,000 Hmong soldiers were mobilized into the CIA-backed guerrilla unit as part of US anti-communist operations. Following the communist victory in 1975, Hmong refugees from Laos fled to Thailand and were later resettled in the United States. Previous scholarship primarily focused on either the legal dimension of Hmong naturalization or their process of Americanization. Studies on refugee incorporation and military naturalization have likewise interpreted citizenship as a legal status granted by the state. However, recognition as citizens extends beyond a legal membership unilaterally conferred by the nation-state. This article instead inquires how Hmong refugees in the United States negotiated over competing forms of citizenship and social recognition after the Secret War, and how the US government selectively incorporated those claims through militarized and other conditional forms of inclusion. To answer these questions, this paper approaches citizenship as a contested arena negotiated by the state and refugees themselves. Integrating legal and social history, the analysis examines both the top-down citizenship framework promoted through the Hmong Veterans’ Naturalization Act and the bottom-up citizenship practices advanced by Hmong communities. Drawing on archival materials ranging from Congressional records to local organizational documents in Minnesota, this study shows that veterans’ organizations set the basis of belonging on their wartime sacrifice, women’s and community organizations emphasized legal protection and social reproduction, and exile organizations sustained attachments across multiple homelands. This research also demonstrates that the United States eventually recognized Hmong belonging primarily through narratives of military loyalty and geopolitical usefulness. Ultimately, this research enriches the historiography of broader immigration, citizenship, and military studies by reconceptualizing refugee incorporation as a contested process of recognition rather than a linear path to national membership, while relativizing contemporary worldviews surrounding refugee protection, immigrant soldiers, and military naturalization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resettling Histories: Hmong Migrations and Identity Beyond Borders)

12 pages, 572 KB

Open AccessArticle

South Asian Diasporic Music and the Performance of Race

by Varshini Narayanan

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040122 - 1 Sep 2026

Abstract

In this article, I analyze white American performances of South Asian music as concurrent performances of racial identity. I deploy a performance studies perspective that treats the visible and audible manifestations of race as performative agents in the manufacturing of racial structures. Scholars [...] Read more.

In this article, I analyze white American performances of South Asian music as concurrent performances of racial identity. I deploy a performance studies perspective that treats the visible and audible manifestations of race as performative agents in the manufacturing of racial structures. Scholars of interracial performance such as Philip Deloria, Eric Lott, and E. Patrick Johnson have long examined the ways white Americans have used the traditional art forms of ethnic Others as a means of understanding their own whiteness in silhouette. Likewise, I argue here that the performance and consumption of Hindustani music in its American diasporic context serves as a sort of funhouse mirror, forcing white practitioners and spectators to confront their own Orientalizing impulses and thereby affording them the opportunity to do whiteness differently. This article is structured in two parts. The first follows ethnographic interviews with a white American sitar player across his interactions with South Asian collaborators and audiences; the second reverses this gaze, this time analyzing a South Asian tabla player’s performance before a white Euro-American audience. I demonstrate the ways the question of authenticity generates a productive anxiety in white practitioners and consumers of South Asian music, one that ultimately leads them to perform their whiteness differently before the brown gaze. In calling this a “performance” of whiteness, I mean that these cross-cultural transgressions go beyond making whiteness visible, as Lott and Deloria suggest, towards actually producing a different kind of whiteness, one that is in dialogue with the perspective and demands of the non-white Other. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Race, Identities and Transnational Soundscapes)

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17 pages, 266 KB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding Struggles About Material Religious Forms in Terms of Resonance and Loss

by Christoph Baumgartner

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 121; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040121 - 1 Sep 2026

Abstract

This article examines emotional and practical responses to the damaging, demolition, or repurposing of church buildings in contemporary Western Europe. Drawing on research on the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and the repurposing of a neighborhood church in Amsterdam, it explores why [...] Read more.

