Ethnicity / Ethnic Groups
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Ethnicity- the identification of individuals with particular ethnic groups
Ethnic groups are usually limited to minorities; groups that are smaller than the dominant group in their society. The composition of an ethnic group, different life-styles or different levels of income or education may distinguish individuals within the same ethnic group from one another.
Ethnic groups- groups whose members share cultural traditions and values and a common language, and who distinguish themselves from other groups (Barth). And are seen by others as different. Often wear clothes as a symbol of difference, but are integrated into the wider community.
Ethnic groups share common cultural norms, values, identities, patterns of behaviour, and language. Their members recognise themselves as a separate group and are so recognised by others. They may / may not be politicised. Ethnic identity may be seen as based on ?primordial? sentiment; i.e. sentiments which are seen as going back to ancient times and which tie group members to one another emotionally despite persistent attempts to assimilate them.
Sometimes the distinction between ethnic groups involves more than cultural differences. Race and racial classifications are involved when physical appearance is also a basis for making distinctions individuals or groups. Though many people tend to think of a ?race? as a scientific concept based on biological systems of classification, it is in reality a cultural construct whose definition and form differ from society to society. For example, in Brazil, colour of complexion is but one element in the conceptualisation of status and group, while in the southern part of the United States an individual was categorised as white or African-American on the basis of complexion colour alone.
Religion may be one of the factors which serve to distinguish one ethnic group from another. When the occurs, the ethnic conflict is heightened and intensified. Each side finds support in the moral authority of its own religion for continuing the conflict and its violent action against those whom it characterises as infidels or heretics. Ethnic differences may also be class differences. In some societies, the underclass is a separate ethnic or racial group, and ethnic conflict may be explained as class conflict.
In other approaches, ethnic identification is seen as completely situational. In Europe, ethnic groups were often also territorially defined and wanted political autonomy.
Sometimes the distinction between ethnic groups involves more than cultural differences. Racial classifications, religion and class may be factors. So ethnic conflict may be based on any of these.
There may be many ethnic groups in one country or even in one city;
e.g. Madagascar, which has some 18 different ethnic groups. (Polyethnic-
made up of different ethnic groups).
In such societies, ethnicity is a means of social classification. People
use it to anticipate, to evaluate- and sometimes to try and understand
the behaviour of others.
Unfortunately, ethnicity can attract discrimination against members
of ethnic groups, especially for urban ethnic minorities. The concept
of ethnicity has proven useful to domestic government agencies and international
organisations trying to assist ethnic minorities in polyethnic societies
to advance themselves. Rather than treating the inhabitants of a developing
country as culturally homogenous, for instance, most international aid
agencies now try to take into account the values, institutions, and customs
of various ethnic groups, targeting relief or aid to their particular needs.
Ways people show that they are proud of their ethnic group:
- Behaving in a distinctive manner
- Living near one another
- Attending special functions
- Performing traditional rituals
- Wearing distinctive clothing
The Korean community of New Malden
- There are about 24,000 South Koreans in Britain, of whom 20,000 live
in London and Surrey.
- There are signs of burgeoning Korean enterprise everywhere in New
Malden: Korean restaurants, travel agents, supermarkets, opticians, hairdressers-
even a Korean college where Koreans at British schools can keep up with
the Korean curriculum.
- There is a growing tendency for the Koreans to find London, and in
particular New Malden, so attractive that they decide never to return home,
mostly because of the high quality of the education.
- Emigration restrictions were only eased in 1989, partly as a result
of the Seoul Olympics the previous year. Since then, the number of Koreans
in London has soared. They like it because it?s ?a free country?.
- Integration is not so easy. Korean students who come to London to
improve their English can find that they spend three hours a day doing
a course at Oxford Circus, speaking a small amount of broken English to
other foreigners- but never get to know any English people.
- There are about 30 Korean Protestant Churches in London, one Korean
RC church, and one Korean Buddhist Temple, as well as Korean Saturday schools
in Chessington and North Ealing.
