Cytkova Askegaard Postassimilationist Ethnic Research

8/2/2019 Cytkova Askegaard Postassimilationist Ethnic Research

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Data collected among Greenlandic immigrants in Denmark fuel a critical examination of the postassimilationist model of ethnic consumer behavior in a non-N orthAmerican context. We find that Greenlandic consumer acculturation is broadlsupportive of the postassimilationist model. However, acculturative processes inthe D anish context lead imm igrants to adopt identity positions not entirely consistenwith those reported in previous p ostassimilationist consum er research . Further, weidentify transnational consumer culture as an acculturative agent not identified inprevious research on consumer ethnicity and question the performative model oculture swapping. Finally, the analysis supports ideas about postassimilationisethnicity as culture consumed.

ostassimilationist acculturation research in North Amer-ica has broken with earlier consumer research that ac-

1986; Hirschman 1981). We sub-to the proposal for "research on . . . consumer sub-

Joumal ofOswald 1999; Penaloza 1994).

*S0ren Askegaard is professor of marketing. SDU Odense, Campusvej, DK-5230. Odense, Denmark ([email protected]). Eric J. Amould is E.

ssor at the Department of Marketing, SDU Od ense, Campusvej. DK-5230. Odense, Denmark ([email protected]). This research was

Further, transnational consumer culture emerges as an acculturative agent not identified in previous research on consumer ethnicity. In addition, we question the performativemodel of culture swapping. Finally, our analysis supportsideas about postassimilationist ethnicity as culture con sumed(Firat 1995).The study is organized into five parts. First, we brieflyreview some relevant literature, highlighting two key reference works from JCR. Next, we describe the context ofthe research. Third, we outline our method. Fourth, we discuss our findings. Finally, we discuss the theoretical implications of our results.LITERATURE REVIEW

Recent empirical work on consumption and ethnicity hamoved beyond the assimilationist model that previouslydominated discussions of ethnic consumer behavior. In theolder model, researchers typically examined issues like thimpact of the strength of ethnic identification with the hosor immigrant culture (i.e., varying degrees of acculturationon consumption pattems (e.g., Deshpande et al. 1986Hirschman 1981; Wallendorf and Reilly 1983). Postassimilationist writing challenges the linear acculturation modelTwo studies have appeared in JC R (Oswald 1999; Penaloz1994) that exemplify postassimilationist consumer researchon ethnicity. As yet, no JC R research has explored postassimilationism in a non-North American consumer contex(but see Ger and 0stergaard 1998). Respectful of groundbreaking postassimilationist research, we aim to provide animproved theoretical foundation through a qualification andextension of prior research.


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POSTASSIMILATIONIST ETHNIC RESEARCH

Pealoza (1994) and Oswald (1999) showed how consumeracculturation does not lead to assimilation. The postassimi-lationist model adopted in their studies derives from Berry(1980), who identified four modes of acculturation. Assim-ilation is complete immersion in host culture identity andthe abandoning of one's culture of origin. In contrast, in-tegration allows for a melding of culture of origin and hostculture identities. Further, a rejection mode leads to with-drawal from the host culture to defend an ethnic identitylinked to the culture of origin in the new context. Finally,deculturation entails a withdrawal from both cultural ori-entations and represents an anomic condition.In a pathbreaking study, Pealoza (1994) details two in-stitutional factors and agents of acculturation representinghost and home culture that influenced Mexican immigrantconsumers' responses to the U.S. host environment. Sheshows how immigrants' responses to these factors map toBerry's (1980) fourfold categorization. The integration andcultural maintenance practices she describes conform toBerry's integrationist mode. The resistance and voluntarysegregation practices she describes represent a continuumthat maps to Berry's (1980) rejectionist mode. Pealoza(1994) documents the acculturative forces in play amongMexican-American consumers but does not detail their phe-nomenological struggles with integration and rejection. Wefeel that this may reify identity positions that are in fact lesssettled and more fluid.Pealoza (1994) refers to the pertinence of changes in theglobal economy for the dynamics of cultural interpntra-tion. Still, she argues, "consumer acculturation is a phe-nomenon that occurs over time and spans two nations"(1994, 52), and thus she does not consider transnationalconsumer culture as a potential third acculturation factor inaddition to home and host culture. This oversight is pre-sumably a result of a high d egree of overlap between NorthAmerican and transnational consum er culture (Ritzer 1998).Our non-North American research context permits us toexamine if transnational consumer culture acts as an ac-culturating agent (Askegaard and Kjeldgaard 2002).