This article examines emotional and practical responses to the damaging, demolition, or repurposing of church buildings in contemporary Western Europe. Drawing on research on the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and the repurposing of a neighborhood church in Amsterdam, it explores why even individuals who do not, or no longer, identify as Christians may experience such developments as profound losses. Using Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance and Andreas Reckwitz’s theory of loss, I argue that culturalized religious forms can acquire ethical significance because they become part of the social and material world through which individuals develop their practical self-understanding. This perspective helps explain experiences of belonging, resonance, and loss associated with Christian material forms. However, I also argue that such experiences do not by themselves justify preservation politics or the privileged status of historically dominant religious traditions. The article therefore combines an interpretation of attachments to culturalized Christian forms with a critical reflection on their political ambivalence in contemporary religiously diverse democratic societies committed to political equality and freedom of religion or belief. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Secularism and Race-Religion Entanglements)

14 pages, 9842 KB

Open AccessArticle

Reproductive Behavior of the Greek Population in the Interwar Period: Regional Variations and Impact of Refugee Integration

by Vasilis S. Gavalas

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040120 - 1 Sep 2026

Abstract

The 1920s are often described by demographers as a period of “population depression” across Europe. By the end of the decade, many Western and Northern European countries were approaching or had already fallen below replacement level fertility for the first time in recorded [...] Read more.

The 1920s are often described by demographers as a period of “population depression” across Europe. By the end of the decade, many Western and Northern European countries were approaching or had already fallen below replacement level fertility for the first time in recorded history. Greece provides a distinct contrast to the Western European trend, recording volatile but generally ascending fertility rates during the 1920s. This rise in fertility is often attributed to the arrival of over 1.2 million Greek refugees from Asia Minor, which presumably exhibited more prolific reproductive behavior than the native population. This paper examines the reproductive behavior of the Greek population by geographical department and refugee status (refugees and natives), employing established methods of historical demography to overcome interwar data limitations. The findings reveal that the observed rise in fertility was driven both by an increase in marital fecundity and by a shift in nuptiality. The shift in marriage patterns bolstered the Total Fertility Rates (TFRs), while the Total Marital Fertility Rates (TMFRs) followed a proportionally lower increase. Moreover, the regional analysis reveals a finding previously unaddressed in the relevant literature: in the early 1920s, fertility in certain Greek regions had already dropped below replacement level, even though the national average remained above it. These spatial disparities underscore that interwar Greece was a complex demographic mosaic of cultural and social identities, particularly across territories recently annexed into the modern Greek state. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Population Pathways: Intergenerational Migration and Settlement Patterns)

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21 pages, 340 KB

Open AccessArticle

(Un)Fair Play? Secularism as a Mode of Racialised Governance in French Sports

by Nadia Kiwan

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 119; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040119 - 1 Sep 2026

Abstract

This article examines how laïcité (secularism) discourse regarding the need for neutrality in sport acts as an enabler of racialised governance in contemporary France. I first provide a brief contextual discussion of Republican political culture as a ‘perpetual civilising mission’, which is founded [...] Read more.

This article examines how laïcité (secularism) discourse regarding the need for neutrality in sport acts as an enabler of racialised governance in contemporary France. I first provide a brief contextual discussion of Republican political culture as a ‘perpetual civilising mission’, which is founded on an abstract universalist framing of the concepts of equality and liberty. The article subsequently discusses how the mobilisation of what I call a ‘civilising secularism’ in contemporary France has shifted from a primary fixation on schools, universities and the workplace to sports and sporting practices, thus illustrating how its ‘civilising’ work is never done. However, in the face of sustained efforts to mobilise laïcité as a civilising concept, I also demonstrate how Muslim women are resisting secularist calls for ‘neutrality’ through collective action against their exclusion, notably via campaign groups such as Les Hijabeuses and Basket Pour Toutes. Furthermore, I argue that their resistance needs to be understood not only empirically but also conceptually. My analysis of these two collective campaigns therefore illustrates how they are actively contributing to a re-evaluation of Republican conceptions of equality and liberty. I draw on the work of Étienne Balibar regarding ‘equaliberty’ in order to analyse the campaigns of Les Hijabeuses and Basket Pour Toutes before proposing an extension to his concept that more fully reflects their activism. I propose the concept of ‘sororal equaliberty’ to capture this contribution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Secularism and Race-Religion Entanglements)

22 pages, 353 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Political Theology of Germany’s Staatsräson: Exception, Enmity, and the Exposure of the Liberal Order

by Schirin Amir-Moazami

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040118 - 1 Sep 2026

Abstract

Germany’s unconditional support of Israel is encapsulated in the dictum “Israel’s security is Germany’s raison d’état” (Staatsräson). Shaped after World War II and formally articulated by Angela Merkel in her speech at the Knesset in 2008, the confession to Staatsräson has [...] Read more.