The Jewish community of Stamford Hill
- The men are instantly recognisable from their beards, black hats
and long, black coats.
- These Jewish groups seem to create self-imposed ghettos and seek
to maintain the kind of life which existed in the shetl of Eastern Europe.
They speak Yiddish as well as English, and religious duties and practice
are at the centre of their lives.
- The children are educated at private schools, of which at least 25
are scattered across Stamford Hill. These are named after towns and rabbinical
dynasties in Poland, Russia, Romania and Hungary. Boys and girls are educated
separately.
- Many members of the community have 10 or 12 children and it is estimated
that, including children, it now numbers 16,000 in Stamford Hill with all
its members living within walking distance of their small, informal synagogues,
where they pray three times a day.
- They look on children as blessings. God will provide. What is special
about this community is its commitment to the religious way of life, not
letting go of a way of life which has existed for over 3,000 years.
- They do not allow the children to have the influence of the television
and the media.
The Vice Lords: A study of Black Ghetto Culture
This study by Lincoln Keiser in the 1960s of a minority or sub-culture
in contemporary American society (Chicago) was the first case study to
report on an urban sub-group. This case study was carried out in the tradition
of the participant observer. Keiser?s main goal was to demonstrate the
systematic nature of Vice Lords social life.
Similarities with other gangs of similar age and composition irrespective
of ethnic identification that operate in depressed areas of American cities:
1) Delinquent / criminal / violent way of life seen as desirable
2) Such behaviour provides status for organisations and members where
other means of gaining status are blocked.
3) These patterns of behaviour can be understood as instrumental adaptations
for survival in a desperate environment.
Preface by Keiser:
The Vice Lord Nation is a large confederation of street corner groups
whose home is the streets, alleys, and gangways of Chicago?s major Black
Ghettos.
I chose the Vice Lords for two reasons:
1) They were reputed to be one of the largest and best-organised delinquent
gangs in Chicago.
2) By chance established friendship with a member.
First part of research: 1964-65; solely work with informants
Second part of research: 1966-67; after social anthropology graduate
training. Did field research with one sub-group of the Vice Lords (The
City Lords)- royalties were offered to be shared in return for their co-operation.
To make sense of the wide behavioural variations I used Clifford Geertz?s definitions of culture and social system: ?One of the more useful ways of distinguishing between culture and social system is to see culture as an ordered system of meaning and symbols in terms of which social interaction takes place and to see social system as the pattern of interaction itself. On the one level there is the framework of beliefs, expressive symbols and values in terms of which individuals define their world; on the other there is the ongoing process of interactive behaviour whose persistent form we call social structure. Culture is the fabric of meaning in terms of which human beings interpret their experience and guide their actions. Social structure is the form that action takes, the actual existing network of social relations.? These abstractions help the anthropologist organise his observations. Own interpretation biased by own point of view.
The Vice Lords
- Why have many anthropologists and sociologists in the past thought
that the research techniques used to study small-scale societies could
not be used effectively in a modern, urban setting.
The relatively simple life of a tribal village can perhaps be described
in purely verbal terms but the uniformities found in urban life can for
the most part be expressed only statistically. In the town few generalisations
of any validity can be obtained without the use of social survey techniques.
?When studying an entire primitive society in this way (using anthropological
methods) one can be fairly certain of having witnessed the full range of
behaviour that members of that society hold in high regard, given the relatively
constant constraints of the physical environment. However, when this methods
is applied to subcultures contained within a single society, it is apt
to lead to fallacious results.
- What are the general problems he shared with other anthropologists
trying to do fieldwork?
There is another important factor that is not directly related to the
urban setting as such. This derives from the racial situation in the United
States. I was a White working in a Black ghetto area, and this had definite
effects on my research. Then there is the problem of getting established.
This involves settling physically in the area; becoming adjusted to living
in an alien environment; and establishing the necessary social relationships
so that one can begin gathering data. Data gathering itself presents problems.
