BENGALIS IN AMERICA: RELATIONSHIP, AFFECT, PERSON, AND SELF (IDENTITY, ETHNICITY)

Mainly English-speaking professionals, yet from a region and religions (Islam, Hinduism) little known to Americans, Bangladeshis and Indian Bengalis in the United States challenge our notions about pluralism. The question: How do Bengalis organize and experience their lives here? The theoretical focus is personal identity (distinguished from both ethnic identity and personality); central constructs are "person" and "self.". During ethnographic fieldwork in the United States (eighteen months) and in Bengal (three months), three methods were used: family interviews; participant observation at emigrant Bengalis' community events: intensive family visits. Discourse was recorded. Analysis centers on: three domains of life (public, social, private) seen essential for human beings; self-reflective stories of individuals with different social networks. In each domain, attention focuses on social relations and identifications, and on collective and individual discourse. While most Bengalis participate in American public life (workplaces, neighborhoods, voluntary groups), emerging relationships and meanings are limited by both American and Bengali understandings and practices. Here, Bengalis define differences between themselves and Americans. Social life for most Bengalis is in their own community and among friends. Indian and Bangladeshi organizations provide important social occasions for families, but scarcely for singles or newcomers. Here, each collectivity defines itself vis-a-vis the other. Private life centers in "family" and "household," each comprising distinctive relationships, responsibilities, and affects. Here, Bengalis define themselves as persons. The most "enclaved" Bengalis' identities are least conflicted; individuals with heterogenous networks often experience themselves split between "person" and "self." Internationally joint families stay intact for generations through "family-based projects and meanings.". The findings question assertions about links between: personal and social identities; status and network-type. The power of American cultural definitions is evident. Emigrant Bengali collectivities are better understood as extensions of family networks than as ethnic groups; being a "certain sort of person" is more salient than maintenance of Bengali cultural identifiers. Bengalis are constrained both by their explicit notions about moral persons, and by the implicit structure of Bengali personhood and selfhood. The constructs "person" and "self" and an actor-centered methodology generate new research questions about: South Asian persons; United States pluralism; American culture and persons.