Ethnic group
hideAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.
Ethnic identity is further marked by the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural, linguistic, religious, behavioural ,, as indicators of contrast to other groups.
Ethnicity is an important means through which people can identify themselves. According to "Challenges of Measuring an Ethnic World: Science, politics, and reality", a conference organised by Statistics Canada and the United States Census Bureau (April 1–3, 1992), "Ethnicity is a fundamental factor in human life: it is a phenomenon inherent in human experience." However, many social scientists, like anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf, do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. Processes that result in the emergence of such identification are called ethnogenesis. Members of an ethnic group, on the whole, claim cultural continuities over time. Historians and cultural anthropologists have documented, however, that often many of the values, practices, and norms that imply continuity with the past are of relatively recent invention.
According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, until recently the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates. One is between "primordialism" and "instrumentalism". In the primordialist view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as an externally given, even coercive, social bond. The instrumentalist approach, on the other hand, treats ethnicity primarily as an ad-hoc element of a political strategy, used as a resource for interest groups for achieving secondary goals such as, for instance, an increase in wealth, power or status. This debate is still an important point of reference in Political science, although most scholars' approaches fall between the two poles.
The second debate is between "constructivism" and "essentialism". Constructivists view national and ethnic identities as the product of historical forces, often recent, even when the identities are presented as old. Essentialists view such identities as ontological categories defining social actors, and not themselves the result of social action.
According to Eriksen, these debates have been superseded, especially in anthropology, by scholars' attempts to respond to increasingly politicised forms of self-representation by members of different ethnic groups and nations. This is in the context of debates over multiculturalism in countries, such as the United States and Canada, which have large immigrant populations from many different cultures, and post-colonialism in the Caribbean and South Asia.
For more information about Ethnic group, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with ethnic groups
Cancer researchers call for ethnicity to be taken into account
Jul 18, 2008 |
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Breast cancer research needs to investigate how a person's ethnicity influences their response to treatment and its outcome, according to a new Comment piece in today's Lancet (18 July) by researchers from Imperial Colleg ...
No such thing as ethnic groups, genetically speaking
Aug 31, 2009 |
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Central Asian ethnic groups are more defined by societal rules than ancestry. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Genetics found that overall there are more genetic differences within ethnic groups than betwee ...
Diversity in primary schools promotes harmony
Jul 24, 2008 |
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For the first time, children as young as 5 have been shown to understand issues regarding integration and separation. The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), confirms that the ethnic composition ...
Many middle-aged and older Americans not getting adequate nutrition
Mar 01, 2009 |
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Micronutrients such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamin C play essential roles in maintaining health. As older adults tend to reduce their food intake as they age, there is concern that deficits in these micronutrients ...
Scientists report adulthood body size associated with cancer risk
Sep 11, 2009 |
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A team of scientists led by researcher Brenda Hernandez, Ph.D., M.P.H.—an assistant professor at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i—has reported that body mass in younger and older ...
Where Hispanics live in the US may change over time
Oct 17, 2008 |
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A study of residential patterns in America suggests that White and Black Hispanics born in the U.S. are more likely to share neighborhoods with native non-Hispanic Whites and African Americans, compared to foreign-born Hispanics ...
Social class, gender and ethnic group determine adolescents' sexual-affective education
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Jun 24, 2009 |
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The social class, the gender and the ethnic group are three essential dimensions, not only in the social differentiation, but also in the affective sexual education of the adolescents, where it is necessary to take part in ...
Sleep problems associated with menopause vary among ethnic groups
Jul 01, 2008 |
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Difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep increase as women go through menopause according to research by Rush University Medical Center. Waking up earlier than planned also increases through late perimenopause but decreases ...
Latinas more likely to regret breast cancer treatment decisions
Nov 18, 2008 |
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Latina women who prefer speaking Spanish are more likely than other ethnic groups to express regret or dissatisfaction with their breast cancer treatment, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan ...
Gaps in colorectal cancer screening persist between whites and non-whites
Feb 18, 2009 |
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Colorectal cancer screening among patients with Medicare coverage is increasing, but a persistent gap remains between whites — who are screened most frequently — and all other racial and ethnic groups, according to a new ...
Ethnic Background Matters for Type 2 Diabetes
Mar 18, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The prevalence of diabetes is at least twice as high in some ethnic groups as it is in whites, even among people with similar body mass index (BMI) numbers, a large new study finds.
Minority groups pick up worst European eating habits
May 07, 2009 |
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Immigrant populations in Europe face an increased risk of diet-related diseases as they adjust to a 'Western' lifestyle, according to scientists at the University of Leeds.
Mixed-race patients struggle to find marrow donors
May 27, 2009 |
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(AP) -- If Nick Glasgow were white, he would have a nearly 90 percent chance of finding a matching bone marrow donor who could cure his leukemia.
High HIV infection rate among Soweto Township gays
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Aug 31, 2009 |
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New research from UCSF examining HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the township of Soweto in South Africa has found that a third of gay-identified men are infected with HIV.
Race not reported in over 50 percent of randomized clinical trials for cardiovascular disease
Oct 13, 2009 |
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A new study recently published online by the American Heart Journal shows that more than half of all randomized clinical trials, or RCTs, for cardiovascular disease are not reporting vital information about the study populations ...
