ethnic group - Types of ethnic group, In the United States, In the United Kingdom, In China, Ethnic ideology

A segment of a population within a society who share common descent (actual or putative), attitudes and behaviour, and cultural and physical characteristics, and who perceive themselves as a distinct group.

Types of ethnic group

Members of an ethnic group generally claim a strong cultural continuity over time, although some historians and anthropologists have documented that many of the cultural practices on which various ethnic groups are based are of recent invention (Friedlander 1975, Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983, Sider 1993).

While ethnicity and race are related concepts (Abizadeh 2001), the concept of ethnicity is rooted in the idea of social groups, marked especially by shared nationality, tribal affiliation, genealogy, religious faith, language, or cultural and traditional origins, whereas race is rooted in the idea of a biological classification of Homo sapiens according to chosen genotypic and/or phenotypic traits, and a belief that such differences among human beings are of such a magnitude as to be classified by the anthropological sense of "race", i.e.

In the United States

Collectivities of related ethnic groups are typically denoted as "ethnic". Even the racial term "White American" is typically used in an ethnic sense, lumping all the various European, Middle Eastern, and North African groups together. There has been controversy among extremists on the left and right over the inclusion of various groups from the Middle East, such as Iranians, who are not "Asian" in the sense of people from East Asia or South Asia, as White.

Categories and data on "Ancestry" in the US are compiled on the following criteria from the Census Bureau: "Ancestry refers to a person’s ethnic origin or descent, 'roots', or heritage, or the place of birth of the person or the person’s parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States."

In the United Kingdom

The classification of ethnic groups used during the United Kingdom Census 2001 are described on the National Statistics website.

UK police began to classify arrests in racial groups in 1975, but later replaced the race code with an Identity Code (IC) system.:

IC1 White person IC2 Mediterranean or Hispanic person IC3 African/Caribbean person IC4 Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, or any other Asian person IC5 Chinese, Japanese, or South-East Asian person IC6 Arabic, Egyptian or Maghreb person IC0 Origin unknown

This classification is still referred to on some police websites and police chase TV shows, e.g. In this system there are 16 ethnic codes, "+1" for "Not stated" when an "individual chooses not to acknowledge their ethnic background.

W1 White British W2 White Irish W9 Any other white background M1 Mixed White and Black Caribbean M2 Mixed White and Black African M3 Mixed White and Asian M9 Any other mixed background A1 Asian - Indian A2 Asian - Pakistani A3 Asian - Bangladeshi A9 Any other Asian background B1 Caribbean B2 African B9 Any other black background O1 Chinese O9 Any other ethnic group NS Not stated

In China

The People's Republic of China has officially split the population into 56 ethnic groups of which the most numerous are the Han Chinese. The Han Chinese are the only ethnic group bound by the One-child policy and many villages faked a change in their ethnic group (e.g.

There is no equal opportunity law in China, and although the ethnic groups are stressed to be equal, it is commonplace to specify which ethnic group is preferred, or even required, when (for example) advertising employment.

Sometimes people are given the choice of which ethnic group they wish to belong to, but 'mixed-race' is not an option.

All ID cards in China state which ethnic group the holder belongs to.

The 56 ethnic groups are:

Han Chinese Zhuang Manchu Hui (Chinese Muslims) Miao Uyghur Yi Tujia Mongolian Tibetan Buyei Dong Yao Korean Bai Akha Li Kazak Dai She Lisu Gelao Lahu Dongxiang Va Shui Nakhi Qiang Tu Xibe Mulao Kyrgyz Daur Jingpo Salar Blang Maonan Tajik Pumi Achang Nu Ewenki Vietnamese Jino De'ang Uzbeks Russian Yugur Bonan Monba Oroqen Derung Tatars Hezhen Lhoba Taiwanese Aboriginal People

Ethnic ideology

In the West, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation, developed in the context of European colonial expansion, when mercantilism and capitalism were promoting global movements of populations at the same time that state boundaries were being more clearly and rigidly defined.

Sometimes ethnic groups are subject to prejudicial attitudes and actions by the state or its constituents. In the twentieth century, people began to argue that conflicts among ethnic groups or between members of an ethnic group and the state can and should be resolved in one of two ways. Others, like Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka argue that the notion of the autonomous individual is itself a cultural construct, and that it is neither possible nor right to treat people as autonomous individuals. According to this view, states must recognize ethnic identity and develop processes through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated within the boundaries of the nation-state.

Racialized ethnocentrism

The nineteenth century saw the development of the political ideology of ethnic nationalism, when the concept of race was tied to nationalism, first by German theorists including Johann Gottfried von Herder.

Classification

Ethnic groups are usually classified by the language they speak. Main ethnic groups include:

Indo-European peoples Balto-Slavic peoples Baltic peoples Slavic peoples East Slavs West Slavs South Slavs Indo-Iranian peoples Indo-Aryan peoples Iranian peoples Nuristani peoples Dardic peoples Germanic peoples Celtic peoples Romance peoples Other Indo-European peoples (including Albanians, Greeks, and Armenians) Caucasian peoples South Caucasian peoples North Caucasian peoples Northwest Caucasian peoples Nakh peoples Northeast Caucasian peoples Uralic peoples Samoyedic peoples Finno-Ugric peoples Finnic peoples Ugric peoples Altaic peoples Turkic peoples Mongolian peoples Tungusic peoples Chukotko-Kamchatkan peoples Afro-Asiatic peoples Semitic peoples Kushitic peoples Chadic peoples Berber peoples Omotic peoples Egyptian peoples Niger-Kordofan peoples Niger-Congo peoples Benue-Congo peoples (including Bantu) Kwa peoples Gur peoples Western Atlantic peoples Mande peoples Adamawa-Eastern peoples Kordofan peoples Nilo-Saharan peoples Khoisan peoples Dravidian peoples Sino-Tibetan peoples Chinese peoples Tibeto-Burman peoples Hmong-Mien peoples Tai peoples Austro-Asiatic peoples Austronesian peoples Formosans Malay peoples Malaysian Malay peoples Filipino peoples Indonesians Malagasy peoples Melanesians Micronesians Polynesians Papuan peoples Australian peoples Eskimo-Aleut peoples Na-Dene peoples Amer-Indian peoples Other peoples (including Japanese, Koreans, Basque, Burusho, Ainu, Nivkhs, Andamanese, Ket, Yukaghir, Nihals, Mbugu, Tasmanian Aborigines)

Research

The Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) has attempted to map the DNA that varies between humans, which is a less than 1 % difference.