Title : Close Encounters of an Inner Asian Kind: Tibetan-Muslim co-existence and conflict in Tibet past and present
Working Paper No : 68 (series 1)
Author(s) : Andrew Fischer
Date : September 2005
[PDF]
Abstract:
Drawing from the case of
Tibetan-Muslim relations from seventh century contact to present
Tibetan boycott campaigns against Muslims in Northeast Tibet (Amdo),
this paper questions the relevance of the mainstream theoretical
disputes on ethnic conflict, i.e. primordialism,
instrumentalism, constructivism and so forth, all of which
primarily seek to identify the primary causes or origins of
conflict. Most ethnic conflicts, together with other forms of
ethnic co-existence including cooperation, contain elements of
all these theoretical perspectives, which is evident in the case
of Tibetan-Muslim relations presented here. Therefore, a focus
on issues of primary causes or origins is not particularly
insightful, nor does it help to explain why a particular
conflictive trajectory supersedes a more cooperative trajectory.
As an alternative, this paper suggests a focus on processual
factors, such as exclusion, inclusion and the impulse for social
protection, which shape or guide the evolution of conflictive
relationships, whether these be deemed of a primordial or other
nature. Accordingly, the commonalities that tie together the
trends of modern ethnic conflict are not found in the origins or
primary causes of conflict, but rather, in the underlying forces
of dislocation and relocation that are fundamental to modern
transformations and capitalism, and which shape the patterns of
exclusion and the possible channels for inclusion and social
protection.