Race, Ethnicity, Nation
Social difference
► Basis
for recognition of difference within
and between social groups
► Relationship
inequality
► Beyond
to political power and
the face to face community
Status & Social Difference
► status
- ascribed & achieved
► ascribed status - social positions that people
hold by virtue of birth
 sex, age, family relationships, birth into class or
caste
► achieved
status - social positions attained as
a result of individual action
► shift from homogeneous kin based societies
(mechanic) to heterogeneous societies of
associations (organic) involves growth in
importance of achieved
Social Stratification
► inequality
in society
► the unequal distribution of goods and services,
rights and obligations, power and prestige
► all attributes of positions in society, not attributes
of individuals
► Stratified society is:
 when a society exhibits stratification it means that there
are significant breaks in the distribution of goods
services, rights obligations power prestige
► as
a result of which are formed collectivities or
groups we call strata
3 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
► egalitarian
societies - no social groups having
greater access to economic resources, power, or
prestige - usually foragers
► rank societies - do not have unequal access to
economic resources or to power, but they do
contain social groups having unequal access to
prestige
► class societies - unequal access to all 3
advantages, economic resources, power, prestige
 open & closed class systems - the extent to which
mobility occurs allowing people to pass through
inequalities
race
► There
► up
are no biological human races
until 14th cent. in Europe cultural &
social evolution based on the idea of
progress from kin-based societies to civil
society through governance & law
► after 16th cent. in Europe ideas of blood
were used to characterize difference
race and social difference
► Race
as social grouping based on perceived
physical differences and cloaked in the
language of biology
► social races – groups assumed to have a
biological basis but social constructed
► Racism
– systematic social and political bias
based on idea of race
 Operates as a form of class
Social races
► Race
exists as a cultural construct
► Racism builds upon idea that personality is linked
with hereditary characteristics which differ
between races
► Race is important for academics studying local
discourses on ethnicity
► Race relations as a special case of ethnicity
► Race as the categorization of people
► Operates as an ASCRIBED status of personhood
Variation in recognized “racial” types
►
US
 Bi-racial society
►
Japan
 a nation whose population is greater than 99% born in Japan
 racism in Japan is often not directed so much against people of a
particular race or ethnic group but rather against those who are
non-Japanese
 purity
►
Brazil
 long history with slavery and as a recipient of emigrants from all
over the world
 racial paradise image
 process of whitening -- racial and cultural means through which
outsiders became "Brazilian"
 While racial divisions in Brazil are not clearly defined, class lines are
►
Canada
 Vertical mosaic
American Anthropological Assoc.
statement on race
► “Evidence
from the analysis of genetics (e.g.,
DNA) indicates that most physical variation, about
94%, lies within so-called racial groups.
► Conventional geographic ‘racial’ groupings differ
from one another only in about 6% of their
genes….
► ‘Race’ thus evolved as a world view, a body of
prejudgments that distorts our ideas about human
differences and group behavior….
► The ‘racial’ world view was invented to assign
some groups to perpetual low status, while others
were permitted access to privilege, power, and
wealth”
from race to ethnicity
► ethnicity
forged in the process of historical
time
► subject to shifts in meaning
 shifts in referents or markers of ethnic identity
► subject
to political manipulations
► ethnic identity is not a function of primordial
ties, although it may be described as such
► always the genesis of specific historical
forces that are simultaneously structural &
cultural
building blocks of ethnicity/ethnic
identity
► associated
with distinctions between language,
religion, historical experience, geographic
isolation, kinship, notions of race (phenotype)
► may
include collective name, belief in common
descent, sense of solidarity, association with a
specific territory, clothing, house types, personal
adornment, food, technology, economic activities,
general lifestyle
cultural markers of difference must
be visible to members and nonmembers
► valued
markers of difference by insiders
may become comic or derided by outsiders
► caricature
and exaggeration frequently mark
outsider depictions of boundary mechanisms
 stereotype is one form
► ethnic
identity is not a unitary thing describes a set of relations & mode of
consciousness
► varies
for different social groupings
according to their position in the social
order
ethnicity and boundaries
► where
there is a group there is some sort of
boundary
► where there are boundaries there are
mechanisms for maintaining boundaries
 cultural markers of difference that must be
visible to members and non-members
► Code
switching
► Marked and unmarked categories
Boundary maintenance
► Social
boundaries that may have territorial
counterparts
► The ethnic boundary canalizes social life –
complex organization of behavior and social
relations – playing the same game
► Distinctions between us and them criteria for
judgement of value and performance and
restrictions on interactions
 Allows for the persistence of cultural differences
 Identities are signaled as well as embraced
► All
ethnic groups in a poly-ethnic society act to
maintain dichotomies and differences
ethnogenesis
