Conclusion

Abstract

Drawing on the insights of two reactive theories of ethnicity—split labour market and internal colonialism— a structural explanation for the exclusion of most Jewish workers from modern industry and for the evolution of Bundist ideology in an increasingly nationalist direction has been constructed. The theoretical advantage of this analysis over those previously offered lies in the fact that it does not rely on primordial factors for explaining either ethnic behaviour or ethnic ideology and can therefore treat ethnicity as a phenomenon to be examined, rather than a given. It thus points to the need to investigate the specific socio-historical conditions prevailing in each instance, and not rely on general historical formulae to assess the effects of modernisation on ethnicity and ethnic conflict.