Cultural Identity: Race and Ethnicity

1
Cultural IdentityRace and Ethnicity

• Culture groups
• Few or many characteristics (language, religion,
  race, food, etc.)
• Subculture
• Races
• Single species
• Secondary biological characteristics
• Ethnic groups
• Ethnocentrism

2
Race

• Does not exist on a scientific level, despite
  influence of the idea.
• Biological variation is real the order we
  impose on this variation by using the concept of
  race is not. Race is a product of the human mind,
  not of nature.
• Based on a three category system developed in
  Europe in the 18th century caucasians,
  mongoloids, and blacks.
• The truth is that there is very little
  fundamental genetic variety between humans and no
  way to tell where one category stops and another
  begins. Race is literally skin deep. There has
  not been enough time for much genetic variation.
  We do not have distinct races or subspecies.

3
Race in the U.S.

• Genetic mixing is so common and complete that
  most geographers dismiss race as a category since
  it can not be clearly tied to place.

4
What is ethnicity? How is it different than race?

• 1. Ethnicity is an identity with a group of
  people who share the cultural traditions of a
  particular homeland or hearth. Thus customs,
  cultural characteristics, language, common
  history, homeland, etc...
• 2. Race is a a socially created system of rules
  about who belongs and who does not belong to a
  particular group based on actual or perceived
  commonality of origin, race, culture. This notion
  is clearly tied to place.

Armenian
Turkish
Puerto Rican
Chinese
Thai
Japanese
Kazakh
Mongolian
5
Nationalism

• Helps create national unity
• Can be very dangerous
• Can breed intolerance of difference and others

6
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights

• Lets read over the United Nations Universal
  Declaration. As we read think about the
  following
• Does it remind you of any other documents?
• Do you see any problems with enforcing it?
• http//www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
• http//www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

7
Discussion Questions

• How is the process of globalization, both
  economic and culture, changing perceptions of
  race?
• Are we headed towards one world culture and one
  world ethnicity? Can you give examples to make
  your argument?
• Is ethnic identity decreasing in the U.S. in the
  face of globalization of the media and cultures?
  Is the situation different in other parts of the
  world?
• Next Apartheid Reading and Human Rights Video