Class, identity, and hierarchy are important concepts with social sciences that revolve around how individuals or groups of people in society are classified, identified and ranked. There are different formations of class, identity, and hierarchical in the US and Japan. In class we discussed “Ethnicity and Race” along with “Citizenship and Nationality” these are just some elements that form part of people’s class, identity, and hierarchical ranking. In this essay, “ethnicity and race” with “citizenship and nationality” will explain how classification, identity, and hierarchy is formed. It will also help me explain how structure shapes the formation of people’s classification, identity, and hierarchy in different countries like the US and Japan. The words “Ethnicity and Race” have different meanings, for instance in social …show more content…
Like mentioned in the reading a person’s physical characteristics, is out in racial categories like our skin color, hair type, etc. We human beings make these categories based on we look at people and judge. In the other hand, the term “ethnicity” is more used to describe language or nationality, even though they don’t share the same identity. We society tend to change the meaning of words over time and lose its original meaning. In Cornell & Hartmann reading, in page 16 the word “ethnic” has a long history, the word is a derivative of the Greek word ethnos, meaning “nation.” This isn’t a political unity, but it is the unity of the persons of common blood or decent. An interesting quote by Weber is on page 17, “it does not matter whether or not an
This variation has no substantial ties to skin color, but does show genetic variation from different geographical locations in the world. These variations are not categorized in groups of what people call race, but rather ethnicity. Ethnicity, defined by Stephen Cornell, is a sense of common ancestry based on cultural attachments, past linguistic heritage, religious affiliations, claimed kinship, or some physical traits. Race, as most people catoragize it, encompuses many ethnicitys. Ethnicities are local populations, this makes sense that they would tend to have less genetic variation compared to each other then the rest of the world as they would share genetic adaptations resulting from the environment they live in. This can include skin color, but can also
First, I will examine Omi and Winant’s approach. They made a clear distinction between ethnicity and race and only discussed how races are formed. They also define race as a constantly being transformed by political struggle and it is a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by
Conrad Kottak, in the eleventh chapter of his textbook on cultural anthropology sought to deconstruct ethnicity in the modern world and how it has evolved over time. He wrote that “ethnicity is based on actual, perceived, or assumed cultural similarities” (Kottak 2012). While ethnicity is based in differences, he discussed at length the origins of race and ethnicity and the diverging opinions as to where it all began, then diverged. He argued that humans are cultural rather than biologic and contrasts in society great affect how humans organize and define themselves. There was a overview of ethnicity structures in Asia, specifically in Japan and Korea, as well as the United States and Brazil. Kottak also defined what the word “nation” really means and its connotations; assim...
In most societies there are variations in the levels of wealth, material possession, power, and authority amongst individuals. These variables are usually related to one’s occupation, race and the diversity of access to things like education and health care. All of these resources impact individual status in society, and take part in classifying people into social classes. Precise social class is difficult to identify, as it consists of two fundamental aspects. The objective aspect pertains to one’s occupation, race, age, and other solid facts; meanwhile the subjective aspect portrays one’s values, behaviorisms, and his/her way of life.
o In matters of “race” and “nationality”, in the way in which classifications work is especially apparent.
To most people ethnicity is shown by values, lifestyles, customs, and rituals that are personal to an individual ethnic group or religion. The feeling of belonging to a certain group is a basic need for mankind. In a sense, ethnicity can be separated into two particular categories, a unique social structure and culture heritage passed down from one generation to the next.
In order to describe how class influences identities, we first need to understand what is meant by class and identity.
As defined by Cornell and Hartmann ethnicity is “a collectivity within a larger society having real or putative common ancestry,
An ethnicity means that you belong to a group that has cultural distinctions (Kottak, 2015). An African American would fall under as an ethnic group but could also fall under as a representative for the nation and their nationality would be of the United States. This makes the three ethnicity, nation and nationality definitions similar but not necessarily the same. A majorities or minorities identity will separate them in the country but abroad they will be American and from the United States. The ancestral heritage will not disappear but will demission
People who have distinctive physical and cultural characteristics are a racial ethnic group. This refers to people who identify with a common national origin or cultural heritage. But remember that race refers to the physical characteristics with which we are born. Whereas ethnicity describes cultural characteristics that we learn.
Through research of DNA samples, scientists have been able to declare that race is not biologically constructed due to the similarities between human genes. Nevertheless, in reality, people still emphasized on biological aspects such as skin color, or hair texture to categorize others into different races. This in turn, denied the true identity of race, which it is culturally constructed. Ethnicity, by definition is also culturally constructed, therefore it greatly resemble race. There is no real clear line to distinct the two.
Therefore it has become a source of division within the working class that only works in favor for the bourgeois and capitalist. On the there hand, Ethnicity has a wider concept than race but still can be useful and counterproductive. To begin, one obvious reason why ethnicity is useful because it allows for other cultures, customs to express themselves. Secondly, promotes multiculturalism and diversity. Be that as it may, it is counterproductive and overlapping because the systematic distinctions within ethnicity lead to equality and inequality in society Therefore resulting to racial supremacy and privilege. Given these points, in this paper, I will discuss in details the ways in which the concepts of race and ethnicity are useful and how they are counterproductive with regards to different authors; Peter Wade, Robert Milles, Etienne Balibar, David Nirebeng, Roman Grosfoguel and Joan
?A definition of race might rely on an outward manifestation such as color or some other physiological sign. Race and ethnicity (and to some degree nationality) also imply a shared socio-cultural heritage and belief system. Finally, race and ethnicity harbor a physiological self-identification. Indeed, this factor is perhaps the most important in defining the identity of an ?ethnic? or ?racial? individual. It implies a conscious desire on the part of a person to belong to an aggregate of people, which possesses unique cultural characteristics, rituals and manners and a unique value system.
Ethnicity is generally used to refer to diverse and unequal skill of social groups with specific culture. Diverse languages, religions and attire assist to group different ethnicities. These ethnic groups develop because of history and social experiences. Ethnic group tend to hold a culture bond. People can relate to other essentially their parents when concerning ethnic beliefs and customs.
In the United States, “ethnics” came to be used at around Second World War as a polite way of referring to the Jews, Italian, Irish, and other people considered inferior to the dominant group of largely British descent. Since the 1960s, ethnic groups and ethnicity have become household words in English-speaking social anthropology[2]. In everyday language, the word ethnicity still has a ring of minority issues and race relations to it.