In 1980, Edward H. Spicer published The Yaquis: A Cultural History. It demonstrated his scholarship of four centuries of Yaquis Indians society and culture history; and his theoretical perspective of the broader implication and importance of the anthropological perspective in understanding socio-cultural dynamics. In his last chapter he attempted to define the Yaquis as an '"enduring people" similar to many other "enduring peoples" one finds in the world today.
An "enduring people", in Spicer's sense, is a human social type consisting of an ethnic minority who retain their separate identities in the face of overwhelming and long term political and cultural domination by an "outsider" ("the Other","the Deep State", etc.) majorities.
The following article about Niki Haley's remarks is about the Confederate Stars and Bars. It conveys a story that illustrates how the concept might be employed to understand the divisions that exist within our own sociocultural system. Regarding the Stars and Bars, we could accept that the black community might have a different interpretation of the symbol than the white community. We usually think of the Confederate flag as symbolizing a unifying meme in southern white American communities. But, this article stands out because it focuses on the differential responses to a common shared symbol.
The article presents a case that illustrates how the Confederate flag has multiple and significant meanings for those who claimed it as the symbol of their community. It shows how these differences produce different attitudes among the members. These attitudes in turn lead to different actions by the members. Yet, from the outside, this a composite of enduring sub-cultural systems associated with a common symbol, would appear to be a homogeneous socio-cultural system.
Dylann Roof and Nikki Haley would appear to hold similar meanings for the display of the Confederate Bars and Stars Yet Roof used the symbol to motivate and justify his anger toward outsiders. Haley's response to Roof's a sacreligious use the symbol of local pride and heritage, justified her ordering the flag removal from State buildings. These different responses to the symbol's use in a shared context, point to the existence of two very different cultural meanings to the Stars and Bars. ·
If Spicer's concept of "enduring peoples" is applied in the broad global context, the differences, outlined above, can also to be found in the many religions, ethnic and political sects found throughout human society.
The difference in meaning that a people apply to shared symbols often produce the most intense psychological reactions. The reactions are found in the differences that individuals find in the cultural priorities, meanings and expressions of what are assumed to be shared or common set of symbols. This "assumption" often is the source for partisan conflicts and divisions.
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See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederates_in_the_Attic for a similiar example of this situation. Would Spicer's concept of enduring peoples also apply here? Horowitz presents a more complex structure of the symbolic meaning of the social group self-identifying with the confederacy. Yet if it did apply, then we might use it to analyze the dynamic of social movements and how they both appear and morph into sub-groups. Such major religions as Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist sects, for example, represent distinct mass movements and philosophies to the outsider. Yet, to the "true believer" insider, such religions are complex competitive structures of apostate sub-units each laying claim to the symbols yet applying different meanings to them. The differences in meanings are manifested in how the sub-group applies the symbols.
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