On one level this involves data-gathering techniques, but on another level
there is the problem of what out of the almost infinite array of human
behavioural aspects, one chooses to record in the first place.
The anthropologist is not always conscious of this orientation while
he is actively involved in field research, and thus he is not always aware
of how it is affecting what he records. The anthropologist?s emotional
reactions to the social and cultural setting in which he is working is
another source of problems. Having to interact in social situations
where one does not know the cultural significance of various actions places
a tremendous emotional strain on the individual, and affects his relationships
with the people he is studying. Also, although the anthropologists tries
to approach his work as dispassionately as possible, he is a human being,
and he reacts to situations in terms of his own values and ideas. How the
anthropologist handles these feelings is one of the most serious problems
of field research. Finally, after the research has been completed, there
is the problem of writing up the material into some kind of coherent account.
-How did he make his choice of area and topic?
In 1963, he had a part-time job as a waiter in the dining room of a
luxurious retirement home in Chicago. Through his job he got to know Jesse
and Al, who were dishwashers. They never became close friends, but they
did get to know each other well enough so that his presence did not interrupt
their normal conversations. They discussed the Cobras because Al had met
a girl from their gang. Keiser heard enough to make him aware that in the
world of fighting clubs, there was a highly interesting cultural and social
system in operation.
How does he explain the importance of ?making friends out of strangers?
and how does this differ from social relationships in small-scale societies?
In small-scale societies there are few, if any strangers. Everyone
knows everyone else, and knows them in a variety of social contexts. There
are lines of potential social interaction laid out at birth among almost
anyone everyone, and individuals activate these at particular times. In
the city, most people are strangers, and making friends out of strangers
is an important and continual social process. Friends are made out of strangers
through the interaction that takes place in particular social contexts.
Keiser?s initial contact with Black fighting clubs was a result of a process
of making friends out of strangers that is an integral part of urban social
systems.
Why was the work-place the only area where Keiser could form a social
relationship with a Black?
In their society at the time he met Jesse and Al, Whites who formed
relationships with Blacks, usually, although not always, did so in the
context of a job. Middle-class Whites who formed relationships with lower-class
Blacks, almost always formed them in the job context. Racism limited the
kinds of jobs open to Blacks, and thus limited the kinds of jobs in which
I could have gotten to know ghetto-dwelling Blacks.
What questions was he curious to answer?
He had heard references made to a number of different gangs, He had
heard it said that people had ?heart? and ?reps?. How did all this work?
What was the nature of the subgroups? How were they differentiated, and
how did they connect with one another? What were the social identities,
and how were they connected to one another? What were the social identities,
and how were they connected to form social roles? What were the beliefs,
concepts, and values which the members of the clubs held, and how did they
fit with the set of social groups and social identities? Basically, what
is the nature of this social and cultural system and how does it work?
How did he establish relationships with the members of the group?
No one, much less a White, can go into an area inhabited by a club
and initiate a research project. He approached this problem again
through means of a job. He was offered employment with the Social service
department, and handled cases of boys seventeen through twenty years old.
The court caseworker?s job consisted of counselling individuals referred
by the court; thus he became acquainted with the members of three groups.
How did his role as caseworker conflict with his role as anthropologist?
The Social Service Department was interested in learning about the
nature of fighting clubs, and he was given permission to question persons
referred to him by the court about features of club life. This posed problems.
His role as caseworker conflicted in some ways with his role as anthropologist.
As a caseworker conflicted in some ways with his role as anthropologist.
As a caseworker, his primary purpose was to help the people referred to
him make the kind of adjustment to the urban world that would prevent their
coming into conflict with the rules and enforcement agencies of predominantly
White, middle-class Chicago. This meant he was trying to change behaviour
in terms of his own value system. As an anthropologist, however, it was
crucial to try not to judge behaviour relative to his own values, much
less to change it. He was limited in his use of his ?clients? as anthropological
informants.
