title: Theories of ethnicity and the dynamics of ethnic change in multiethnic societies.
abstract: I modify Fredrik Barth's approach, which sees ethnic group building as a signaling system, to place it within a framework that draws from collective action and costly signaling theories. From these perspectives, ethnic signaling, although representing a costly penalty to group members, is one effective form of communication that facilitates collective management of resources. I then identify three contexts in which the benefits of ethnic group building are likely to outweigh its signaling costs: in politically chaotic refuge and periphery zones; in the context of long-distance specialist trading groups; and within the territorial scope of failed states. I point to selected data from the Mughal and Aztec polities to illustrate how a combination of effective public goods management, in highly collective states, and the growth of highly integrated commercial economies will render ethnic group building superfluous.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 blantonr@purdue.edu.
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Blanton
mesh_terms: D000883:Anthropology / Q000379:methods*; D001106:Archaeology; D003132:Commerce; D005006:Ethnicity; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011057:Politics; D012919:Social Behavior; D012922:Social Change
keywords: collective action; costly signaling; ethnicity