ABSTRACT
Representation of inequality has long been contested terrain. Though the emergence of the modern culture concept in the twentieth century permitted a comprehensive critique of race to enter the social science literature, there have always been alternative explanations for inequality. Ethnicity is analysed as: socially constructed, contextually dynamic and historically specific; an arena in which hierarchical relations are presented, reproduced and contested; and interactional, intersecting with other forms of oppositionality. Contemporary approaches to ethnicity emphasize its historical contingency. In Colombia, prevailing representations of blacks reflect the changing structural tensions between segregation and discrimination, and the pressures toward ethnic mixing. Ethnicity is also an arena in which representation is contested. As ‘reception theory’ seeks to document, people are involved in active struggle with images and may challenge, modify or accommodate that which is presented to them. The link between gender and sexuality on the one hand, and ethnicity and nationality on the other, is a key to representing community and history.