How did he establish contact outside the court context?
Because he was connected to the court, many boys were reluctant to
give information about their club. In spite of these difficulties, he was
able to gather some basic material. The people most willing to talk about
their group were the Vice Lords, and therefore, most of his information
was about that club.
While talking to a ?client? referred by the court, he was told about
a woman who had taught in a West Side School, and who had become close
friends with several Vice Lords. He contacted her, and she agrees to introduce
me to Sonny, one of the Vice Lords she knew. At the time he met Sonny,
he also met a Lord called Goliath. In the next year, Sonny, Goliath and
Keiser went to parties together, met in bars, and visited each other?s
homes. During this time , he also met a few other members of the club and
collected several life histories. It happened that he and Goliath got on
particularly well, and in the course of the year, became good friends.
How did he find a place to live? What were the advantages of living
on the North Side?
Finding an apartment proved more difficult than he had anticipated.
Most of the apartments in Lawndale are owned by White absentee landlords,
and they were highly suspicious of his motives for wanting to live in the
ghetto.
Goliath ruled out other available apartments because they afforded
too much opportunity for ambush attacks. Finally, after they were unable
to find anything suitable in the area around 15th St, they looked in the
North Side ghetto, and found an apartment there. But on the North Side
he was at least located in a Black neighbourhood; he was able to question
informants in surroundings that were relatively natural to them; and he
was able to give ?sets? (parties) for the Vice Lords that were not only
useful in gaining rapport, but which also gave him the opportunity to observe
behaviour in this important social context.
What things were harder and what things were easier than when he?d
one his fieldwork in a mountain village in Afghanistan?
Easier- He lived in an apartment that, although dingy, had hot and
cold running water, a bathroom, a stove and a refrigerator; he bought his
food in supermarkets and restaurants he was accustomed to using, and the
language spoken was generally similar to his own.
More difficult- Getting accustomed to living with the possibility of
robbery and ambush. Goliath took many precautions in choosing an apartment
that had a well-lighted entrance and hallways. They kept a pistol in the
apartment, along with several wooden clubs. Goliath always put a match
in the door jams before they left so that he could tell if anyone had forced
open the door while they were gone and might be hidden in the apartment
when they came back. At night he put boards and empty cans in front of
the windows so that if someone tried to break in, they would be awoken
by the noise. It took Keiser a while to get used to taking these
precautions without getting extremely nervous.
How did he use the standard methods of PO and interviewing informants?
PO consisted of observing behaviour while hanging out on the streets,
going to bars, attending parties, visiting friends and relatives, and simply
driving about the West Side with members of the club. As a participant
observer, he was involved in the first stages of one actual gang fight,
and was part of the preparations for another that never materialised. But
he could never fully participate in the life on the streets.
Some could accept Keiser, but others had such string antagonisms that
they were unable to be friends with him. They tolerated his presence, but
for the most part ignored him. Finally, there were some individuals who
could not control their hatred towards Whites, and in a few instances it
boiled into the open aimed at him. When this happened, he had to
simply walk away.
In what ways was he an outsider?
The history of Black-White hatred separated them. Cultural differences
also underlined their separateness. He dressed in casual clothes-Levis
and a sport shirt- but these were different from the clothes the Vice Lords
wore. He was not conversant in street-slang and he did not act properly
in certain social situations.
What problems did he have writing a diary and taping life stories?
Each evening he wrote as much of his observations as could be remembered.
It would have been best to have carried a small notebook with him so that
he could have taken notes on the spot. Initially he did this, but it made
most Vice Lords so uneasy for him to take out his notebook and write down
something that I decided to stop. Further, much of the social interaction
between Vice Lords that he observed occurred while individuals were riding
his car and could not be written in his notebook at the time. He
attempted to remember as much as possible, but at the end of the day he
always knew that much had been forgotten.
