7.3.1 Cultural Traits Defining an Ethnic Group

Both race and ethnic identity draw on an identification with others based on common ancestry and shared cultural traits. While a race is a social construct that also defines groups of humans based on arbitrary physical and/or biological traits that are believed to distinguish them from other humans, an ethnic group asserts a unique identity grounded in cultural traits and shared ancestry, which are perceived to imbue its members with a distinctive sense of community or heritage.

These cultural traits defining ethnic groups encompass diverse elements such as language, religion, attire, dietary practices, customs, holidays, and other distinctive characteristics. In certain societies, ethnic groups are concentrated geographically in specific regions, as observed with examples like the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq, and the Basques in northern Spain.

Ethnicity describes the extent to which an individual identifies with and feels connected to a specific ethnic group. As a part of personal identity, ethnicity is a fluid and complex phenomenon, subject to considerable variation. Ethnicity often holds great importance in shaping personal and social identities. For instance, teenagers from immigrant families might consciously distance themselves from their ethnic heritage to avoid standing out. However, later in life, they may regret this decision and seek to reconnect with and learn more about their cultural roots. This may involve having to learn the language of their parents the hard way. One of this author’s friends became fluent in German by spending seven years in Germany; she ultimately ended up as a professor of German at the University of Kentucky.

In the United States, ethnic identity can often be symbolic rather than deeply ingrained. Sociologists and anthropologists refer to this phenomenon as symbolic ethnicity, where individuals may sporadically exhibit ethnic pride and identity mainly for public display, rather than integrating it as a significant aspect of their daily social interactions. Certain traditions, like cherished family recipes or specific holiday customs rooted in their homelands, endure across generations among family members, bolstering a connection to their ethnic heritage and identity today.

Recent immigrants tend to maintain a greater amount of their native language and cultural traditions from their countries of origin. However, due to better means and faster means of communication, it is possible for those immigrants to keep up with family and friends overseas.

Ethnic groups and ethnicity, much like race, are socially constructed identities that emerge at specific points in history within particular social contexts. Early perspectives on ethnicity often assumed that individuals possessed innate and immutable ethnic identities and allegiances. However, in reality, ethnic identities evolve and are continually redefined over time and across different societies. There is a gradual emergence of a new, distinct ethnic identity in response to changing social circumstances.

Such gradual changes s resulted in the formation of several new ethnic identities in America, such as African American, Native American, Irish American, and Italian American. During the colonial period, slaves brought from Central and Western Africa represented numerous ethnic backgrounds, including Yoruba, Igbo, Akan, and Chamba, each with distinct languages, religions, and cultures. However, due to restrictions on language and religious practices imposed on slaves, these diverse heritages were rapidly eroded. Over time, their descendants forged a new unified identity, which has continued to evolve. This evolution is evident in the changing labels used to describe this community: from “colored” (early 1900s) to “Negro” (1930s–1960s), “Black” (late 1960s to present), and “African American” (1980s to present).

In the US today, ethnicity is often used as a euphemism for  race,  or for sub-groups that aren’t considered real races. There is no technical definition for ethnicity among social scientists, but the term is typically used to indicate groupings of people that have two major characteristics:

• shared culture
• A shared “homeland” or alleged origin place

Since race is a social, rather than biological, concept, we can think of races as a type of ethnicity that emphasizes the alleged shared biological ancestry more than the other two components.

Because ethnicity has such strong ties to the idea of a homeland, it is frequently invoked in struggles over which group of people has the right to occupy a specific place and use its resources. We can see this for example in the way that research about the original population of the Americas has gotten drawn into political battles. On the one hand, many Native Americans worry that archaeological and genetic research will reinforce the idea that they are just another immigrant group, rather than having sprung directly from the Earth, and thereby undermine their claim to special rights to the land, fishing and hunting rights, etc. Opponents of Native rights to control and use the land frequently try to call Natives’ authenticity into question by suggesting that they have assimilated too much into mainstream American culture.

In many parts of the world, ethnic differences are the basis of political or cultural uprisings. For example, in almost every way the Basque people residing on the western border between France and Spain are exactly like their non-Basque neighbors. They have similar jobs, eat similar foods, and have the same religion. The one thing that separates them from their neighbors is that they speak the Basque language. To an outsider, this may seem like a negligible detail, but it is not. It is the basis of Basque national identity, which has produced a political separatist movement. At times, this movement has resorted to violence in their struggle for independence. People have died over the relative importance of this language. The Basques see themselves as a nation, and they want a country.

The ethnicities of dominant groups are rarely ever problematized. Majority ethnicities are considered the default, or the normal, and the smaller groups are in some way or another marginal. Talking about ethnicity almost always means talking about minorities.

7.3.2 Impacts of a Multicultural Environment

Three theories describe the relationship between majority and minority cultures within a society. Amalgamation is the idea that multiethnic societies will eventually become a combination of the cultural characteristics of their ethnic groups.  Members of distinct ethnic and cultural groups freely intermingle, interact, and live among one another with cultural exchanges and, ultimately, inter-ethnic dating and intermarriage occurring as the social and cultural barriers between groups fade over time. Amalgamation is similar to assimilation in that a strong, unified national culture is viewed as the desired end result but differs because it represents a more thorough “melting pot” that blends the various groups in a society (the dominant/mainstream group and minority groups) into a new hybridized cultural identity rather than expecting minority groups to conform to the majority’s standards.

Acculturation is the adoption of the cultural characteristics of one group by another. In some instances, majority cultures adopt minority cultural characteristics, for example, the celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day, but often acculturation is a process that shifts the culture of a minority toward that of the majority.

Assimilation refers to the reduction of minority cultural characteristics, sometimes to the point that the ethnicity ceases to exist. It encourages and may even demand that members of ethnic and immigrant minority groups abandon their native customs, traditions, languages, and identities as quickly as possible and adopt those of mainstream society.

Supporters of assimilation typically advocate for fostering a cohesive national identity through shared language and cultural heritage to prevent ethnic conflicts. They cite examples such as the ethnic violence in Rwanda and the violent break-up of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, along with recent independence movements in Quebec and Scotland led by French Canadians and Scots, respectively, to highlight the potential pitfalls of maintaining strong ethnic or linguistic allegiances.

Multiculturalism offers an alternative perspective on assimilation, advocating that ethnic and cultural diversity enhances society by fostering respect for cultural differences. The fundamental principle of multiculturalism is that group distinctions, on their own, need not lead to conflict. Instead, society should promote tolerance for these differences rather than pressuring immigrant, ethnic, and cultural minority groups to abandon their customs and identities. This approach is vividly illustrated in major American cities like New York, where diverse ethnic neighborhoods such as Chinatown and Little Italy coexist side by side. Multiculturalism is the official governmental policy of Canada; it was codified in 1988 under the Canadian Multiculturalism Act.