Core readings

1
Core readings

• Ethnicity
• Barth, F. Ethnic groups and boundaries, 1969.
• Rex, J. Race and Ethnicity, 1986.
• Eriksen, Hylland T., Ethnicity and Nationalism,
  Anthropological Perspectives, 2.ed., 2002/1992
• Jenkins, R., Rethinking Ethnicity arguments and
  explorations, 1997.
• Baumann, G. The Multicultural Riddle, 1999.

2
Two aspects of ethnicity

• Discursive point of view processes of social
  inclusion and exclusion and forms of ethnic
  incorporation
• Symbolic aspects of ethnicity the ethnic
  identity

3
Ethnic anomalies neither-nor or both-and

• 2. and 3. generation immigrants
• Often bilingual
• Double citizenship
• Conflicting loyalities across nation-state,
  generations and gender
• The offspring of mixed couples various
  taxonomic systems Haiti, Brazil, Jews

4
Agency and Structure

• Are humans voluntarily and strategically chosing
  social or ethnic identity or are humans products
  of culture and society?
• No definite answer. Depends on theoretical
  perspective and empirical context

5
Boundary maintenance and elements of ethnic
identity ethnic ideologies specific cases

• A perceived continuity with the past
• Religion
• Expressions of metaphoric kinship (shared
  descent) and socially relevant
• Notion of race
• Interpretations of the past important such
  intepretations and objective history
  contestable

6
Does European Identity exist?

• Shared European heritage
• New repertoire of Euro-symbols tries to
  neutralise national differences fx Euro banknotes
• European identity is not necessarily incompatible
  with national or ethnic identities

7
Views on the nature of ethnicity

• Primordial
• fixed, fundamental and rooted in the
  unchangeable circumstances of birth
• Problem
• Inability to account for change and variation

• Circumstantialism
• ethnicity has practical uses,
• ethnicity product of concrete social and
  historical situations
• contingent on circumstance and therefore fluid
  fx Asians against the discriminators

8
What is your ethnic group?Census 2001

• Choose one section ofrom A to E, then tick the
  appropriate box to indicate your cultural
  background.
• A White C Asian or Asian British
• British Indian
• Irish Pakistani
• Other white Bangladeshi
• B Mixed Other Asian
• White and Black Caribbean Black or Black British
• White and Black African Black Caribbean
• White and Asian Other Black
• Other mixed E Chinese or Other Ethnic Group
• Chinese
• Other Ethnic Group

9
Biased attitudes within a group
Cognitive processes
Affective processes
Behavioural action
10
Stereotyping

• Positive self-identification is a universal
  phenomenon
• However, who is appointed the out-group, what
  traits they are given and how strong the
  opposition is not universal