Oswald's (1999) performative model of consumer eth-nicity is presaged in work noting hyperassimilation (Wal-lendorf and Reilly 1983) and situational ethnicity (Staymanand Deshpande 1989). But Oswald draws on Bouchet's(1995) proposal for a "plastic" marketable ethnicity: "Asimmigrants use goods to forge a new identity, they alsowear their ethnicity as a kind of garment that can be pur-chased, sold or discarded, or traded as the situation de-mands" (Oswald 1999, 314). Still, Oswald represents creol-ized consumption pattems as overlapping but clear-cutethnic group affiliations: dominant U.S., francophone Hai-tian, Haitian Creole, and African American. She showedthat these memberships were performed through consump-tion both by individuals and the immigrant family as awhole. However, she does not use her data to critique apurely plastic view of ethnic identity: "Haitian Americansnavigate an uneven path between both worlds, culture swap-ping as they go. The Haitians studied here used consumption

both to hold onto their former Haitian identity and also appropriate, albeit reluctantly, an American identity" (Owald 1999, 315).Like Pealoza, Oswald envisions two acculturative agecies. North American host and Haitian home culturHence, ethnic consumers' identity issues are performatitheir identity choices seem fixed rather than fiuid aproblematic.Both of these studies advance beyond Berry's (198modes of acculturation model and traditional studies of enic consumer behavior through the idea that in contemprary consumer culture, the symbols of ethnicity have besubjected to market forces to the point where they are norganically linked to particular social groups (Fu'at 199And they show that "border consumers" (Pealoza 19951) move between social worlds, frustrating attempts to tget them by demographic or geodemographic criterstrength of ethnic identification, or even product use, singoods take on different meanings as consumers move btween ethnic identities. If in this theoretical frame, cosumption and ethnicity are interdependent parts of consuers' efforts to forge satisfactory identities through markchoices (Bouchet 1995; Firat 1995; Oswald 1999, 303-then consumer culture should produce plural and contingeidentities through its general process of commod ifying dferences. But this consumer research does not stress tcontingency of postassimilationist ethnic identities.

In extending postassimilationist theory beyond the NorAmerican cultural realm, we question the view of consumacculturation processes as tactical choices (see Pealoza 19951). And thus, we question the generalizability of the pformative culture-swapping model (Oswald 1999, 314). Togreater extent then, we explore informa nts' self-reflexive suject positions as they contend with various acculturative prsures through consumption practices. Following Thompsand Tambyah (1999), we build on the idea that in the mgrant's unsettling world, consumers use products and cosumption practices to negotiate differences between cultuwhile extracting contingent identities derived from the dferences. An overview of postassimilationist contributioto ethnic consumer research and their limits is presented the first three columns of table 1. The last column on tright in this table summarizes our intended contribution

THE CONTEXTUAL SITUATION OEGREENLANDERS IN DENMARKDenmark's Greenlandic Inuit population provides a cotext to examine the robustness of the postassimilationview of ethnic consumer behavior, since it representspurely "cultural" immigration situation without the leand/or political confounding factors found in North Amica. Unlike Haitian and Mexican imm igrants to North Amica, Greenlanders' legal status is uncontested, yet they perience discrimination and alienation. In Denmark, th

find themselves in an immigrant's situation, settling incultural, geographic, and often linguistic setting very unl


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162 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCTABLE 1

INTEGRATIVE REVIEW OF POSTASSIMILATIONIST CONTRIBUTIONSContribution Main theoretical limitation Main empirical limitation Our key contributionPenaloza (1994) develops astrong postassimilationist ac-culturation model applied toMexican-American consumers.It describes four postassimila-tionist consumer identity posi-tions in terms of consumptionchoices.Oswald (1999) develops a post-assimilationist identity formationargument applied to Haitian-American consumers. It fo-cuses on the plasticity of iden-tities and culture swapping viaconsumption choices.

It is contextually insensitive totransnational acculturationfactors.

The argument does not takeinto account identity forma-tion problems experiencedin the culture-swapping pro-cess and is uncritical of themodes of acculturationmodel. The presentationtends to reify census-styleethnic categories.

The argument deals only withthe U.S. context and haslimited accounts of livedconsumer experiences inthe identity-formationprocess.

The argument deals only withthe U.S. context. It omitsglobal cultural factors chal-lenging subject p ositions. Ithas a limited account of in-formant identity conflictsand is reliant on a verysmall sample.

