Ch. 11 Ethnicity and Race

refugess

people who have been forced or have chosen to flee a country ro escape persecution or war

discrimination

policies and practices that harm a group and its members -de facto: practices (police practices) -de jure: part of the law (apartheid)

genocide

the deliberate elimination of a group (ex: jews) through mass murder -dominant group may try to destroy the cultures of certain ethnic groups

race

when ethnic groups are assumed to have a biological basis (shared blood or genes)

descent

-assigns a social identity on the basis of ancestry

hypodescent

-automactically placing children of a union between members of different groups in the minority group -divides American society into groups that have been unequal in their access to wealth, power, and prestige -this rule affects blacks, asians, native americans, and hispanics differently -results in population growth being attributed to the minority category

tropics

-before the 16th century, most of the worlds very dark skinned peoples lived here -between the tropical of cancer and capricorn -the assosication between the ___ and dark skinned people existed throughout the old world -skin color tends to be lighter outside of this area

stereotypes

-fixed ideas about what the members of a group are like -through appearence , action, and behavior

ethnicity

-means identification with and a feeling apart of and ethnic group and exclusion from other groups because of this affiliation -can reflect political changes and individual life sytle changes -"situational negotiation of social identity": being both black and hispanic (ex)

racial classification

-one of the ways scientists approached the study of human biology diversity -defined as the attempt to assign humans to discrete categories based on common ancestry -based off phenotypes provide problems on deciding which traits are most important

cultural colonialism

-refers to internal domination by one group and its culture or ideology over others -one technique to do this is to flood ethnic areas with members of the dominant ethnic group -ex: soviet and the russian people

ethnic group

-share certain beliefs, values, habits, customs, and norms because of their common background. -define themselves as different and special due to cultural features -distinctions: language, religion, historical experience, geographic placement, kinship, or race -markers: ethnic name, belief in a common descent, assiciation with a territory etc

minority groups

-subordinate groups who are inferiror inpower and have less secure access to resources -usually ethnic groups

majority groups

-superordinate, dominant, or controlling in power and have more acess to resources

multiculturalism

-the view of cultural diversity in a country as something good and desirable -opposite of the assimilation model -encourages the practice of cultural ethnic traditions

nation

-was once a synonymous with a tribe or ethnic group -refers to a single culture sharing a single language, religion, history, territotry, ancestry and kinship -today: means state an independent, centrally organized political unit or gov

ethnocide

force minority groups to adopt the dominant culture -also called forced assimilation -if they fight back ethnic expulsion occurs

plural society

a society combining ethnic contrasts, ecological specialization and the economic interdependence of those groups -occurs when groups occupy different ecological niches and make their livings on different ways and don't compete ideally they should depend on each other's activities and exchange with one another

prejudices

devaluating a group because of its assumed behavior, values, capabilities, or attributes -people are _____ when they hold stereotypes about groups and apply them to individuals

racism

discrimination against such "biologically" based groups -a cultutral category, cultrual construction -are ethnic groups assumed to have a biological basis but is socially constructed -one acquires her racial indentity at birth as asn ascribed status

nationalities

ethnic groups that once had or wish to have or regain autonomous political status -also called "imagined communities"

nation state

refers to an auntonomous political entity, a country, like the US

phenotype

refers to an organism's evident traitsm its "manifest biology" -anatomy and physiology -ex: skin color, height, weight, eye color

natural selection

the process by which the forms most fit to survive and reproduce in a given environment do so -the favored types survive by producing offspring -skin color will illustrate the approach to human biological diversity -geographic distribution of human skin color is explained by this

assimilation

the process of change that a minority ethnic group may experience when it moves to a country where another culture dominates -the minority group adopts the patterns and norms of its host culture -its is incorporated into the dominant culture to the point that it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit