Creative Dissonance: Performance of Ethnicity in Banal Spaces
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/1913-5874/37329Abstract
This article analyzes material culture and spatial behavior of storeowners and customers in two South Asian grocery stores in Berkeley, CA in order to argue that the social construction of ethnicity is often inflected by the social and spatial circumstances of individuals and groups who interact inside these places. Order and clutter within these stores are put forth as embodied forms of spatial knowledge that influence the way individuals experience and reproduce peoplehood. Certain communicative and representational ways-of-being in this world—like theatrical performances—frame such experiences. The knowledge of South Asian-ness produced as a result of operating within the immigrant cultural landscape can be varied. In order to decipher such spatial orders, this article draws on data from participant observation and interviews with storeowners and customers, as well as spatial and material culture analyses of the two South Asian grocery stores.
References
Beasley, Ellen. The Corner Store: An American Tradition, Galveston Style (Washington, D.C.: National Building Museum, 1999).
“Berkeley International Food Festival: Travel the World Without Leaving the Bay Area,” Berkeley City Council District 2 News. 2007. 23 Jan. 2008 http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/council2/BerkeleyInternationFoodFestival2007.htm.
Bonus, Rick. Locating Filipino Americans: Ethnicity and the Cultural Politics of Space. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000.
Bowman, Catherine. “Whole Indian Access: Shiva Statues Join Saris and Spice on Berkeley’s University Avenue.” San Francisco Chronicle 17 Oct. 1997, Sec. EB: 1-2.
Brubaker, Rogers, Margit Feischmidt, Jon Fox, and Liana Grancea. Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006.
City of Berkeley. “APN# 057 201602000; USNG# 10SEG 63791 91750.” Parcel Conditions Report, Building Permit History. 1808, 1814 University Avenue. Mar. 2008. 12 June 2009. http://map.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ppop/.
Cooper, J.E. “Sari-Street: University Avenue Offers Arcade of Indian Shops.” The Daily Californian 27 Aug. 1986: 1, 3.
Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1973.
Green, William R. The Retail Store: Design and Construction. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1986.
Interview with A/sh997, Berkeley, 19 March 1997.
Interview with C/St997. 7 Mar. 1997. (name changed for privacy)
Interview with D/Sk996. 27 Mar. 1996.
Jenny K. “Milan International.” Yelp. Real People Real Reviews. 17 Mar. 2007. June 12 2009 http://www.yelp.com/biz/milan-international-berkeley.
Khandelwal, Madhulika S. “Indian Immigrants in Queens, New York City.” In Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora, edited by Peter van der Veer, 178-196. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995.
Khanna, Kirpal. Personal interview.10 Jan. 1997.
Koos, David R. “South Asians in the Garment Industry: A Preliminary Study.” South Asia Bulletin 11 (1982): 59-67.
Light, Ivan H. Ethnic Enterprise in America: Business and Welfare among Chinese, Japanese, and Blacks. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
Light, Ivan H., and Edna Bonacich. Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Koreans in Los Angeles, 1965-1982. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Lim, Renato. “East Indian Business Flourish on University Avenue.” The Daily Californian 26 Apr. (1990): 1, 9.
Ong, Paul, Edna Bonacich, and Lucie Cheng. The New Asian Immigration in Los Angeles and Global Restructuring. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994).
Rabi’a M.“Milan International.” Yelp. Real People Real Reviews. 10 Nov. 2008. 12 June 2009. http://www.yelp.com/biz/milan-international-berkeley.
Sen, Arijit. “Ethnicity in the City: Reading Representations of Cultural Difference in Indian Storefronts.” City, Space + Globalization: An International Perspective. Proceedings of an International Symposium. Ed. Hemlata C. Dandekar. Ann Arbor, MI: College of Architecture and Urban Planning, 1998. 132-35.
Sen, Arijit. “Global Cultures in Local Economies: Case Study of Ethnic Fast Food Restaurants.” Seeing the City: Visionaries on the Margin. Proc. of the 96th ACSA Annual Conf., 27-28 March 2008, Houston, Texas. Eds. Dietmar Froehlich and Michaele Pride. Washington, D.C.: ACSA Press, 2008, 401-13.
Westwood Bryan, and Westwood, Norman. Smaller Retail Shops. Westminster, UK: The Architectural Press, 1937.
Wolfe, Alan. “Public and Private in Theory and Practice: Some Implications of an Uncertain Boundary.” Public and Private in Thought and Practice: Perspectives on a Grand Dichotomy. Eds. Jeff Weintraub and Krishan Kumar.Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. 184.
