Ethnicity

How Does It Differ From Race

and Culture?
 Recap from last time . . .
 Race is a biological term used to describe
subspecies of organisms.
 The physical variation in humans, though
perhaps seemingly great, is genetically
minimal.
 During the history of humanity,
populations have never been isolated long
enough to become true biological races.
 Social races are cultural constructs.
Example of great variability within a
species: Dogs
 Dogs, though
diverse in
appearance, are
genetically
indistinguishable
from wild wolves
from which they
descend.
 Ethnicity and Race
 An ethnic group may
define themselves as
different because of
their language,
religion, geography,
history, ancestry, or
physical traits.
 An ethnic group that
is assumed to have a
biological basis is
called a race.
 What do most people think about
ethnicity?
 Most Americans fail to distinguish
between ethnicity and race.
 Many people think that ethnicity is
just a politically correct term for
race.
 Ethnicity is based on cultural
traditions, while races are based
mainly on biological traits.
Ethnic Markers, Identities, and
Statuses
 Ethnic groups are formed
around virtually the same
features as cultures:
common beliefs, values,
customs, history, etc.
 Ethnicity entails
identification with a given
ethnic group, but it also
involves the maintenance
of a distinction from other
groups.
 Status refers to any
position in a society that
can be filled by an
individual.
 Status in Society
 Ascribed status: Status into which people enter
automatically without choice, usually at birth or
some special event in the life cycle.
 Achieved status: Status that people acquire
through their own individual accomplishments
and actions in life.
 Within complex societies, ascribed status can
describe large subgroups: minority groups,
majority groups, and races are all examples as
ascribed statuses.
 Differences in ascribed status are commonly
associated with differences in socio-political
power.
 Minority Status
 The definitive feature of a minority
group is that its members
systematically experience lesser
income, authority, and power than
other members of their society.
 A minority group is not necessarily a
smaller population than other
groups.
 Status Shifting
 Most status can change, particularly
through the influence of social contexts.
 Adjusting or switching one’s status in
reaction to different social contexts is
called the situational negotiation of social
identity.
 The application of a social category label,
such as an ethnic label, to a particular
individual depends on the perception by
others of that person’s status, as well as
that person’s own assertions of status.
 Ethnic Groups, Nations, and
Nationalities
 Nation and nation-state: an autonomous,
centrally organized political entity.
 Ethnic groups are not necessarily so
formally politically organized.
 The majority of all nation-states have
more than one ethnic group, and the
multiethnicity of all countries is increasing
with migration/immigration.
 Nationalities and Imagined
Communities
 Nationalities are ethnic groups that aspire to
autonomous statehood.
 The term “imagined communities” has been used
to describe nationalities, since most of their
members feel a bond with each other in the
absence of any “real” acquaintance (No
Palestinian will ever meet every member who
considers themselves Palestinian).
 Mass media and literature has helped to form
such imagined communities by becoming the
means of establishing a commonalty of values,
motivations, language, etc.
 Colonialism
 Colonialism refers to the
political, social, economic,
and cultural domination of
a territory and its people
by a foreign power for an
extended period of time.
 Colonialism helped create
imagined communities as
different ethnic groups
under the control of the
same colonial
administration rose in
opposition to colonial
power.
 Colonialism can fuel “imagined
communities”
 Negritude (“African identity”) developed
by black intellectuals out of the common
experience of French colonial rule in
Western Africa and the Caribbean.
 The fact the negritude crosses several
present-day national boundaries makes it
no more or less an imagined community
than any nation-state.
 Ethnic Nationalism Run Amok
 The breakup of Yugoslavia
along ethnic lines in the early
1990s is an example of the
interplay between history,
ethnic identity, and
nationalism.
 Serbs, Croat, Albanians, and
Muslim Slavs are divided into
various groups based on
religion, culture, and political
and military history
(particularly, Serb retaliation
for actions taken against
them by Croat during the
Second World War.
 Serbian “ethnic cleansing,”
the policy of killing or driving
out non-Serbs, took place in
Bosnia.
 Assimilation
 Assimilation describes the process of
change when a minority ethnic group
adopts the patterns and norms of its host
culture.
 Assimilation is not uniform; it may be
forced or relatively benign depending on
historical particularities.
 Brazil (as opposed to the United States
and Canada) is cited as a highly
assimilative society where ethnic
neighborhoods are uncommon.
 The Plural Society
 Plural society refers to a multi-ethnic nation-state
wherein the subgroups do not assimilate but
remain essentially distinct, in (relatively) stable
coexistence.
 Fredrik Barth defines plural society as a society
combining ethnic contrasts and the economic
interdependence of the ethnic groups.
 Such interdependence tends to be structured by
ecological specialization.
 Cultural differences are part of the “natural”
environment of ethnic groups, thus egalitarian
coexistence is possible when there is no
competition for resources.
Multicutluralism vs. Assimilation
 Multiculturalism is the view of cultural
diversity in a country as something good
and desirable.
 This is opposed to assimilation, which
expects subordinate groups to take on the
culture of the dominate group while
abandoning their own.
 Basic aspects of multiculturalism at the
government level are the official espousal
of some degree of cultural relativism along
with the promotion of distinct ethnic
practices.
 Multiculturalism in the U.S.
 A number of factors have caused the
United States to move away from an
assimilationist stance and towards a more
multicultural model.
 Large-scale migration has brought in
substantial minorities in a time span too
short for assimilation to take place.
 An ethnic consciousness may take root in
reaction to consistent discrimination.
 Studies have demonstrated that closely
maintained ethnic ties have been a
successful strategy for recent immigrants.
 Prejudice and Discrimination
 Prejudice is the
devaluation of a given
group based upon the
assumed
characteristics of that
group.
 Discrimination is
disproportionately
harmful treatment of
a group, which can be
de jure or de facto.
 More Discrimination
 Attitudinal discrimination is discrimination
against a group based only upon its
existence as a group (example: the KKK)
 Genocide is the deliberate elimination of a
group through mass murder (example:
Nazi Germany).
 Institutional discrimination is the
formalized pursuance of discriminatory
practices by a government or similar
institution (example: apartheid).
 When Multiculturalism Slips. . .
 Despite the fact that the
1992 Los Angeles riot
began as a reaction to the
first Rodney King verdict,
much of the violence
played out along ethnic
lines: prosperous,
culturally isolated Korean
merchants were targeted
for looting and violence.
 Subsequent public
discussion indicated that
much of the enmity was
due to culturally based
miscommunication.
The Politics of Cultural Oppression
 Ethnic differentiation
sometimes interferes
with the dominant
group’s consolidation
of power.
 Such conditions,
perceived or real,
have resulted in brutal
discrimination: forced
assimilation,
ethnocide, ethnic
expulsion, and cultural
colonialism.
 Summary
 Aspects of culture and race used to define
ethnicity.
 Statuses exist in all societies, some of
which are flexible.
 Nation-states are formal governments that
contain multiple ethnic groups.
 Colonialism by nation-states has often
resulted in subjugation of ethnic minorities
 Multiculturalism and truly plural societies
are possible.