Elusive Culture
Product details
- ISBN 9780791444825
- Weight: 281g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 17 Feb 2000
- Publisher: State University of New York Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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A fascinating ethnographic study of a high school in Toronto, with surprising insights into how these adolescents identify themselves in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality.
"At one point I thought of myself as a Black person and that limits me because as a Black person there are things that I am suppose[d] to be. So I had to shed that. I am not just Black. I am a woman, and that limits me as well. [But,]…if I think that I am limited then I don't dare risk anything or try to do anything. So 'bust' being Black and 'bust' being a woman…." - Margaret, a student at Maple Heights
Elusive Culture is a fascinating ethnographic study of youth engaged in a passionate quest for identity in global times. It explores questions of identity and culture at a Toronto high school, a space wherein teachers and students alike shift and slide in relation to the policies and practices of anti-racism, multiculturalism, and the competing discourses of identity. Drawing on personal observations, conversations with students and teachers, experimental work in drama, use of video, and student writings, Yon develops a complex view of identity and culture, one attuned to the ambivalent and contradictory processes of everyday life.
Daniel A. Yon is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at York University in Toronto.