We corroborate the theoreticalsoundness of the postassimilatioist model. We extend the modelby adding a third institutional ac-culturation agent: 'Iransnationalconsumer culture." We revealsome limitations of the static, dispositional modes of acculturationmodel.We corroborate the theoreticalsoundness of the postassimilatioist model. We question the persitence of clear ethnic categories consumer culture. We qualify coditions for culture swapping; wemodify this by authenticity con-cerns. We limit the argument byquestioning the experiential realiof ethnic identities.

the home culture. Being a part of the Kingdom of Denmark,Greenland has had a home rule government since 1979 butis economically dependent on subsidies from the Danishgovernment. Fishing is the dominant economic activity, butin tbe hunting districts of the outer areas, the seal and whalecatches remain important in a subsistence economy.Approximately 55,000 people live in Greenland; they arepredominantly of Inuit ethnicity, but many people are ofmixed Danish-Inuit origin. Many young Greenlanders go toDenmark for various educational programs. Furthermore,with growing educational attainment among Greenlanders,many are attracted by job opportunities and easier access toa consum er lifestyle in Denm ark. The consequ ent brain drainposes a relatively severe problem for Greenlandic society.As of 1998, the significant n umbe r of approximately 11,500people bom in Greenland resided in Denmark.Before we discuss our methodology, we provide a briefdiscussion of historical developments in the public Green-landic-Danish political and Greenlandic identity discourses,because we discovered that they inform the range of con-temporary ethnic identity choices. For most of the colonialperiod, Danes and Greenlanders alike considered Green-landic identity as rooted in hunter-gatherer culture. The in-troduction of fishing as an economic activity in the earlytwentieth century sparked a vivid debate about the roots of"Greenlandicness": the traditional profession of hunter andthe lifestyle it engendered, on one side, and a more generalsharing of language, history, and attachment to the land, onthe other (Sejersen 1999). Becau se of subsequent industri-alization and other m odernization p rocesse s, this second rep-resentation predominated in policy debates during the re-mainder of the colonial period. The attachment to the landis frequently expressed in informant discussion of Green-landic nature.During an assimilationist period between 1953 and 1979,

the explicit goal of Danification policy was to make modeGreenland a parallel to Danish society. The general metphor for the Danish-Greenlandic relationship in this periowas the mother-child metaphor (Thomsen 1996). Followina new nationalistic awakening in the 1960s and 1970s,postcolonial Greenlandic development model arose, stemming from dissatisfaction with the "modemization projecand formulated by Greenlandic people in Denmark in clocontact with left-wing politics (Thomsen 1996). The "neGreenlandicness" promulgated a romantic view of the lifstyles of hunting-gathering communities that were imaginto live and consume in harmony with nature, as opposed the cold, modemistic, and economistic Danes. Tliis viemade Greenlandicness and modemity somewhat irreconcable ideal social types. Identity constmction stressing ntional particularity and independence (Sejersen 1999) apears in our informants' accounts of Greenlandic virtues

Social scientists detect a recent softening attitude to tirreconcilable view of Danish modemity and Greenlandness. A dual cultural heritage is seen as enriching, raththan as evidence of weakness and crisis. In political dcourse and some of our informants' representations of idetity conflicts, the dominant opposition seems to lie amoa negotiated Greenlandic, Danish, and global modemity poused by a Greenlandic elite, and more rejectionist viethat regard traditionalism as a defense against market mecanisms and other intrusive factors embraced by the rest the population (Thomsen 1996). However, these views mbe challenged by an equally contemporary circumpolar paInuit movement, thereby adding a new dimension to Greelanders' identity formation options (Dorais 1996).

METHODWe conducted 20 depth interviews with Greenlandic imigrants in four major Danish cities. Fourteen women a


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six men between 22 and 67 yr. of age participated, but twointerviews were discarded because of poor quality. The in-formants' professional statuses varied: some were unem-ployed, som e w ere students, one was an information officer,and another w as a travel agent. Students described themselvesas temporary residents in Denmark; full-time employees weremore permanently settled. Informants came from a variety oflocations in Greenland, ranging from the capital, Nuuk, totiny villages. Self-selection, we realize, creates a samplingbias since only relatively well-functioning people with timeand interest joined the project as informants. On the otherhand, since we were interested in investigating informants'understanding of ethnicity and identity, interested and in-volved informants were crucial to the pro ject's success. Ta-ble 2 has an overview of key characteristics of the 18 in-formants retained.

Danish-language interviews followed a semistructuredguide, focusing on border crossings between the two cul-tures, consumption patterns in the two cultures, specialmeanings linking certain types of consumer behavior to oneculture or the other, and expectations for the future devel-opment of a Greenlandic consumer society. The interviewslasted approximately 90 min. on average.Analysis of the audiotaped and transcribed interviews em-ployed procedures not unlike those of Oswald (1999) andPealoza (1994). Unlike these researchers, a multiculturalteam iterated analyses across interview transcripts in Danishor English to identify themes ultimately categorized as re-lating to etic categories of time, space, having, being, andidentity. NUD^IST analytic software helped us categorizethemes and beha viors. Triangulation across coauthors led tonew insights and resolved differences in interpretation.

FINDINGSFindings are divided into two se ctions. The first deals withthe processes of ethnic identity formation, highlighting in-formants' experience of them. We underiine the intersectionof Danish, Greenlandic, and transnational factors in identitynegotiation as well as the instances of border policing andreclaiming identity through consumption. The second dis-cusses identity positions that emerge from the identity for-mation and negotiation processes. Here we show how ourdata converge with and vary from previous p ostassimilationistconsumer research. Rather than tactical choices, immigrantidentity positions as expressed in consumption seem like con-tingent interpretive responses to changing circumstances andsituations.

