1. Race, Ethnicity, Nation

2. Status & Social Difference
status - ascribed & achieved
ascribed status - social positions that people hold by virtue of birth
sex, age, family relationships, birth into class or caste
achieved status - social positions attained as a result of individual action
shift from homogeneous kin based societies (mechanic) to heterogeneous societies of associations (organic) involves growth in importance of achieved

4. Social Stratification
inequality in society
the unequal distribution of goods and services, rights and obligations, power and prestige
all attributes of positions in society, not attributes of individuals
Stratified society is:
when a society exhibits stratification it means that there are significant breaks in the distribution of goods services, rights obligations power prestige
as a result of which are formed collectivities or groups we call strata

5. 3 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
egalitarian societies - no social groups having greater access to economic resources, power, or prestige - usually foragers
rank societies - do not have unequal access to economic resources or to power, but they do contain social groups having unequal access to prestige
class societies - unequal access to all 3 advantages, economic resources, power, prestige
open & closed class systems - the extent to which mobility occurs allowing people to pass through inequalities

6. race There are no biological human races
up until 14th cent. in Europe cultural & social evolution based on the idea of progress from kin-based societies to civil society through governance & law
after 16th cent. in Europe ideas of blood were used to characterize difference

7. race and social difference
Race as social grouping based on perceived physical differences and cloaked in the language of biology
social races – groups assumed to have a biological basis but social constructed
Racism – systematic social and political bias based on idea of race
Operates as a form of class

8. Social races Race exists as a cultural construct
Racism builds upon idea that personality is linked with hereditary characteristics which differ between races
Race is important for academics studying local discourses on ethnicity
Race relations as a special case of ethnicity
Race as the categorization of people
Operates as an ASCRIBED status of personhood

9. American Anthropological Assoc. statement on race
“Evidence from the analysis of genetics (e.g., DNA) indicates that most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called racial groups.
Conventional geographic ‘racial’ groupings differ from one another only in about 6% of their genes….
‘Race’ thus evolved as a world view, a body of prejudgments that distorts our ideas about human differences and group behavior….
The ‘racial’ world view was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status, while others were permitted access to privilege, power, and wealth”

11. from race to ethnicity
ethnicity forged in the process of historical time
subject to shifts in meaning
shifts in referents or markers of ethnic identity
subject to political manipulations
ethnic identity is not a function of primordial ties, although it may be described as such
always the genesis of specific historical forces that are simultaneously structural & cultural

12. building blocks of ethnicity/ethnic identity
associated with distinctions between language, religion, historical experience, geographic isolation, kinship, notions of race (phenotype)
may include collective name, belief in common descent, sense of solidarity, association with a specific territory, clothing, house types, personal adornment, food, technology, economic activities, general lifestyle

13. cultural markers of difference must be visible to members and non-members
valued markers of difference by insiders may become comic or derided by outsiders
caricature and exaggeration frequently mark outsider depictions of boundary mechanisms
stereotype is one form

14. ethnicity and boundaries
where there is a group there is some sort of boundary
where there are boundaries there are mechanisms for maintaining boundaries
cultural markers of difference that must be visible to members and non-members

15. ethnogenesis fluidity of ethnic identity
ethnic groups vanish, people move between ethnic groups, new ethnic groups come into existence
ethnogenesis
emergence of new ethnic group, part of existing group splits & forms new ethnic group, members of two or more groups fuse

16. political organization and ethnicity
ethnicity is founded upon structural inequities among dissimilar groups into a single political entity
SUBJECTIVE belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type or of customs or of both, or because of memories of colonization and migration
Belief in group affinity can have important consequences for the formation of a political factions

17. The state
A form of rule
A political institution with administrative units responsible for the maintenance of law and order
Controlling defined territories
An instrument of power – power-political unit
Sovereignty as topmost priority

18. The nation
communities of people who see themselves as “one people” on the basis of common ancestry, history, society, institutions, ideology, language, territory, and (often) religion
the nation as a status group united by common historical memory
ethnic groups and nations as sociological categories and nationalism as a form of politics practised by powerful nation-states

19. nation as “imagined community”
"it is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion“
Benedict Anderson (1983), Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. 

20. imagined community A community that “imagines” itself
No possibility of face-to-face communication
Moments of simultaneity
Monuments and memorials
Anthropology questions this reality while recognizing the power of the idea
Differences are marked and suppressed in modern nation-states
A form of amnesia?

21. The Nation
based upon sentiments of prestige which extend deep into the masses of political structures (located in the field of politics)
Those groups who hold the power to steer common conduct within a polity will most strongly instill themselves with this ideal fervor of power prestige
Those who think of themselves as being specific partners of a specific culture diffused among members of the polity

22. 181 states but 5000 nations?
The coincidence of nation and state is rare
Modern nation-state responsible for the rise and definition of social entities called nations
But also the rise of ethnic groups within
within borders of nation-state tremendous social and cultural diversity

23. Assimilation: “Melting Pot”
melting-pot model of American identity, prevalent at the beginning of the 20th century, immigrants were encouraged to completely discard the cultural heritage they brought with them.
all ethnic groups acculturate to a universalistic set of values and symbols with no ancestral connotations
there is two-way influence between ethnic groups in the society such that no ancestral group achieves symbolic dominance.

24. Mosaic Model
the mosaic model, people of different backgrounds can fit together without losing their original identity
'vertical mosaic' of distinct classes and ethnic groups
"vertical" implies that these ethnic and racial groups are arranged into a hierarchy
A similar term would be ethnic stratification.

25. plural societies: pluri-ethnic societies
society in which ethnic distinctions persist in spite of generations of interethnic contact
many contemporary plural societies the result of colonialism
economic niche & plural society

26. Multiculturalism and Ethnicity
Pluralist model treats groups as permanent and enduring
Group rights
Cosmopolitan model that accepts shifting boundaries, multiple affiliations, hybrid identities
Individual rights
Accommodation of immigrant ethnicity
Minority nationalism – nations within (indigenous peoples and Québécois)
Stateless nations, ethnic nationalism vs. indigenous groups
Nations within – groups that formed complete and functioning societies on their historic homeland before being incorporated into a larger state
involuntary – colonization, conquest, etc.

27. Ethnicity and class
May be a high correlation between ethnicity and class
Many poly-ethnic societies are ranked according to ethnic membership

28. Ethnic Conflict & cleansing
Assimilation
Apartheid
Diaspora
Ethnocide
Genocide

29. Indigenous peoples and states
There is a common trend to codify and strengthen the rights of national minorities – two parallel developments
Indigenous groups around the world
Drive for recognition of rights
Sovereignty and self-governance
Nations within – groups that formed complete and functioning societies on their historic homeland before being incorporated into a larger state