Ethnic Identity
The first conceptual distinction to make is between nationality and ethnicity. Cornell and Hartmann noted that terms such as ethnic, ethnic group and ethnicity are "slippery and difficult to define" (1998: 16). The concept has its roots in the Greek ethnos though the terms do not appear in the Oxford English Dictionary until the 1950s (Glazer and Moynihan 1975). Scholars since then have attempted to capture its attributes: Ceri Peach (1983) trawled the literature on ethnicity and produced 14 characteristics of an ethnic group. Here we present a more manageable number.
American sociologist Milton Gordon (1964) noted that identifying with a group provides individuals with a sense of peoplehood and oneness. In practice, an ethnic group is, according to Schemerhorn (1978: 12), "a collectivity within a larger society having real or putative common ancestry, memories of a shared historical past and a cultural focus on one or more symbolic elements as the epitome of their peoplehood." This shared heritage can be real or mythical, for all that is necessary for a sense of collective identity to develop is for members of a society merely to believe in this common ground (Shibutani and Kwan 1965).
Schemerhorn (1978) also noted that ethnic groups often share a distinct territory within the larger society. Even when they are not territorially based, ethnic groups may still harbour sentimental ties to their place of origin, which they may call their 'homeland'.
Cornell and Hartmann (1998: 19) add that ethnic groups see themselves as distinct and are in turn seen as distinct. Distinctiveness means that "others must be present to be distinct from: there must be Us and them, insiders and outsiders. Orienting with a group necessitates defining who is included and excluded from it. What is important is the division into groups, into "us" and "others", rather than any specific ethnic markers: "[E]thnicity is essentially a property of a relationship, not a property of a group" (Eriksen 1993: 11-12). That distinction – inclusion and exclusion – is at the heart of debates about constructing and transforming national identity.
There is no single, universally applicable marker of "ethnicity." This is demonstrated by the fact that sometimes ethnicities are differentiated on the basis of language, sometimes by religion, sometimes by national origin or by "race." This is a contested term in itself, but perhaps a distinction can be made by generalizing that racial groups may be defined by socially selected physical traits rather than by cultural traits (Cornell and Hartmann 1998). Ethnicity and race are not the same thing, but neither are they mutually exclusive. What may be seen as racial categories may also be considered ethnic groups, but ethnicity may be defined on many other characteristics besides race.
Pause and Reflect: In what ways, and for which groups, is the concept of "ethnic groups" used in your country?
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Date last modified: October 8, 2009.
NSF Project (AAG,Texas State, Northern Colorado)