Quest: Identity Formation and NegotiationCreenlandic Being, Danish Having. Consistent withlong-standing ideology, informants' biographical storiescontrast Greenlanders, who appear less materialistic, lessbrand-conscious, and less status-conscious, with Danes andEuropeans. Several informants (e.g., informants 4 and 7)

talk in gently derogatory terms about the Danish pursuit ofmaterial rewards and status symbols: "[Danes create their

identity] through material things, so if you're buying a Mcedes instead of a Skoda [an inexpensive Czech car] tyou have a certain status . . . like I have a thick bankboalthough it's probably all borrowed" (informant 1).In the same vein, informants often highlight contrastssociability between Greenlandic and Danish urban envirments. The former are smaller, with fewer options for leispursuits; they facilitate interaction. "You never feel likstranger when you go to a Greenlandic town ," one informpoints out (informant 8). Danish towns and cities are of marketed leisure activities but obstruct interaction. Bthe velocity and the punctuality inherent in structured Dish commodified time affect social life (informants 1, 512, 16, and 18), draining it of spontaneity and creatinmore alienated relationship between people than Greenlaers are used to, as reflected in the following: "The otday when I was with a frienda Daneand we weremeet and so on. It's more about keeping arrangements things like that because back home it's more like if it iimportant then I can just be half an hour late if I wantbut with her it's about keeping the time and all sorts" formant 16).

Greenlandic immigrants sometimes state that in contto Greenlandic "nature people" (informant 17), urbaniDanes think that they must control the world, primathrough "ha ving" and economic thinking as in the follow"my [Danish] girlfriend she has to consider things first.consider how she wants to spend it . . . if there's someththat I would like I allow myself to buy it, whereas a Dwould have to consider things . . . they don't say thatGreenland, it just comes and you don't think about whetyou can afford it or not" (informant 13, also found informant 4).

Blurred Borders. Nonetheless, the blurred ethnic bders between the culture of origin and residence make context of Greenlandic immigrants in Denmark diffefrom the contexts confronted by Haitian-AmericansMexican-Am ericans in the United States. Unlike postassilationist identity issues described in earlier work, idenconflict pervades our data. It seems to arise in part fromfact that all informants are both Danish and GreenlanFor instance, one Greenlandic immigrant feels that confstems from her intemalization of Danish cultural norms communicative styles (also found in informant 12): "I get a little tired of all these Greenlanders. Where I wthere are all these Greenlandic people coming, and I covered one day going home that I thought, 'No mGreenlanders today.' . . . It made me think that I've pably gotten used to that people around me are Danes .so when you meet Greenlandic people it becomes a kindj ob" (informant 11).

Identity conflict seems also to stem from experiencordinary consumption situations simultaneously as claabout ethnicity, a situation consistent with Bo uche t's (19theory of ethnicity as a consumer outcome (see also D2001). This conflict appears especially for persons of mancestry:


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1I felt an . . . identity crisis. . . . I mean I was still Green-landic, hom and raised in Greenland, hut also Danish . . .hut I had difficulties adapting to that nice facade that [Danish]people take on, when hehind it they are trying to avoid topay taxes and the like. I found it hypocritical. On the otherhand I am not Greenlandic, I have accepted who I am, half-and-half. For example, I can be so very Danish, like whenI meet some Greenlandic friends and I sit down with themon a bench to get a beer. I only have time to talk with themduring my holidays, and I feel very Danish if I say "well, Ibetter only drink this one, I have to go home and take careof the kids" (informant 1).

Perhaps as a result of the fact that cultural and ethnicrelations between Danes and Greenlanders simultaneouslymark clear-cut geographical differences and ideological in-tertwining, Greenlandic immigrant identity formation be-comes persistently self-reflexive.Imm igrants' ex pectations of, and desires to avoid, culturalmisunderstanding and border policing lead to acculturativemodifications in being-oriented Greenlandic behaviors thatare subject to a having-oriented consumerist discourse inDenmark, as shown in the following: "When I came fromGreenland, I brought my jewelry, I can't live without them.I don't wear it here, but I have to bring them. They arevarious amulets and the like, made from bone or stone . . .in Qaqortoq, I often w ear them but here in Denm ark peoplelook at me and think: 'What is it made from? Oh, it's madeof bone! Poor anim al!' So maybe it is mostly to spare peoplefrom that, that I don't wear it . . . you don't want them tobelieve you're some kind of cannibal" (informant 12).In other words, valued practices embedded in Inuit spir-itual tradition are subject to an alien, politicized consumeristdiscourse associated with the animal rights movement, aswell, of course, as stereotyping of primitive othem ess. Con-sider another experience: "at the folk high school I wasconstantly confronted with it via my fellow mates [Danes]:Aren 't you going to Greenland? and bla bla. Who ever I met,I had to speak Greenlandic or be confronted with the factthat I am Greenlandic, and at times it became a problem,because I didn't feel like talking about Greenland all thetime or defend something that I did not feel involved in"(informant 10).As in the previous quote and other autobiographical sto-ries (e.g., informants 7 and 11), the border policing andconstraining influence of ethnic stereotypes rooted in thesocial history of Danish-Greenlandic relationships comethrough. The former informant imagines and seeks to avoidpolitically mediated images of the hom e culture, the salienceof which is unclear to Danes. In the second case, whenmembers of the host culture stress the immigrant's right,and even duty, to be true to an "authentic" cultural identity(Bouchet 1995), the second informant feels obliged to en-gage in self-reflexive identity proclaiming that impedes as-similation (Firat 1995).A self-reflexive, ethnic reclaiming process is also sug-gested: "I remem ber the 1980s, . . . it was definitely not