Germany’s unconditional support of Israel is encapsulated in the dictum “Israel’s security is Germany’s raison d’état” (Staatsräson). Shaped after World War II and formally articulated by Angela Merkel in her speech at the Knesset in 2008, the confession to Staatsräson has been intensified amid Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, following the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023. This article conceptualizes the consolidation of this extra- and paralegal doctrine through the lens of Carl Schmitt’s political theology. A politico-theological approach lays bare how modern sovereignty rearticulates divine attributes like omnipotence, supremacy and the power of decision in a secularized form at the heart of liberal constitutional orders. First, the article argues that Staatsräson operates through the selective displacement of legal constraints by subordinating specific international and constitutional norms to a politico-theologically defined superior political commitment. Second, building on the Schmittian premise that the sovereignty of decision is inseparable from the sovereignty of distinction, the article examines how the German–Israeli bond of “friends” is constituted through the designation of enemies. Friend–enemy distinctions appear on the performative level in speeches of state representatives who ritually confess Staatsräson, independently from Israel’s atrocious actions. Moreover, they materialize in directive documents like resolutions or modifications of punitive or citizenship law. In the third step, the paper therefore foregrounds the distinctly racializing components of Staatsräson in its disproportionate target of minoritized populations—above all Palestinians, Arabs, and/or Muslims, as well as anti-Zionist Jews—as threats to the political community. Finally, the article suggests moving beyond conventional framings of Staatsräson solely as a response to the Holocaust by situating it within a longer European genealogy of political–theological friend–enemy distinctions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Secularism and Race-Religion Entanglements)

22 pages, 321 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Reflexive Formation of Fatherhood Beliefs: How Men Construct Ideals of Fatherhood Through Experience and Social Context

by Amy L. M. Hofmeier, Judy A. Pickard, Annaleise S. Mitchell, Alixandra Risi, Bevan Nicholas and Jane S. Herbert

Genealogy 2026, 10(4), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy10040117 - 28 Aug 2026

Abstract

Existing research highlights continuity across generations in paternal practices and attitudes, often rooted in men’s experiences of being fathered. The psychological processes through which men translate these early experiences into beliefs about fatherhood have received little attention. Understanding how men develop beliefs about [...] Read more.

Existing research highlights continuity across generations in paternal practices and attitudes, often rooted in men’s experiences of being fathered. The psychological processes through which men translate these early experiences into beliefs about fatherhood have received little attention. Understanding how men develop beliefs about fatherhood may help explain the continuity and change in fathering practices across generations. Using reflexive modernisation as a lens, this study examines how men construct beliefs about fatherhood, with particular attention to their experiences of being fathered and the socio-cultural context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve Australian men (M = 39 years) with varied relationships to fatherhood: non-fathers (n = 6), fathers (n = 3) and grandfathers (n = 3). Participants reflected on their early experiences of being fathered, current beliefs towards fatherhood and intended or current fathering behaviour. Reflexive thematic analysis resulted in four themes, namely: (1) Retrospective meaning-making of fathering experiences, (2) Negotiating fatherhood within a changing landscape, (3) The selective curation of beliefs, and (4) Beliefs as an ongoing project: content and tensions. The analysis suggests that belief formation is an ongoing, active and reflexive process responsive to the social context, reflected in men’s use of evaluation, comparison, negotiation and selective curation to build individualised beliefs about fatherhood. Findings also highlight how social structures sustain traditional norms and inhibit the translation of egalitarian ideals into reality. These findings extend existing understandings of fatherhood beliefs from what shapes them to how they are formed and negotiated, with implications for fatherhood interventions and practice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fatherhood, Memory, and Identity)

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