Transnationality, Transculturality and Ethnicity: A Look ...
Anth1 Ethnicity A
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Transcript of Anth1 Ethnicity A
Week 4 Ethnicity & Race
Deep within the word “American” is its association with race... American means white, and Africanist people struggle to make the term applicable to themselves with ethnicity and hyphen after hyphen after hyphen.
- Tony MorrisonPlaying in the Dark, 1993:47
Ethnicity and Race
Ethnic Groups and EthnicityHuman Biological Diversity and the Rac
e ConceptRace and EthnicityThe Social Construction of Race
Continued
Ethnicity
Ethnic Groups and EthnicityRaceThe Social Construction of Race &
EthnicitySocial StratificationEthnic Groups and NationalitiesPeaceful CoexistenceRoots of Ethnic Conflict
Ethnic Groups and Ethnicity
Ethnic group – members share certain beliefs, values, habits, customs, and norms because of their common background
Ethnicity revealed when people claim a certain ethnic identity for themselves and are defined by others as having that identity
Ethnicity: Primordial Identity & Loyalties
Frederick Barth: ‘When people claim an identity for themselves & are defined by others as having that identity’
The Concept of Race
Race is ethnic group assumed to have a biological basis
Race is a “cultural construction”.
Race has political purpose but not scientific basis
• Race is what others “do” to you... Ethnicity is what you do to yourself
Hardin Coleman, Ph.D.Univ. of Wisconsin
Tribe:
Meaning 1: A grp of persons forming a community & claiming descent from a common ancestor.
Meaning 2: A grp of people in a primitive or barbarous condition, under a headman or chief.
Used in public spheres, not much in cultural anthropology
Variations of Race & Ethnicity
America Race Ethnicity of “Amer Indian”
Hispanic Kumeyaay Asian Zuñi Pacific
Islander Navajo
American Indian
Gabrieliño/Tongva
Black Chumash White Seri Yuma
Variations of Race & Ethnicity
Race/Ethnic Identification in the United States, 2002
Ethnic Groups and Social Stratification
Status – various social positions that people occupy
– Ascribed status – Position in society that you receive at birth; little choice about occupying position in society
– Achieved status – gained through choices, actions, efforts, talents, or accomplishments. A situational negotiation of social identity...
• May be positive or negative
Social Statuses
Some statuses, particularly ascribed ones, mutually exclusiveSome statuses are contextual
Minority & Majority Groups
Minority Groups – subordinate group that does not constitute a politically dominant plurality of the total populationInferior power and less secure access to
resources than majority groups Majority Groups – dominant group that
does constitutes a politically plurality of the total population
Race
Better to use term “ethnic group” instead of “race” to describe social groups anthropologically
Cultural category rather than a biological reality
The Social Construction of Race
Ethnic groups assumed to have biological basis but actually defined in a culturally arbitrary, rather than scientific, manner
In theory, biological race a geographically isolated subdivision of a species
Race supposed to reflect shared genetic material
Early scholars used phenotype: organism’s evident traits
White Studies The privileges of
whiteness - Peggy McIntosh
‘White’ as unmarked, natural category to which others compare
“Passing”: People or ethnic groups who shift pass into social status as “white”
Race & Whiteness in Canadian Census
“...persons, other than Aboriginal peoples (a.k.a. First Nation in Canada, Native Americans in the United States], who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour
Canada’s visible minority population increasing steadily
• Canadian census asks about “visible minorities”
Canadian Visible Minority Population of Canada, 2001 Census
Source: Statistics Canada 2001
Americans Reporting They Belonged to Just One Race
Figure 6.2: Reproduction of Questions on Race and Hispanic Origin from Census 2000
Hypodescent: Race in the United States
Rule of Descent – assigns social identity on basis of ancestry
Hypodescent – automatically places children of a union or mating between members of different groups in the lower status or social classHelps divide American society into groups that
have been unequal in access to wealth, power, and prestige
• In American culture, one acquires his or her racial identity at birth
Hyperdescent
Claiming social status of dominant status parent, and being accepted by dominant society for that choice
Vanessa Hudgens, American singer & actressPhoto: Wikipedia
Ethnic Ambiguity & Status Shifting
Many celebrities these days are of a mixed ethnicity. Derek Jeter, Mariah Carey, Tiger Woods, Vin Diesel, Norah Jones...
Norah Jones, American Singer of European and Bengali descent photo:
i.realone.com