in to be Danish-speaking, you were really looked down because you had not preserved your Greenlandic languagand it wasn't nice to experience even though it could easbe explained" (informant 10).To the Danish authors , the quotes from inform ant 10 healso reflect the influence of the Danish left-wing politicenvironment (traditionally strong in folk high schools) the ideological reimagining of Greenland in the post-19neonationalistic wave mentioned earlier.

Reclaiming Greenlandic Identity through ConsumptioAs posited by other scholars (e.g., Bouchet 1995; Fu1995), the renewal of interest in ethnic heritage increasingtakes a consumer form. Several informants express interein reviving cultural traditions through consumption, evthough symbols of the ancient culture have been alive the time, even in the larger Greenlandic towns. Immigraconsumers consum e Greenlandic food and invest in nationcostumes (informants 3, 12, and 18) and collections of aulets (informant 3), as well as in other types of cultuactivities. People are building their own kayaks; a growinumber of artists perform the old drum d ance. New m usicand theatrical products are often based on old myths asagas conveyed through consumer forms. Th us, when askfor activities she liked in Denmark as opposed to Greenlanone informant said: "[Traditional] Greenlandic dmm danc/ went to this course and got so impressed by this part our culture. I did not experience that at all in Greenlaback then, so the course here in Denmark has permitted mto leam that side of our culture. I like that" (informant 1emphasis added).

The quotes above conceming amulets, language, adrum dances demonstrate not only the reflexivity of ethnidentity but its commodification as well. Greenlandic cultuis increasingly lived through artifacts and behaviors thattest to the pertinence of Firat's (1995) idea about cultupersistence depending on its transformation into consumabforms. Reflexivity comes across as a fundamental conditiof postassimilationist ethnicity. Furthermore, this demostrates the m arket's paradoxical institutional capacity to cate "authentic" identity formation processes through cosumption choices (Bouchet 1995). Ethnicity becomesconsumer choice, albeit not a free and unconstrained onGiven what we have shown about Greenlandic ambivalenabout their Danish identity, what Oswald (1999) calls cultuswapping is not experienced as a seamless process but an ongoing conciliation involving existential desires for dtinctive roots and serious concems about deracination aidentity questions generally.

A Third Consumer Acculturation Force. In additito the institutional forces of home and host cultures, a thacculturative force not evoked in earlier postassimilationwork is the influence of a transnational set of cultural idand practices. The integration of Greenland and Denmin a transnational consumer and communications economhas produced new inputs to Greenlandic identity formatias several informants noted: "I reme mber when I was in


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166 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCU.S.A. one-half year after finishing high school, and I cansee how some of the things I was fascinated by over thereare here now. And Greenland is following, with Intemet,computers, portable phones, and all that" (informant 6).For example, foods foreign to Inuit immigrants commin-gle a diverse range of productsfrom the quintessentialDanish dish, "fried pork with parsley sauce" (informant 6),to globalized dishes such as T-bone steaks (informant 11),pizza (informants 12, 13, and 16), and spaghetti Bologne se(informant 4).

Transnational influence is also experienced in the changefrom the seasonal scarcities characteristic of a hunting econ-omy to the seasonless abundance of intemational grocerystore chains. And some informants mention the advantagesof access to global consumer choices as an opportunity nowspreading to Greenland from Denmark; "[I find] more exoticgoods which you won't find . . . in Ilulissat or smaller townsand villages, just to mention that. And you look a lot inmagazines, also about food, and see aU these things that youcan now acquire down here [in Denmark]American foodand . . . new possibilities for cooking, Mexican food" (in-formant 6).

