An ethnic group is a community whose members share cultural characteristics and have a common social history.
The term ethnicity comes from a Greek word that means people or nation . It is a human community that shares a cultural affinity , which allows its members to feel identified with each other. Beyond shared history , members maintain similar cultural practices and social behaviors in the present.
In general, the communities that form an ethnic group claim their own territory and a political structure in order to meet their social needs. In any case, there are national states that are multiethnic : the important thing is that, in any case, the rights of minorities are respected.
Identity and respect
Although the notion of ethnicity is usually associated with the concept of race , both words do not refer to the same thing. Ethnicity includes cultural factors, such as traditions, language and religious beliefs. Race, on the other hand, indicates the morphological characteristics of a human group (skin color, facial features, build, etc.).
There are those who oppose this type of ethnic or racial classifications since they tend to promote aggression and violence. The fact of identifying as part of a social group can lead a person to an exacerbated defense of their particularity and to enter into conflict with members of other groups. This situation, which can even be encouraged by politics , ends up attacking the idea of the international community. People lose awareness of their belonging to the human species and limit their sense of belonging to their ethnicity.
While the idea of ethnicity is linked to culture, the concept of race is associated with biological and physical traits.
Differences between ethnicity and race
These two concepts are usually confused or used without understanding the differences that exist between them. However, despite being both terms that serve to characterize a society, they do so from different perspectives .
While an ethnicity refers to the cultural aspects of a people , which are closely linked to a history; The race encompasses the physical and biological traits that are representative of it.
An ethnic group brings together a series of cultural, linguistic, religious and behavioral practices framed in a social, political and, although not essential, territorial structure .
Racial categories
Racial categories include the most visible biological aspects, such as skin pigmentation and certain dominant facial features in all individuals that are part of the group.
A race is a subdivision that is made within a species and that serves to clearly identify the groups that clearly differ from the rest by having a series of characteristics. Unlike ethnicity, which is used to talk only about human groups, race is used in all species of animal origin, including ours.
Common ancestry in an ethnic group
Individuals who belong to the same ethnic group share a common ancestry . In general, they feel a union with the rest who are part of it that leads them to unite with each other to live either in the same territory where the ethnic group has the power of hegemony, or in those places where they are a minority. For example, Spaniards who went into exile to various countries during the civil war formed Hispanic communities there, to reinforce their identity and feel less alone .
It is necessary to add that there is strong controversy around the concept of race. Some scientists assure that this concept should not be used to talk about human beings since the genetic differences that exist between them are minimal . This school of thought tries to fight against that racist conception that revolves around the term and that leads to its misuse.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that a species is made up of the set of individuals that are part of the same group because they have genetic similarities, but that may present biological or ethnic differences among themselves, in the case of humans.