Paper short abstract:

A theoretical and empirical introduction to the circulation of issues and arguments on contested ethnic representations. What makes some themes acceptable in one historical context, and contested in another?

Paper long abstract:

Both in recent and in historical times, many controversies have arisen on the admissibility of stereotyped caricatures and of certain ritual practices. Caricatures in various forms like making fun and mocking the other referred to as undesirable, in the past were necessary part of keeping the other in the proper place, it was a tool of maintaining social order justified by hierarchy and society. On the other hand they could play with the forbidden and unmentionable. Some former easy targets (ethnic and occupational groups, betrayal, women, etc.), have become restricted in character now. These debates play a role in identity politics, creating and reinforcing the boundaries between ethnic insiders and outsiders. From a historical perspective, what seems intolerable now, was used freely in other times. What provokes this change of perspective? What human rights, 'tradition', are invoked by contestants to try to decide these issues?