Personal Identity and Ethnic Ambiguity: Naming Practices among the Eurasians of Macau

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to explore the relationship between personal identity and ethnic identity from a perspective that sees culture, to use Sangren's words, as a dialectically unified process of self and collective production (1991:80). I will be focusing on naming practices in a multiethnic context in such a way as to show that the negotiation of name conferral and uses, functions not only as a means of situating the person and of achieving personal strategic aims but also of constantly defining the sociocultural system or system involved (cf. Herzfeld 1982:288). The portuguese-sepaking Eurasians of Macao are a particularly good test case for this study as they live in a marginal condition and thus provide us with a clearer perception of the practical limits of these sociocultural systems (cf. Terrades 1992).