Anthropology: What is ethnicity?

Essential zing – You become a stereotype. That breeds animosity and hate.

Defining ethnicity:

· The word ethnicity comes from Greek word Ethnos – foreigner/savage. Greeks ref. to themselves as Genos Hellenon (citizens) and outsiders as Ethnos.

· For centuries very little written about ethnic groups in Europe – but cultural distinction existed and were imp. To social hierarchy.

· East Europeans, Gypsies (Roma), various Mediterranean groups seen as inferior to Angle Saxons and French.

· In the 19^th Century – refer to racial characteristics.

· In WWII in the US referred to the non WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants).

· As Eriksen tells us, ‘ethnicity emerges and is made relevant through ongoing social situations and encounters, and though people’s ways of coping with the demands and challenges of life’.

· Anthropology helps us to explore how people talk and think about their own and other groups and it provides us with a view of ethnicity in the contemporary world.

Elements of ethnicity:

· Possession of proper name.

· Common cult /beliefs

· Shared sense of history

· Possible attachment to a specific territory

· Sense of solidarity within the group

· Shared sense of suffering

· Shared language.

Ethnicity and Race

· Banton (1967) says race refers to the categorization of people, while ethnicity involves group identification.

· Both are cultural constructs

· Ethnicity is concerned with culture – creation of shared meaning but is rooted in and the outcome of social interaction. (Jenkins 1997).

How do we analyze ethnicity?

· Primordialism: Ethnic groups are quasi-biological entities that do not change or change very slowly over time.

· Indstrumentalism: Ethnic identities can be changed to meet certain social and political needs. Political leaders and activists often play a central role in promoting ethnic solidarity and activism.

· Major writers/thinkers on ethnicity: Ernest Gellner (organic folk communities coming together for the common good), Benedict Anderson (imagined community, politically created).