Language and ethnic group Page 6 Lecture 6. Ethnic Group and Language

General characteristics

Ethnic identity is marked by a recognition of the group's distinctiveness and common cultural, linguistic, religious, behavioral or biological traits, real or presumed, as indicators of contrast to other groups. It is a phenomenon inherent in the human experience. However, some social scholars (Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf, for example) do not consider the ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a specific product of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to the human groups.

The terms ethnicity and ethnic groups are derived from the Greek word ethnos, normally translated as people or tribe. The term ethnic and the related forms were used in English in the meaning of pagan (язычник). The modern usage of an ethnic group, however, reflects different kinds of encounters which some industrialized states have had with subordinate groups, such as immigrants and colonized subjects. An ethnic group came to stand in opposition to nation, to refer to the people with distinct cultural identities who, through migration or conquest, had become subordinate to a foreign state.

Writing about the usage of the term ethnic in the ordinary language of Great Britain and the United States, Wallman notes that it popularly connotes race in Britain, only less precisely, and with a lighter value load. In the USA, by contrast, race most commonly means colour, and ethnics are the descendents of relatively recent immigrants from non-English-speaking countries. Thus, in today's everyday language, the words ethnic and ethnicity still define exotic peoples, minority groups, and race relations. Different approaches to understanding ethnicity have been used by different scholars.

Primordialists (первобытный) hold that ethnicity has existed at all times of human history and that modern ethnic groups have a historical continuity into the far past.

Essentialists hold that ethnicity is a fact of human existence, that ethnicity precedes any human social interaction and that it is basically unchanged by it. They see ethnic groups as natural, not just as historical. This understanding does not explain how and why nations and ethnic groups seemingly appear, disappear and often reappear through history.

Kinship primordialists hold that ethnic communities are extensions of kinship units, basically being derived based on kinship or clan ties where the choices of cultural signs (language, religion, customs, traditions, etc.) are made exactly to show this biological affinity.

Perennialists (вечный) hold that ethnicity is ever changing, and that while the concept of ethnicity has existed at all times, ethnic groups are generally short lived before the ethnic boundaries realign into new patterns.

Perpetual perennialists hold that specific ethnic groups have existed continuously throughout history.

Situational perennialists hold that nations and ethnic groups emerge, change and vanish through the course of history. This view holds that the concept of ethnicity is basically a tool used by political groups to manipulate resources such as wealth, power, territory or status in their particular groups' interests.

Instrumentalist perennialists explain ethnicity as a mechanism of social stratification, meaning that ethnicity is the basis for a hierarchical arrangement of individuals. In addition to the differential power, a degree of competition structured along ethnic lines is a prerequisite to ethnic stratification as well. The different ethnic groups must be competing for some common goal, such as power or influence, or some material interest, such as wealth or territory.

Constructivists reject the notion of ethnicity as a basic human condition. They hold that ethnic groups are only products of human social interaction, maintained only in so far as they are maintained as valid social constructs in societies.

Modernist constructivists correlate the emergence of ethnicity with the movement towards nation states beginning in the early modern period. Nationalism is a purely modern invention, appearing only in the modern world.

Race and ethnicity were often seen as two aspects of the same thing. With Weber's introduction of ethnicity as a social construct, race and ethnicity were divided from each other. "National, religious, geographic, linguistic and cultural groups do not necessarily coincide with racial groups: and the cultural traits of such groups have no genetic connection with racial traits. Because serious errors are habitually committed when the term 'race' is used in popular speeches, it would be better to substitute the word race for ethnic groups. At present the prevailing understanding of race among social scholars is that it, like ethnicity, is a social construct. For example, to call oneself Latino, Arab, Asian, Black immediately invokes a clutch of linguistic, religious, cultural and racial features that are held to be common within each ethnic category.

The term White generally describes people whose ancestry can be traced to Europe (including other European-settled countries such as Argentina, Australia, and Canada, where people of European ethnic backgrounds form the bulk of the population) and who now live in the United States. Middle Easterners may also be included in the white category, at least as opposed to black.