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Anthropology

Diversity

Sociology

 

Ethnicity

"Today many people live by two or more cultural codes of conduct, depending on the society that hosts them at different times in their lives." Kottak On Being Different, page 64

Ethnic group

- share certain beliefs, customs, ceremonies, values, a sense of common origin (creation, background, genesis, epiphany) and a SENSE of belonging to one another.

Ethnicity

- an identification with a particular group and an exclusion from all or nearly all other such groups.

Note sociological use of concept of STATUS - position within an association of people, can be permanent or changing, can be an achieved position, or a position that is ascribed to you by others.

Ethnicity, as a personal claim, is distinct in consequences from ethnicity as a status that is ascribed by others - "I'm Black and I'm proud." is different than "You, the black woman, would you come over here."

Ethnics groups are usually people without their own nation, or people displaced from their own nation. If an ethnic group has sovereignty over the place in which it dwells, we would call it a nationality.

Nationality and Ethnic groups are imagined communities, that can and do have real consequences.

Ethnic diversity, tolerance, accommodation

Melting Pots and Salad Bowls, Ethnic Cleansings, Assimilation, Diffusion.

Plural Society - Maasai/Kikuyu, Singapore - separate, segregated, and equitable and accepted - commensal, symbiotic.

 

Ethnic Conflict

Conflicting interests that are contiquous with tribal/ethnic differences.

Prejudice and Discrimination - The Stranger, Aliens, Outlander, Foreigner, - shadow selves.

Genocides -contra Nazi/Jews, Turks/Armenians, Hutu/Tutsi; Forced expulsions- European/American Indian Tribes, Muslim/Hindu of 1948; Aparthieds - American blacks, South African blacks, colored; Incarcerations - JapaneseAmericans 1942.

 
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