Ethnicity and Race - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Ethnicity and Race

from: http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_1.htmSlide2

Overview

What

race are you?

How do you define your race? What does it mean to be Black or White or Asian or Hispanic?Slide3

Ethnicity

:

refers to selected cultural and sometimes physical characteristics used to classify people into groups or categories considered to be significantly different from others.

E.g.: First Nations, Latinos, Chinese-Canadians, Afro-Canadians Slide4

Sometimes ethnicity involves loose group identity with little cultural traditions in

common (

Irish and German Canadians) and sometimes this may include groups that are coherent subcultures with a shared language and body of tradition Slide5

Minority and ethnic group are different

Ethnic groups may be the minority or the majority

In small homogeneous societies like those of hunter-gatherers and pastoralists there is usually only one ethnic group and no minorities Slide6

Some erroneously think that ethnicity implies a connection between biological inheritance and culture and that biological inheritance determines much of cultural identity

We know that this is not true and that race and culture are not the same thing

Edward

Tylor

:

Cultural

traits are entirely learned and any baby can be

enculturated

to that cultureSlide7

A

race

is meant to be a biological subspecies consisting of more or less a distinct population with anatomical traits that distinguish it clearly from other races.

However, this does not fit the reality of human variation

In fact, humans are 99.9% genetically identical and most variation is between males and females and unique personal traits

This homogeneity is unusual

e.g

: chimpanzees have 2-3 times more genetic variation than people and orangutans have 8 – 10 times more variation Slide8

Race is a cultural creation and not a biological reality

This comes from the misconception that anatomical traits like skin colour and facial characteristics cluster together into single distinct groups of people Slide9

Anatomical traits supposedly identifying a particular race are often found extensively in other population as well

This is due to the fact that similar selection factors in different parts of the world often result in the evolution of similar adaptations

E.g.: intense sunlight in tropical areas as selected for darker skin color as a protection from intense ultraviolet radiation

E,g

: dark skin of sub-Saharan Africans is also found among unrelated populations in the Indian subcontinent, Australia and New Guinea and other places in the Southwest Pacific Slide10

We could all be classified into a number of different races depending on the traits that are emphasized

E.g.: if we used blood type to qualify race

B type would cluster Australian Aborigines with most Native Americans and some Africans would be the same race as Europeans which others would be classified with Asians

Ethnicity like race is a cultural and historical construct Slide11

The Nature of Ethnicity

Ethnic symbols

are badges of identity to emphasize distinctness from other groups

Language, religion and style of dress are common ethnic symbols Sometimes biological characteristics may be important as well

E.g

: African American ethnicity is usually defined by dark brown skin, but shared experience and dialect are often as important since the range of skin coloration is quite broad among African Americans Slide12

Ethnic group unity is reinforced by constant emphasis on what traits set the members apart from others, rather than what they share in common with the outsiders

This is a universal means of

boundary maintenance

, or defence between ethnic groups Ethnic symbols are convenient markers for making “we-they” distinctions and focal points for racism and manifestations of ethnocentrism

They also mask in-group differences and lump groups together Slide13

Individuals in minority ethnic groups may wish to

assimilate

into the dominant ethnic group and choose de-emphasize their ethnic symbols

E.g.: children of immigrants may speak their colloquial dialect of English rather than their parents’ native language Slide14

Assimilation may be speeded up by marriage across ethnic boundaries

The effect of intermarriage on reducing ethnic group identity can be seen in the reduction of discrimination against varying European groups in North America After several generations

E.g.: discrimination against Jews in North America as reduced in conjunction with the increase in marriage to non-Jews

In 1960s only 6% of American Jews married outsiders, in 1985 25%, in the mid 1990s 52%Slide15

African Americans have had a low frequency of intermarriage

In 1970 2.6% of their marriages were to European Americans, in 1993 12.1%, rate for men has been 3.5x higher than women

Asian and Latin Americans have had a high intermarriage rate

12% of men and 25% of women intermarried This may indicate a low resistance to assimilation in their communities and a greater acceptance of them by the dominant European American society Slide16

Forms of Discrimination

Prejudice and discrimination are universal

Can range from benign classification of people to cruel persecution

Kwame

Appiah

, a scholar of African American issues has made a distinction between different types of prejudicial behaviour

Racialism:

benign categorizing people for reference purposes on the basis of age gender and ethnicity/race

Everyone engages in racialism

It’s normal to categorize based on traits or characteristics

E.g.: lost in a strange city you are likely to approach and adult rather than a young child because you think an adult will know more

Racism

: harmful discrimination

E.g.: not hiring someone because of their raceSlide17

Many groups think and act in a racist manner

Even members of groups that are aggressively discriminated against by others may express racist attitudes

Racism is expressed differently in small-scale and large-scale societies

Small societies are usually biologically and culturally homogenous without ethnic group distinctions The target of racism is other societies and strangers are thought of as not being quite human

Large societies are often heterogeneous and have many ethnic groups

The targets of racism are mostly other ethnic groups within the same society

E.g.: Northern Italians look down on Southern Italians and vice versa Slide18

Ethnic Identification Process

Ethnic identity can be self-identified or come from the outside

Imposing ethnicity upon people has been a political tool for controlling and marginalizing them

E.g.: Nazis labeling Jews even though the individuals they labeled as such didn’t identify with as Jewish

19

th

and early 20

th

century America restricted legal rights for people defined as being African, Asian, or Native American

In Japan today 2

nd

and 3

rd

generation resident Koreans living in Japan have limited rights if they retain their Korean citizenship (Japan doesn’t allow dual citizenship) Slide19

People in political and economic power usually define their own ethic group as being superior

E.g.: portrayal of ‘whites’ and ‘non-whites’ in media

Whether one has a positive or negative positive self-image that stems from ethnicity, gender or physical condition has a powerful effect on the way one relates to others and leads his or her life