“WHAT IS INDIAN ABOUT YOU?”

Abstract

This study offers a feminist analysis of the dominant sociological theories of ethnicity that restrict understandings of immigrant identity formation within the boundaries of the United States. These scholars have, for the most part, been preoccupied with the loss or persistence of ethnicity. By using a transnational approach to interpret data, this article argues that questions of identity have to be linked to what gets designated as ethnic culture and tradition by immigrant communities. These designations often hierarchically reorganize difference, with immigrant women bearing the weight of signifying their communities' ethnic identity. An examination of what counts as culture is necessary if feminist scholarship on immigrant identities is to pose an alternative to depoliticized notions of multiculturalism.