Ethnicity
W.G. Sumner first used the term ‘ethnicity’ in his book Folkways (1906). Ethnicity is a situation in which a social group, which is generally a minority in a society, shares within itself a common culture and we-feeling.
The definition of a concept in any field of social science is usually difficult. A term such as ethnicity is loaded with meanings, values and prejudices and, therefore, is even more difficult to define. Ethnicity pertains to the word ethnic, which is a distinction of mankind based on race. Ethnicity has now lost its original connotation.
Barun De and Sunanjan Das (1992, p. 69) “It is now employed in a broader sense to signify self-consciousness of a group of people united, or closely related, by shared experience such as language, religious belief, common heritage, etc. While race usually denotes the attributes of a group, ethnic identity typifies creative response of a group who consider themselves marginalised in society.”
Features of Ethnicity
1. Historical Past: Another important feature of the ethnic group is its historical past. This helps not only determine the past but also organize the present. Here, the family acts as the connecting link between the past and the present, making membership in the group viable primarily through birth.
2. Cultural Distinctiveness: Culture seems to be a common feature on which ethnicity and its theory are based; other variables, however, exist and are subjective. Culture acts as a marked feature that is distinctive in beliefs, values, institutions, rituals, and general design for living.
3. Aesthetic Cultural Patterns: Different aesthetic cultural patterns form the basis for ethnicity for a few groups. Dance traditions, styles of clothing, food habits, and, at times, physical beauty are ways in which cultures identify themselves by aesthetic patterns. For example, the Rajasthanis are fond of celebrating each moment of life, singing and dancing. The Ghoomar is a type of ceremonial dance performed only by women on special occasions like weddings and festivals.
4. Structural Components: The structural characteristic of ethnic groups may be treated as a distinctive sociological phenomenon to avoid revealing several structural complexities at the beginning. However, its structural complexity varies with each ethnic group, vis-a-vis its location, history, size, etc. The total membership of a given ethnic group does not occupy a common territory; mostly, they are distributed either within a country or among many countries. For example, the Jats in India are an ethnic society living in the north-western part of the nation. They are conservative by nature and rarely marry people from other ethnic groups. Great pride is placed in their ancestry, and all the Jats in a particular village consider themselves to be the descendants of the man whom they believe founded it by the power of the sword.
5. Associational Character: Gordon views that within the ethnic group, a network of organizations and informal social relationships develops, which permits the members of the ethnic group to remain within the confines of the group for all their relationships throughout their lifecycle.
6. The We-ness and They-ness of an Ethnic group: When an ethnic group identifies itself as a distinctive group, the larger society also perceives its distinctiveness. This distinctiveness refers to ‘we’ to the ethnic group and ‘they’ to the larger society. The differences in their perceptions characterize the evaluation of this distinctiveness by both. It is often seen that the ethnic group evaluates its distinctiveness positively, while the larger society evaluates it negatively.
Thus, these features lead ethnic communities to conflict with other communities with whom they come in contact.
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