Inspired notably by U.S. consumer culture but spreadingto Denmark, and then to Greenland, new technologies andsociotemporal pattems related to consumption are coming(also supported by statements from informants 4, 9, and 13);"The most obvious thing is perhaps attitude towards time,[retail] opening hours and all th at . . . time in the U.S. wasvery managed, and it is becoming like that here" (informant6) .Increasing global and local mobility is loosening locallyoriented identification structures among the Greenlanders,some of whom are becoming "worldly Inuit"; "I come fromeverywhere in Greenland. . . . I lived in Nuuk, Denmark,Zambia for 2 years, Canada, a sort of wandering Eskimo"(informant 11).Increasing mobility within, and hence awareness of, theglobal cultural economy fuels a questioning of ethnic iden-tity, since both Danish and Greenlandic identity are nowrefracted through experiences in other parts of the world.Individual experiences with transnational ethno- and tech-noscapes add to perceptions of both Greenland and Denmarkas parts of a system in which consumer culture flows froma North American center to a Danish periphery, thereby

relativizing the ethnic consumer acculturation experience.Hence, transnational consumer culture constitutes an addi-tional acculturation agent in postassimilationist ethnicity, anequally strange but highly influential term for both "our"cultures.

Outcomes: Identity PositionsAs other authors have done, we describe four identitypositions that are the discursive outcomes of negotiatingbetween the three institutional acculturation forces we haveidentified; Greenlandic, Danish, and global consumer cul-

ture. Our identity positions overlap with those of Pealoza

(1994), but they are not homologous with them. Below, wroot these identity positions in our empirical data.Greenlandic Hyperculture. Several informants lintheir national costumes or other cultural possessions directto their identity (e.g., informant 18), idealizing cultural orig

in the immigrant environment. But through consumption commodified "Greenlandic" goods such as foods, hides, ntional costume, and tupilaks, one's ethnic identity becommore Greenlandic than Greenlandic, a sort of hyperculturin which hyped commercial elements are consumed as emblems of authentic culture. (A tupilak is small grotesque figurepresenting a spirit, carved in narwhal or walrus tooth reindeer antler. They have become popular souvenirs.) "I umy national costume at festive occasions. . . . I also uselot more now, I'm more into traditions, I think. Now, I go church for Christmas, and I have to wear it. I wasn 't so mucinto these things before" (informant 12).It is evident in this and other interviews (informants 3, 1and 14) that elements of Greenlandic material culttire athemselves consumed to give form to this "Greenlandic" senof identity. However, it would not be correct to assimilate th"more Greenlandic than Greenlandic" identity position to threjectionist position in Berry's (1980) and Pealoza's (199modes of acculturation model. Further, this hypercultural psition is the inverse of the hyperassimilated position identifiein a North American context (Wallendorf and Reilly 1983Instead, it reflects the romantic current of neotraditionaliand nationalist ideology and politics described earlier, busince it is achieved through market-mediated consumption the Danish context, it also appears as a consumption choi

among others, albeit possibly a more com pelling one sinceinvolves elements of cultural maintenance and authenticityThe Oscillating Pendulum. Another position nfound in the postassimilationist model is the pendulum, person who experiences the alienations and attractions oboth Greenland and Denmark. Many informants express need to retreat from the perceived mechanistic strictures othe market-mediated Danish world through repeated phyical border crossing. They desire periodic unadulteratedoses of idealized Greenlandic food, sociality, seasonalitand nature to "recharge their batteries" (informant 3; reonates with informants 13 and 15); "Err . . . no, I donreally feel hom esic k.. . .I 'm cleeir on that from the momeI had to leave so it wasn't really a problem for me; and isn't now either. Of course I miss those Greenlandic thingI do, I start missing those after a year when I'm about go back, it's like a year suits me really well" (informa16).At the same time, some feel that while in Grenland thewould miss the freedom from family obligations (informa7) and Danish consumption possibilities; "Me and somfriends discussed rece ntly that it would p robably be difficuto go back because you would have to get used to thebeing fewer possibilities" (informant 14). Some informan

also adopt a pendulum position in a longer time frame, suc


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as the informants who see a future permanent return toGreenland after adventure abroad (informant 3).Informants quoted earlier who describe a split in identity(informant 10) and those cognizant of the paradox of marketfreedom and social constraint in Denmark participate in thependulum. Fashion is a common topic through which thisparadox is expressed. Similar to statements made by others{e.g., informant 14), one student reflected on the "h avin g"existential orientation in Denmark in opposition to the "be-ing" existential orientation in Greenland. He suggests thatbrands constrain identity positions in Denmark: "in Den-mark you get more type . . . categorized according to typeor what you call it. Like when you hear girls talking aboutguys, then there are such and such types, which shows thatyou're put in boxes, and it really comes down to that clothestell who you are, . . . a label is put on you down here inDenmark" (informant 1).

