Ethnicity is the
cultural characteristics that connect a particular
group or groups of people to each other.
While ethnicity and
race are related concepts, the concept of ethnicity
is rooted in the idea of societal groups, marked
especially by shared
nationality,
tribal afilliation,
religious faith, shared
language, or cultural or traditional origins and
backgrounds. Whereas race is rooted in the idea of
biological classification of
homo sapiens to
subspecies according to morphological features such
as skin color or facial characteristics. "Ethnicity" is
sometimes used as a
euphemism for "race".
It is a term also used to justify real or imagined
historic ties as well. Ethnicity goes far beyond the
modern ties of a person to a particular
nation (e.g., citizenship), and focuses more upon
the connection to a perceived shared past and culture.
See also
Romanticism,
folklore.
The 19th century saw the development of the political
ideology of
ethnic nationalism, when the concept of
race was tied to
nationalism first by German theorists, including
Johann Gottfried von Herder. The cases where a focus
on ethnic ties to the exclusion of history or historical
context has arguably resulted in an almost fanatical
self-justifying nationalist and or imperialist goal.
An example of this is the expansion of the German
Empire and the Third Reich, based on the theory that
these governments were only re-possessing lands that had
"always" been German, and the current struggle in the
Balkans.
The term "ethnicity" may also be used to refer to a
particular
ethnic group: "People of various ethnicities."
See also:
ethnic origin,
List of ethnic groups
