1. from: http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_1.htm
Ethnicity and Race
from:

2. Overview What race are you? How do you define your race?
What does it mean to be Black or White or Asian or Hispanic?

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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 culture

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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 %, in the mid 1990s 52%

15. African Americans have had a low frequency of intermarriage
In % of their marriages were to European Americans, in %, 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

16. 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 race

17. 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

18. 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
19th and early 20th century America restricted legal rights for people defined as being African, Asian, or Native American
In Japan today 2nd and 3rd generation resident Koreans living in Japan have limited rights if they retain their Korean citizenship (Japan doesn’t allow dual citizenship)

19. 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