Thus, some informants express ambivalence about theaspirational consumer orientation Greenlandic immigrantsattribute to Danes, although still participating in it (also ininformant 17). The "pen dulu m" does not appear in Berry 's(1980) or Pealoza's (1994) models, nor is it culture swap-ping between clear-cut ethnic categories (Oswald 1999). Itinvolves maintenance and assimilation, but the term stressesthe oscillation and the consequent existential problems con-nected to persistent biculturalism. However, it may also re-flect the contemporary Greenlandic elite political discoursementioned earlier.

The Danish Cookie. An assimilationist third positionis the "Danish cookie," the relative newcomer enamoredwith the market freedoms and possibilities of individual ad-vancement available in the more developed consumer cul-ture of Denmark: "new possibilities for cooking, Mexicanfood and such things." As one informant put it, "I've gotthis feeling that it's easier to live in Denmark. There are somany things that you . . . what I can buy and what I canspend . . . but I just think that when I go to Greenlandpeople are always complaining about how difflcult it is tobuy, it is so difcult . . . and expensive and all sorts ofthings" (informant 8).The Danish cookie adopts a consumerist "having" ori-entation. As one said, "I like to browse the shops just hereat Str0get there are lots of possibilities, more shops with

different kinds of clothes and . . . you know, you choosewhich style you want and then you go for the things thatyou want" (informant 6).This worldview (also found in informants 4 and 13) isinflected with the colonial period's paternalistic ideologymentioned earlier. Supercially the most assimilated inBerry's (1980) terms, the Danish cookie, one might argue,is at the same time the most decultured. Ethnic Danes' dis-crimination (informants 7, 11, and 17) and ethnic borderpolicing may yet frustrate the coo kie's assim ilationist hopes.The Best-of-Both-Worlder. We identify a fourth iden-tity position, the best-of-both-worlder (see Chung 2000,43).A typical statement of this position is as follows:

/. So in some way you're becoming more and mGreenlandic?/?. No, both .. . . I take something Danish, some of the sqthat I think is good, and then some of the round. . . . Istanding in between and take what's good from both cultu(informant 14).

Best-of-both-wo rlders includ e not only the young but peoof mixed ethnic heritage coming to terms with their doubidentity or older Greenlandic immigrants now establishin Denmark and settled in their existential situation, as the following:/. Do you think you'd combine the cultures or . . . ?R: People are certainly trying to do that because you cahold on to the Greenlandic culture 100% or change 100%the Westem culture, so you . . . but one of the things causproblems is tofind he right balance between the two cultu(informant 12).

Not only do best-of-both-worlders value both social worand cultures, they express favorable attitudes toward cosumables emblematic of both environments, especially msic and food (informant 3). The best-of-both-worlder is siilar to the integrationist position identified in other wobut it is reflective of recent Greenlandic political ideolothat seeks an intertwining of present Greenlandic cultwith Danish modemity.Ultimately, we wish to avoid essentializing these identpositions. In our data, identity positions are fluid. For eamp le, informants 12 and 14 are quoted for statements texemplify different identity po sitions. Mo re imp ortant, sofindings suggest that the question of "what makes a persGreenlandic?" is becoming increasingly problematic aopen-ended. For some, ethnicity is experienced as mcomplex than a matter of origin, language, and roots. other words, informants themselves doubt the phenomnological reality of ethnic categories: "I felt a little stranin relation to my own culture, when I started workingthe Greenlandic Comm unity House. . . . I had acquisome prejudice about Greenlandic people. Suddenly soDanes came and were entitled to receive scholarships frthe Greenlandic Home Rule, and I was astonished. And oof them spoke Greenlandic! Good grief, what's going I thought to myself, is this Greenland? And of course iGreenland; it is Greenland today" (informant 10).

Not on ly does the dou bt expressed illustrate the reflexivof ethnic identity, it also illustrates how ethnicity is dispositional but, rather, is contextually constructed. Fthermo re, interacting with the third accu lturative term, tranational consumer culture, Danish and Greenlandic cultuinspire consumerist forms of ethnic identity that dissoneat differences in acculturative outcomes. Global "nage" and traditional Greenlandic pantheism have inspione informant to a New Age, consumption-mediated cultuamalgam: "What I always have brought with me frGreenland is the belief, my faith. I . . . myths and legeof Greenland, stories of 'spirit callers' (andemanere)


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168 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCbe l ie f in something bigger and s t ronger than humanswhatI grew up with, not Christ iani ty but the other things. Andthere may be an influence from Denmark as well wheremany these days are into al temative treatment of disease,holist ic views on humankind" (informant 10).

