CULTURAL ASSIMILATION AND INTERNAL CHANGES IN DIASPORIC RAKHAIN PEOPLES OF PATUAKHALI DISTRICT OF BANGLADESH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58885/ijssh.v7i1.10.siKeywords:
Rakhain peoples, cultural assimilation, cultural and ethnic study, diaspora study, Bangladeshi tribal community.Abstract
The Rakhains are an ethnic group of diasporic peoples currently living in different parts of Bangladesh. Following their exodus in 1784, they formed enclaves of settlements in Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong Hill-tracts, Noakhali, Patuakhali and Barguna. This paper scrutinizes how cultural assimilation has impacted on the lifestyles of the diasporic Rakhain communities living in Patuakhali, a district in the Southern region of Bangladesh; and it also demonstrates how this assimilation has brought in internal cultural changes among the Rakhain peoples. Methods of analyses of this research include conducting interviews of Rakhain headsmen, conducting library based research and analyzing news articles and relevant audio-visual discourses. Results of data and analyses show that the Rakhain peoples have faced difficulties in retaining cultural integrity despite their deliberate attempts, and they have undergone a degree of cultural changes in the recent decades. This paper finds that unwelcoming neighborhoods, lack of education, financial insolvency and disproportionately low representation in the local government are the principal reasons behind these changes.
References
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (1998). Post-colonial studies: The key concepts. New York: Routledge.
Axelrod, R. (1997). The Dissemination of Culture: A Model with Local Convergence and Global Polarization. The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 41(2), 203-226. Retrieved January 9, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/174371
Bloom, Harold (2003). Robert Frost. Infobase Publishing. p.12
Charney, M. W. (2005). Buddhism in Arakan: Theories and Historiography of the Religious Basis of Ethnonyms, The Forgotten Kingdom of Arakan: A Public Seminar on the People of Present-Day Arakan State of Myanmar. Bangkok, Thailand, 23 November 2005.
En.banglapedia.org. (2018). Rakhain, The - Banglapedia. [Online] Available at: http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Rakhain,_The [Accessed 19 Jul. 2018].
Ferraro, Gary P. (1994). The Cultural Dimension of International Business. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Friedkin, N. E., and E. C. Johnsen. (1990). Social influence and opinion. Journal of Mathematical Sociology 25:193-205.
Gordon, M. (1964). Assimilation in American life: The role of race, religion, and national origins. New York: Oxford University Press.
Keefe, S. E., & Padilla, A. M. (1987). Chicano ethnicity. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
Majid, M. (2005). The Rakhaines: aborigines in Bangladesh. Dhaka: Mowla Brothers.
Minority Rights Group. (2019). Bangladesh - Minority Rights Group. [Online] Available at: https://minorityrights.org/country/bangladesh/ [Accessed 9 January 2021].
Parisi, D., Cecconi, F., & Natale, F. (2003). Cultural Change in Spatial Environments: The Role of Cultural Assimilation and Internal Changes in Cultures. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 47(2), 163–179. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002702251025
Sheffer, Gabriel, (ed.), (1986). Modern Diasporas in International Politics, London and Sydney: Croom Helm.
Thousands of Rakhine people left country. (2015, September 2). Retrieved from https://www.thedailystar.net/city/thousands-rakhine-people-left-country-136513
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