► fluidity
of ethnic identity
► ethnic groups vanish, people move between
ethnic groups, new ethnic groups come into
existence
► ethnogenesis
 emergence of new ethnic group, part of existing
group splits & forms new ethnic group,
members of two or more groups fuse
► "fluidity"
of ethnic identity
► ethnic groups vanish, people move between
ethnic groups, new ethnic groups come into
existence
political organization and ethnicity
► ethnicity
is founded upon structural
inequities among dissimilar groups into a
single political entity
► based
on cultural differences & similarities
perceived as shared
Ethnicity as identity formation and
political organization
► Ethnic
groups – those human groups that
entertain a SUBJECTIVE belief in their common
descent because of similarities of physical type or
of customs or of both, or because of memories of
colonization and migration
► Belief in group affinity can have important
consequences for the formation of a political
community
► feelings of ethnicity & associated behavior vary in
intensity within groups (& persons) over time &
space
The state
►A
form of rule
► A political institution with administrative
units responsible for the maintenance of law
and order
► Controlling defined territories
► An instrument of power – power-political
unit
► Sovereignty as topmost priority
The nation
► communities
of people who see themselves
as “one people” on the basis of common
ancestry, history, society, institutions,
ideology, language, territory, and (often)
religion
 Older usage in Seneca nation: one people, one
language, one land
nation as “imagined community”
► "it
is imagined because the members of
even the smallest nation will never know
most of their fellow members, meet them,
or even hear of them, yet in the minds of
each lives the image of their communion“
 Benedict Anderson (1983), Imagined
Communities: Reflections on the Origin and
Spread of Nationalism.
imagined community
►A
community that “imagines” itself
 No possibility of face-to-face communication
 Moments of simultaneity
 Monuments and memorials
► Anthropology
questions this reality while
recognizing the power of the idea
 Differences are marked and suppressed in
modern nation-states
 A form of amnesia?
the modern nation
► French
and American revolutions were responsible
for promoting the sense of nation as a political
unit, with its emphasis on the collective
sovereignty of a body of citizens
 nation became a political rather than social notion
 people of a particular nationality should be selfgoverning.
► principle
of "self-determination" lies at the heart of
modern democracy
 government by the people -- but who are the people
 Do modern states offer us a choice between "ethnic"
and "civic" nationalism?
The Nation
upon sentiments of prestige which extend
deep into the masses of political structures
(located in the field of politics)
► Those groups who hold the power to steer
common conduct within a polity will most strongly
instill themselves with this ideal fervor of power
prestige
► Those who think of themselves as being specific
partners of a specific culture diffused among
members of the polity
► based
181 states but 5000 nations?
► The
coincidence of nation and state is rare
► Modern
nation-state responsible for the rise
and definition of social entities called
nations
► But also the rise of ethnic groups within
► within borders of nation-state tremendous
social and cultural diversity
Assimilation: “Melting Pot”
► melting-pot
model of American identity, prevalent
at the beginning of the 20th century, immigrants
were encouraged to completely discard the
cultural heritage they brought with them.
► all ethnic groups acculturate to a universalistic set
of values and symbols with no ancestral
connotations
► there is two-way influence between ethnic groups
in the society such that no ancestral group
achieves symbolic dominance.
Mosaic Model
► the
mosaic model, people of different
backgrounds can fit together without losing
their original identity
► 'vertical mosaic' of distinct classes and
ethnic groups
► "vertical" implies that these ethnic and racial
groups are arranged into a hierarchy
 A similar term would be ethnic stratification.
plural societies
► society
in which ethnic distinctions persist in
spite of generations of interethnic contact
► many contemporary plural societies the
result of colonialism
► economic niche & plural society
Multiculturalism and Ethnicity
► Pluralist
model treats groups as permanent and
enduring
 Group rights
► Cosmopolitan
model that accepts shifting
boundaries, multiple affiliations, hybrid identities
 Individual rights
► Accommodation of immigrant ethnicity
► Minority nationalism – nations within (indigenous
peoples and Québécois)
 Stateless nations, ethnic nationalism vs. indigenous
groups
► Nations
within – groups that formed complete and
functioning societies on their historic homeland
before being incorporated into a larger state
► involuntary
– colonization, conquest, etc.
Ethnicity and class
► Many
poly-ethnic societies are ranked
according to ethnic membership
► May
be a high correlation between ethnicity
and class
Ethnic Conflict & cleansing
► Assimilation
► Apartheid
► Diaspora
► Ethnocide
► Genocide
indigeneity
► Nations
within – groups that formed
complete and functioning societies on their
historic homeland before being incorporated
into a larger state
► Typically been involuntary – colonization,
conquest, etc.
► Indigenous groups around the world
 Drive for recognition of rights
 Sovereignty and self-governance
Indigenous peoples and states
► There
is a common trend to codify and
strengthen the rights of national minorities
– two parallel developments
► One
set of conventions and declarations
concerning indigenous peoples and another
set concerning stateless nations