In this article, a comparison is made between economic and identity explanations of preferences toward EU membership in the Czech Republic. This research demonstrates that economics rather than identity is a more powerful explanation of public opinion on accession. With regard to economic explanations of public support for integration three models are examined - a winners and losers model, an international trade liberalisation model, and a foreign direct investment model. A comparison of these three models shows that support for accession was primarily based on attitudes toward foreign direct investment. Moreover, contemplating employment opportunities within the EU following accession was also an important factor. Contrary to previous research the empirical evidence presented in this article suggests that being a winner or loser in the post-communist transition process was not the strongest factor explaining popular support for membership. The results presented should not be taken to imply that instrumental rather than ideological or affect-based motivations determine general attitudes toward integration. On the specific question of vote choice in the accession referendum instrumental economic considerations were most important.
Los Comanches and other cultural manifestations of the genízaro (mixed Spanish-Indian) culture of New Mexico is widely recognized and belittled as a mere hybrid of the „authentic" Spanish, Puebloan and Plains Indian cultures. The politicization of identity in contemporary America promotes traditionalist revitalization movements and the genízaros seem to be caught between a rock and a hard plače, not accepted by either of the politically well established ethnicities of New Mexico. They are denied authenticity and consequently are also denied access to funds which have become available for groups that have made successful ethnic claims and achieved state recognition. In spite of this difficult situation, the genízaro culture continues to live, representing a very unique cultural complex. The case of the genízaros of New Mexico may help us better understand the politics of (self-)identification and the process of ethnogenesis as a response to material and political opportunities created by a state reluctant to endorse a common national culture.
Bohemka and Veselinovka in Ukraine were founded at the beginning of the twentieth century by descendants of Czech religious emigrants of the eighteenth century. Nowadays, both villages are inhabited predominantly by Protestant Czechs who still constitute a majority, as well as by Ukraininas of Orthodox denomination and, partly, by individuals of other nationalities. In the article the ethnical and confessional identity of inhabitants of both villages is being presented through the analysis of funeral and postfuneral rites and their material manifestatíons. In both communities funerals and funeral feasts are celebrated; besides, rites commemorating the deceased are observed; „pominky", that is, remembrances of the dead that také place in precisely determinated intervals, „provody“ or collective visits of cemeteries accompanied by feasting on the graves, and also remembrances of deceased soldiers at memorials. Most of these rituals stem from Orthodox tradition, but nowadays also Czech inhabitants of the communities participate in them. They struggle to belittle them, because they are not compatible wiťh their tradition as well as with their religious ideology. Dissimilarities, but also coming together of both groups manifested itself on both cemeteries. Coming together had been realized thanks to more intense social bonds among members of both groups. The (post)funeral rites contain in themselves expressions of ethnic and confessional identity through symbols, such as cross and chalice. Such rituals not only make reference to tradition, but they introduce the participants into the system of reciprocal relations and corroborate the existing social bonds.