15.Ethnicity and Identity

Question 1

What is an ethnic group?

Answer 1

Ethnic groups, as described by H.Eidheim, are “social categories which provide a basis for status ascription, and consequently that inter-ethnic relations are organized with reference to such statuses.”

Question 2

What models of ethnic identity exist?

Answer 2

Classic - shared essence
1. Primorialism 
a) Biological
b) Cultural traits
Contemporary - reject shared essence
2. Constructivism
3. Instrumentalism

Question 3

What does the constructivist approach say about ethnic identity?

Answer 3

1. Ethnic identity is not a primordial bond but an identity that is performed, malleable (can change over time AND can be switched) and situational (because its articulation is dependent on the wider social context). First introduced by F.Barth (1969)
2. Ethnic identities are malleable but also restricted by coercive power relations. (Eidheim 1969)

Question 4

What does the instrumentalist approach have to say about ethnic identity?

Answer 4

1. Ethnic group identity is utilised as an instrumental tool to advance own political/economic interests (Cohen 1969)
2. Ethnicity politics often reinscribes difference and masks inequality (Conklin 1997)
3. Political leaders use discourses on ethnic identity as a strategy of ‘divide and rule’ (Evans 2012)

Question 5

What does the primordial approach have to say about ethnicity?

Answer 5

1. Primordialism defined by Geertz as a ‘shared essence’
   a) Biology
   - Shared biological essence
   - 19c colonial administrators and anthropologists divided subjects into distinct biological groups ‘tribes’ and ‘races’
   b) Cultural traits
   - Shared cultural essence
   - Julian Bromley + other Soviet thinkers believed that ethnic groups had a stable cultural core (‘ethnos’) that persisted over time.