Title: Ethnic and National Identity
1Ethnic and National Identity
- Theories of development and change
2Table of contents
- The characteristics of ethnicity
- What ethnicity is not
- Immigration and cultural change
3Definitions Little agreement
- 27 different definitions (Isajiw, 1974)
- Many different meanings (Burkey, 1978)
- A cultural group
- An ancestral group
- A racial group
- A minority group
- An immigrant group
- Any group that wears colorful clothes
- People unlike ourselves (Banks Gay, 1978)
4Definitions
- Ethnic group A social collective made up of
people who are defined as sharing important
cultural, physical, or ancestral attributes
(Jaret) - Ethnicity Properties of either an ethnic group
as a whole or of individual members of an ethnic
group, including customs, language, religion, and
political and economic interests.
5Ethnicity is not race
From C. Jarets Contemporary Racial and Ethnic
Relations
- Ethnic groups can be racial sub-categories
- Racial groups can be ethnic sub-categories
- Racial and ethnic groups are two kinds of groups
6Ethnicity is not nationality/state
- A nation is a large body of people, associated
with a particular territory, that is sufficiently
conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a
government peculiarly its own (dictionary.com) - A state is a territory of an independent and
autonomous government (dictionary.com)
7Ethnicity is not religion
From 2001 study of U.S. congregations called
"Faith Communities Today by Hartford Seminary's
Hartford Institute for Religious Research
8Central characteristics of ethnicity
- Peoplehood
- Culture
- Territoriality
- Ethnocentrism
- Ascribed membership (Essentialism)
9Peoplehood
- Refers to a special feeling of attachment to
other group members - Can have many origins
- Shared ancestry
- Shared sense of victimization
- Shared aspirations
- Can be local or cross-national
- Fixed or flexible?
10Culture
- Definitions (again) vary
- Basic or core values
- Human nature (good neutral evil)
- Time (past present future)
- Relationship between people (individualistic
collectivistic) - Institutional behavioral patterns
- Language
- Family roles and interaction styles
- Food
- Religion
- Celebrations and traditions
- Style and appearance
11Ethnocentrism
- A point of view in which ones own group is the
center of everything. - Tendency to judge other groups by the standards
of ones own group - Opposite of multiculturalism
- Has two outcomes
- in-group cohesiveness
- out-group antagonism
12Essence Question 1
13Essence Question 2
14Essence Question 3
15Descent often seen as necessary and sufficient
- Sample size 41
- Order of questions is randomized
16Ethnic Group?
17Jews
- Sense of peoplehood
- Shared culture (e.g., religion, food, holidays,
Hebrew/Yiddish language) - Shared connection to specific geographic
territory (Israel) - Have sovereignty (in Israel)
- Ethnocentrism
- Essentialism Jewish law (Halakha) specifies
rules of descent
18African Americans
- Sense of peoplehood (complicated)
- No Ancestors from different tribes from
different parts of Africa - Maybe Some feel a connection to Africa, or West
Africa - Yes History of racialization has created sense
of peoplehood - Shared culture (sort of)
- lots of within-group diversity
- substantial overlap with mainstream culture
(e.g., language) - Shared connection to specific geographic
territory (No most do not want to live in Africa - Have or want sovereignty (No)
19How do people reconcile multiple identities?
- Are some identities more important than others?
- Do some identities have a different meaning than
others? - Does the country of residence influence ethnic
identity (for members of the same ethnic group)?
20Building a DiasporaRussian Jews in Israel,
Germany and the USA
Brill Press
Olaf Glockner (historian)
Eliezer Ben-Rafael (sociologist)
Paul Harris (political scientist)
21Are some identities more important?
22The meaning of identity (U.S. data)
23The meaning of identity host culture
24Feeling part of host culture (peoplehood)
25Peoplehood as function of time in host country
0not at all 1a little 2moderately 3extremely
26Identification with host culture
27How do people reconcile multiple identities?
- Are some identities more important than others?
- Do some identities have a different meaning than
others? - Does the country of residence influence ethnic
identity (for members of the same ethnic group)?
Next lecture Acculturation and cultural
acquisition