Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a human population whose members identify with each other, usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry (Smith 1986). Ethnic groups are also usually united by common cultural, behavioural, linguistic, or religious practices. In this sense, an ethnic group is also a cultural community.

From an objective standpoint, an ethnic group is also an endogamous population, that is, members of an ethnic group procreate primarily with other members of their ethnic group, something which is measurable in terms of characteristic average genetic frequencies. These differences, however, usually do not approach the magnitude of racial difference in that the genetic differences within an ethnic group are greater than the difference between any two ethnic groups. The characteristic of endogamy is reinforced by proximity, cultural familiarity, and also social pressure (in extreme cases, by legal command) to procreate within the ethnic group.

Types of ethnic group

In general, two types of ethnic groups have arisen in human history. The earliest form is the kinship-based ethnic group most closely corresponding to the term "tribe". As human populations became more mobile, another type of ethnic group arose, most closely associated with the evolution of the state ("country"), as the opportunity to procreate outside the old kinship systems presented itself. Invasion, migration, and pan-ethnic religions have contributed to a further evolution of new ethnic groups out of the mixture of older ethnic groups. At the same time, ethnic distinction can persist, even within the bounds of a single country as long as members of an ethnic group procreate primarily among themselves, for various reasons.

Members of an ethnic group generally claim a strong cultural continuity over time, although some historians and anthropologists have documented that many of the cultural practices on which ethnic groups are based are of recent invention (Friedlander 1975, Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983, Sider 1993). On the political front, an ethnic group is distinguished from a nation-state by the former's lack of sovereignty.

While ethnicity and race are related concepts (Abizadeh 2001), the concept of ethnicity is rooted in the idea of social groups, marked especially by shared nationality, tribal affiliation, genealogy, religious faith, shared language, or cultural and traditional origins, whereas race is rooted in the idea of a biological classification of Homo sapiens according to chosen genotypic and/or phenotypic traits.

Origin of the Term

"Ethnic" is derived from the Greek ethnos, meaning "people". It was typically used to refer to non-Greek people, so the term also connotated "foreign". In later Catholic Latin usage, there was the additional connotation of "heathen". The noun "ethnic" ceased to be related to "heathen" in the early 18th century. The modern usage is closer to the original Greek meaning.

Nationality

Nationality refers simply to citizenship with respect to a given state (country). Since many countries have more than one ethnic group within them, one's nationality does not necessarily correspond to one's ethnicity.

In the United States

Collectivities of related ethnic groups are typically denoted as "ethnic". Most prominently in the US, the various Latin American ethnic groups plus the Spanish are typically collectivized as "Hispanics". The many Asian ethnic groups are similarly lumped together as "Asians". So too with the many indigenous American groups. The term "African American" can include the various African ethnic groups in the US who are not descended from African slaves in the American continent. Even the racial term "white" is typically used in an ethnic sense, lumping all the various European groups together. The additional factor of intermarriage and multiethnic ancestry complicates the picture further.

In the US Census, only the Hispanic group is treated as "ethnic" and not "racial".

Categories and data on "Ancestry" in the US are compiled on the following criteria from the Census Bureau: "Ancestry refers to a person’s ethnic origin or descent, 'roots', or heritage, or the place of birth of the person or the person’s parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States." The ancestry questionnaire is only available on a random basis to one out of six households during the census.

Ethnic Ideology

In the West, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation, developed in the context of European colonial expansion, when mercantilism and capitalism were promoting global movements of populations at the same time that state boundaries were being more clearly and rigidly defined. In the nineteenth century, modern states generally sought legitimacy through their claim to represent "nations." Nation-states, however, invariably include populations that have been excluded from national life for one reason or another. Members of excluded groups, consequently, will either demand inclusion on the basis of equality, or seek autonomy, sometimes even to the extent of complete political separation in their own nation-state.

Sometimes ethnic groups are subject to prejudicial attitudes and actions by the state or its constituents. In the twentieth century, people began to argue that conflicts among ethnic groups or between members of an ethnic group and the state can and should be resolved in one of two ways. Some, like Jürgen Habermas and Bruce Barry, have argued that the legitimacy of modern states must be based on a notion of political rights of autonomous individual subjects. According to this view the state ought not to acknowledge ethnic, national or racial identity and should instead enforce political and legal equality of all individuals. Others, like Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka argue that the notion of the autonomous individual is itself a cultural construct, and that it is neither possible nor right to treat people as autonomous individuals. According to this view, states must recognize ethnic identity and develop processes through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated within the boundaries of the nation-state. This is the nationalist viewpoint.

In English, Ethnicity goes far beyond the modern ties of a person to a particular nation (e.g., citizenship), and focuses more upon the connection to a perceived shared past and culture. See also Kinship and descent, Romanticism, folklore. In other languages, the corresponding terms for ethnicity and nationhood can be closer to each other.

Racialized Ethnocentrism

The 19th century saw the development of the political ideology of ethnic nationalism, when the concept of race was tied to nationalism, first by German theorists including Johann Gottfried von Herder. Instances of societies focusing on ethnic ties to the exclusion of history or historical context arguably have resulted in almost fanatical justification of nationalist or imperialist goals. Two periods frequently cited as examples of this are the 19th century consolidation and expansion of the German Empire, and the Third Reich, each promoted on the theory that these governments were only re-possessing lands that had "always" been ethnically German. The history of late-comers to the nation state model, such as those arising in Near East and southeast Europe out of the dissolution of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, as well as those arising out of the former USSR, is particularly marked by inter-ethnic conflicts.

Research

The Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) has attempted to map the DNA that varies between humans, which is a less than 1 % difference. This data could create definitive proof of the origin of individual ethnic groups.

References

Abizadeh, Arash. 2001."Ethnicity, Race, and a Possible Humanity" World Order 33.1: 23-34. (Article that explores the social construction of ethnicity and race.)
Dunnhaupt, Gerhard. 1989. "The Bewildering German Boundaries", in: Festschrift for P. M. Mitchell. Heidelberg: Winter.
Friedlander, Judith. 1975. Being Indian in Hueyapan: A Study of Forced Identity in Contemporary Mexico. New York: Saint Martin's Press.
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Terence Ranger, editors. 1983. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morales-Díaz, Enrique, and Gabriel Aquino, and Michael Sletcher, ‘Ethnicity’, in Michael Sletcher, ed., New England, (Westport, CT, 2004).
Sider, Gerald. 1993. Lumbee Indian Histories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Smith, Anthony D. 1987. The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Blackwell.
census.gov. Race.

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