Interviews with informants were another source of data. He conducted
structured interviews and gathered life histories. A tape-recorder was
used to record this material. He was able to record highly detailed accounts
of interviews that he could not have written by hand. Transcribing the
tapes was the main difficulty.
How did he decide on the structure and what to include in certain topics?
In recording life histories he simply asked the informant to tell about
his life. The only questions asked were either those necessary to clarify
something he did not understand or those necessary to get further amplification
of an incident he felt was interesting and important. Structured interviews
were organised around particular topics. These were derived primarily from
his observations. If he thought something he had observed needed amplification,
he focused on this in a structured interview.
Why didn?t he look at ?social network??
Social life forms a system. When looking at social interaction as a
system, social anthropologists often employ the ideas of social groups,
and social roles in getting at patterns and regularities. It is much more
complicated than this, but what he has described is basic to what social
anthropologists do. In any case, it was this orientation that directed
his research; the questions that he asked and the data which he recorded
were dictated by it.
But he did not ask other important questions and collect other important
data. For example, he did not look at Vice Lord behaviour in terms of social
in terms of social network. After becoming acquainted with the network
idea, it was evident that certain aspects of Vice Lord life would have
made better sense if ordered in terms of the idea. He had not thought in
terms of social networks, however, and therefore had not collected the
necessary data.
What emotional reaction problems did he have?
On the streets of the ghetto, he did not know what was, and what was
not, potentially dangerous; and he did not understand the significance
of most actions and many words.
This feeling of helplessness was very difficult for him to handle.
In the early part of his research it often made him feel so nervous and
anxious that the events occurring around him seemed to merge in a blur
of meaningless action. He despaired of ever making any sense out of anything.
Vice Lords sensed his feelings and he could see it made some people uncomfortable.
This increased the difficulty of gaining the rapport necessary to carry
out successful research.
He also had emotional responses to events that stemmed from his own
value system. How to handle these responses was another difficulty. There
were certain aspects of Vice Lord life that he found particularly distasteful.
In the early part of his research, they made him upset and uneasy. Later,
at times he found himself getting angry. These reactions often made it
difficult for him to retain objectivity.
What problems did he have when writing up the data?
Writing up the data into some kind of coherent account involves at
least two problems. First, the anthropologist must decide to be included
in the work, and second, he must decide on the data to be included in the
work, and second, he must decide on the manner in which to organise and
present the data that is included. The first problem is often difficult
to solve because in writing an account it is necessary to describe living
people, many of whom are close friends. This is especially difficult when
the study may be read by members of the society in which it was carried
out.
Keiser believes that most anthropologists feel an obligation to write
nothing that could inure the people in the group in which they worked.
On the other hand, the anthropologist wants to write the best possible
account he can, and information that members of a society might not want
known might be important for understanding how particular social and cultural
systems work. If information was given in confidence, then the anthropologist
has the moral obligation to keep that confidence. In other instances, the
anthropologist may have information not given in confidence that people
still might not want others to know about. One obvious solution is to change
dates, names and places, but this is not always effective. Then, in Keiser?s
opinion, the particular information should not be included if it is really
injurious to the people involved. The difficulty comes in deciding whether
something is really injurious. I do not think that there is any simple,
clear-cut answer to this problem. The anthropologist must be as sensitive
as possible to the feelings and problems of the people he is describing,
and write his account accordingly.
In trying to solve the second problem, that of organisation and presentation,
his theoretical orientation was as important as it was in gathering data.
The theoretical orientation provided a framework on which he tried to construct
a coherent account. His main goal was to demonstrate the systematic
nature of Vice Lord social life. In order to do this, however, it was necessary
to take a cultural perspective as well, for aspects of culture related
to patterns of social interaction in important ways. I started with definitions
of the cultural and social systems. The social system was defined as the
ordered system of on-going social interaction; and the cultural system
as the ordered system of beliefs and values in terms of which social interaction
takes place.
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Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 Time: 12:00 AM
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