1. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. Window on Humanity Conrad Phillip Kottak Third Edition CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race

2. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. Overview Ethnic groups and ethnicity Social race –Cultural construction of race in the United States, Japan, and Brazil Nations and nationalities Ethnic tolerance, accommodation, and conflict

3. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Ethnic groups and ethnicity –Ethnic groups Members share certain beliefs, values, customs, and norms because of their common background May define themselves as different based on language, religion, historical experience, geographic placement, kinship, or “race” Markers may include collective name, belief in common descent, sense of solidarity, and association with a specific territory –Ethnicity – identification with, and feeling part of, an ethnic group and exclusion from certain other groups because of this affiliation

4. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Ethnic groups and ethnicity –Status – the various positions that people in society All people occupy multiple statuses Ascribed vs. achieved statuses –Shifting identities Some social identities (particularly ascribed ones) are mutually exclusive, while others are contextual Situational negotiation of social identity – adjusting or switching one's status in different social contexts

5. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Ethnic groups and ethnicity –Shifting identities In many societies, racial, ethnic, or caste status is associated with positions in the social-political hierarchy –Minority groups have less power and less secure access to resources than do majority groups –Ethnic groups often are minorities

6. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Race –Race – an ethnic group assumed to have a biological basis –Racism – discrimination against a “racial” group –Like ethnicity, race is a cultural category rather than a biological reality Ethnic groups—including “races”—derive from contrasts perceived and perpetuated in particular societies, rather than from scientific classifications Only cultural constructions of human race are possible –Social races (C. Wagley) – groups assumed to have a biological basis but actually defined in a culturally arbitrary, rather than scientific, manner

7. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Cultural construction of “race” in the United States –In the United States, “race” is most commonly ascribed to people at birth, although not necessarily on the basis of heredity or genotype –Rules of descent assign social identity on the basis of ancestry –Hypodescent In the United States, children of a union between members of different groups are automatically placed in the minority group Hypodescent rule is rare outside of the United States –Growing number of interracial, biracial, or multiracial individuals who do not identify with only one racial identity

8. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Cultural construction of “race” in Japan –Image of racial and ethnic homogeneity cultivated, despite the presence of minority groups –“Pure” (majority) Japanese define themselves by opposition to others – both minority groups in their own nation and outsiders –Certain ethnic groups (e.g., burakumin) regarded as having biological basis –Burakumin Descendants of historically low-status social class Physically and genetically indistinguishable from the dominant population, but stigmatized as a separate, inferior race

9. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Cultural construction of “race” in Brazil –Less exclusionary categories allow individuals to change their racial classification –Brazilian racial classification recognizes, attempts to describe phenotypical variation in the population More than 500 distinct racial labels Individuals’ racial labels may change along with their phenotypical characteristics Racial labels that people use to describe themselves or others can vary from day to day –No hypodescent rule ensuring that whites and blacks (and other “races”) remain separate

10. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Ethnic groups, nations, and nationalities –Nations/nation-states Autonomous, centrally organized political entities Most are not ethnically homogeneous –Nationalities – ethnic groups that once had, or wish to have or regain, autonomous political status (their own country) –Nationalities and nation-states as “imagined communities” Most of their members, though they feel comradeship, will never meet 18th century – language and printed media contributed to growth of European “imagined communities”

11. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Ethnic groups, nations, and nationalities –Nationalities and nation-states as “imagined communities” Political upheavals, wars, and migration have divided many imagined national communities (e.g., Germany, Korea, the Kurds) Colonialism: –Erected boundaries that corresponded poorly with preexisting cultural divisions –Also helped create new “imagined communities” beyond nations (e.g., négritude in West Africa)

12. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Ethnic tolerance and accommodation –Assimilation A minority group adopts the patterns and norms of a dominant host culture to such an extent that it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit May be forced

13. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Ethnic tolerance and accommodation –Plural society (F. Barth) Interethnic contact does not inevitably lead to assimilation Plural society – a society combining ethnic contrasts, ecological specialization, and the economic interdependence of groups Ethnic boundaries are most stable and enduring when groups: –Occupy different ecological niches –Do not compete –Depend on each other’s activities –Exchange with one another

14. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Multiculturalism and ethnic identity –Multiculturalism – the view of cultural diversity in a country as something good and desirable Opposed to assimilationism – expectation that minorities will abandon their cultural traditions and values, replacing them with those of the majority population –Increasing multiculturalism in the United States Large-scale migration – increasing ethnic variety in host nations, particularly the “developed” countries of North America and Europe Ethnicity-based organizations striving to enhance groups’ economic and political competitiveness and combating discrimination

15. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Roots of ethnic conflict –Prejudice – devaluation of a group because of its assumed behavior, values, capabilities, or attributes –Stereotypes – fixed, often unfavorable ideas about what the members of a group are like –Discrimination – policies and practices that harm a group and its members De facto discrimination – practiced but not legally sanctioned De jure discrimination – part of law

16. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Aftermaths of oppression –Genocide – deliberate elimination of a group through mass murder –Ethnocide – destruction of an ethnic group’s culture –Forced assimilation – forcing an ethnic group to adopt the culture of a dominant group –Ethnic expulsion – removal of groups that are culturally different from a country May create refugees – people who have been forced (involuntary refugees) or who have chosen (voluntary refugees) to flee a country, to escape persecution or war

17. © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 17 Ethnicity and Race Aftermaths of oppression –Colonialism – political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an extended time Frontiers imposed by colonialism usually did not reflect preexisting cultural units Colonial nation-building frequently resulted in ethnic strife –Cultural colonialism – internal domination by one group and its culture/ideology over others (e.g., former Soviet empire)