Figure 1 sum mar izes the proces ses of acculturat ion dis-cussed throughout this ari ic le . We underl ine the contextualnature of these identi ty posi t ions. Greenlandic , Danish, and

transnational acculturat ive forces stand in a competing ycoproductive relat ion to each other and in relat ion to thidenti ty posi t ions identified among informants. The identiposi t ions, therefore, are not simply a matter of stra tegchoice made by informants but are fluid, moving producof consumers ' concil ia t ion of inst i tut ional acculturat ion fators in given contexts. This movement, however, is not matter of performative culture swapping but of being move

FIGURE 1ACCULTURATION INSTITUTIONS AND OUTCOMES

InstitutionalAcculturationAgents

Expressed through Leadin g to Resulting in

Discursiveelements fromthe host cultureof immigration:Denmark

Discursiveelements fromthe home cultureof origin:Greenland

Competingand co-constructivemodels oft ime, space,being, havingandconsuming

Discursiveelements fromglobal consumerculture

Identity Positions(Discursiveoutcomes)

More Greenlandicthan GreenlandHYPERCULTURE

Danish CookieASSIMILATION

Best-of-both-worlderINTEGRATION

The PendulumPENDULISMOscillation betweencultures,assimilation andmaintenance

LegendAntecedent and decedent relationshipsFluid m ovement between outcomes


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(perhaps of necessity) because of changes in life situations.Thus, institutional acculturation factors interrelate the po-sitions in various ways.DISCUSSION

The data analyzed here support the robustness of a post-assimilatiotiist model of ethnic consumer identity as it hasevolved in recent consumer research. At the same time, ourwork demonstrates that the patterning of ethnic identity po-sitions refiects multiple conflicting ideological positions inplay in the Danish-Greenlandic cultural context. In describ-ing the experiential processes of identity formation and em-phasizing the contingency of the identity positions assumedby Greenlandic immigrants, this work also places Berry's(1980) modes of acculturation categories in doubt. Our dataquestion the theoretical adequacy of models of acculturationthat divide consumers into stable dispositional categories(Pealoza 199 4,48) , insofar as consumer culture persistentlyencourages the differentiation and emergenc e of new seg-ments (Bouchet 1995; Dvila 2001). Thus, as Thompsonand Tambyah (1999) argued, immigrant consumers useproducts and consumption practices to negotiate differencesbetween cultures while forging contingent identities derivedfrom the differences.

Our data highlight the way in which exposure to a hostculture that is at base a consumer culture results in devel-oping a sense of ethnic identity that reflects the idea ofconsumer choice that is central to that consumer culture.Greenlandic ethnic identities are in some sense ironic andhypercultural, in that the culture of origin is socially recon-structed as something consumable (costume, foods, crafts,or music) as part of attempts to assert an anchor for identityin a fluid social context (Bouchet 1995; Ger and 0 stergaa rd1998).One additional issue emphasized by our data is the prob-lematic nature of culture swapping (Oswald 1999). Thisproblem presents two aspects. One is experiential; few ofour informants seem comfortable with a plastic notion ofethnic identity. Instead they seem to struggle to extract asense of real identity from acculturative experiences that areoften anxiety provoking. The other is axiological; regularboundary crossing and acculturation experiences renderproblematic beliefs in clear-cut boundaries between host andimmigrant cultures. Informants no longer take their affili-ations for granted, as is characteristic of culture as tradi-tionally construed. However, informants are not simply con-fused about their identities (Chung 2000, 45). Instead, theseethtiic identities are inflected by competing ideologies aboutwhat constitutes the two cultures, behaviors and values char-acteristic of them, and their relationships. Further, separatefrom but influencing both Danish and Greenlandic cultur,there is also a third acculturative agent, transnational con-sumer culture, which informants feel is derived mainly fromU.S. sources. This is experienced both as a threat dissolvingGreenlandic and Danish authenticity but also as a sort ofneutral cultural ground and an enrichment of consumptionopportunities accessible to Danes and Greenlandic alike.

Thus, as our data suggest, hypercultural, integrationist,similationist, or oscillating identities are all fundamentinformed by informants' participation in a transnational csumer culture.We hope to have enriched the discussion of consumptand ethnicity by insisting on the relevance of social conand transnational consumer culture to ethnic consumptand identity work. The contribution of our re-inquiry wreference to our key sources is recapped in the final coluof table 1. We do not to claim that Greenlandic ethnicrepresents a universal model for consumer acculturatGreenlandic migrants to Denmark constitute an unusual cial category. The relaxation of the paternalistic Danificatpolicy and the absence of the economic privations that mtivate many other modern migrants mean that Greenlanimmigrants are to some degree absolved of the responsibiof making a final choice among ethnic identities. Schoices must be made, and their choices have become mket choices, even if they are not just like any other marchoice. To develop a more robust theory of the contingconstitution of postassimilationist ethnic identities throconsumption, cultural contexts beyond Greenland and role of consumer culture in such contexts should be amined.

[Dawn Iacobucci served as editor and Kent Monroeserved a s associate editor for this article.]REFERENCES

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Cytkova Askegaard Postassimilationist Ethnic Research