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The Origin of Ethnic Groups

The Origin of Ethnic Groups. Ethnic Group. Comprehensive Definition a collective proper name a myth of common ancestry shared historical memories one or more differentiating elements of common culture an association with a specific 'homeland'

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The Origin of Ethnic Groups

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  1. The Origin of Ethnic Groups

  2. Ethnic Group Comprehensive Definition • a collective proper name • a myth of common ancestry • shared historical memories • one or more differentiating elements of common culture • an association with a specific 'homeland' • a sense of solidarity for significant sectors of the population

  3. Key Components of Ethnic Groups & Nations • Core - Complex of myths and symbols, fused into one mental image • Boundary – Cultural markers which determine who can be a group member

  4. Culture Zones

  5. Super-Tribes

  6. Limited Ethnogenesis • Coast Salish refers to a cultural or ethnographic designation …who speak one of the Coast Salish languages… but there is no one …people named "Coast Salish". • BUT: ‘First Nations’, also ‘Indian’ and ‘Inuit/Eskimo’ are concrete, politically-relevant ethnic identities

  7. Tribes

  8. “Ethnolinguistic Groups” in Africa Are these the designations of the insider or outsider? Which are the relevant designations: smaller or larger groups? ‘Onion’-like nature of ethnicity in Africa ‘Politically Relevant’ Ethnic Groups (Posner 2004) Urbanisation and Ethnic assimilation (Wolofisation; Kikuyu-isation; decline of San and Pygmies)

  9. Dissecting the ‘Onion’: Ethnic and Supra-Ethnic Groups

  10. Language Families (according to Armstrong 1982, these, along with religious divisions, shaped the contours of modern European ethnic groups)

  11. Ethnogenesis • Blood-Soil/ Space-Time • Process of integration/differentiation • Elements: • Name, • Land • Econ/communications • Downward & inward penetration of consciousness/myths • Homogenization of language

  12. Ethnogenetic Processes • Contact between and communication within • Codification of culture, myth, memory, language • Political fortunes wax and wane • Integration and differentiation • Fission and Fusion

  13. Historical Rise of Ethnic Groups • Many of the world's nations in fact date their foundation from the rise of their core ethnic group (i.e. Germany did not begin in 1871) • Origins, from the perspective of Ethno-Symbolist or Historicist-culturalist school (Smith, Armstrong, Hastings) • 2 main types of ethnie: • Vertical (demotic) • Lateral (aristocratic) • Lateral-aristocratic (i.e. Turks, English)

  14. Vertical Ethnic Groups • Tribal Confederation - Kurds, Arabs, Irish, Zulu. War & migration. • Frontier Ethnies - Swiss, Czechs, Armenians, Catalans. Defending the realm, trade routes. • City-state amphictyonies- greater identity coexists with city-state: Greek, Persia • Diasporas - Pontic Greeks, Lebanese traders, Jews, Armenians, Parsees • Religious Sects - Druze, Copts, Sikhs, Mennonites

  15. Colonial Ethnogenesis • Pre-colonial kingdoms, tribal confederations (ie Akan, Zulu, Thai) • Colonial missionaries help to codify languages • Administrators and travellers delineate homelands • Colonialists settle tribesmen in new lands, bring labour together (i.e. Zambian copperbelt) • Native romantic/anti-colonial intellectuals

  16. Celtic Britain • Communities often small scale, but with temporary agglomerations. Also local legends and oral traditions • Rome brings Christianity • Native Celts are organised into tribes • Romans designate provinces and towns • Roman Britain, 410 A.D.

  17. Britain in the 5th c. AD

  18. Anglo-Saxon England • 5th Century invasion by Teutonic Angles, Saxons and Jutes • Creation of separate kingdoms • King Egbert brings all of England under his control • Fusion: Celt & Anglo-Saxon blend, Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms unite

  19. Integration: The English Ethnic Group begins to form, c. 650 A.D.

  20. King Alfred the Great of Wessex • This 9th c. Anglo-Saxon King’s exploits against the invading Scandinavians became enshrined in myth – partly by his own chroniclers, but largely by 18th and 19th century English Romantics

  21. Ancient Ethnicity? • English chroniclers, monks like Bede, refer to ‘Anglia’ and its virtues • Welsh (and Britons) begin to refer to themselves as Cymru, or fellow countrymen after 8th c. • Scottish battles against Norse and Anglo-Saxon – evidence of large-scale unity?

  22. Ethnic Processes in the British Isles • Fission: 1) Welsh, Cornish and Manx from Celtic Britons; 2) Scots from Celtic Gaels; 3) Anglo-Saxons from Greater Germans • Fusion: 1) English from Anglo-Saxons, Jutes, Britons & Normans; 2) Scottish from Scots & Picts • Contact: Welsh and Scots’ unity forged in war against English; English unity in war against Normans, Danes, Celts

  23. Varieties of Ethnic Group in the British Isles • Tribal Confederation: ‘tribes’ of Brythonic Celts form into Welsh in response to Anglo-Saxon attack; ‘tribes’ of Angles, Saxons, Jutes form into an Anglo-Saxon conquest agglomeration – shaped by Danish, Viking, Norman invasion • Lateral-Aristocratic: Scottish and English monarchs sink roots into native population through mobilisation for war and feudal system (Welsh as well); • Diasporas: Scotch-Irish, Anglo-Irish • Sects, Frontier ethnies, City-State Unions: none

  24. Medieval Period • Feudalism established in Wales, England and Scotland • Llewelyn the Great sets up ‘state’ on feudal lines in Wales, mid-13th c. • Malcolm III sets up Scottish kingdom, 1057; David I sets up feudal ‘state’ 1124-53 • The Norman William I unites England. • Fusion: Anglo-Saxons and Normans intermarry

  25. Ethnicity in the Middle Ages? Yes • English, Welsh and Scots were linguistically distinct cultures & the masses spoke the native tongue • Each were named populations • Battles in the name of ethnicity were fought between groups (English-Welsh, English-Scots) • Each had myths of origin, homelands and political memories • A sense of communal consciousness emerges in native chronicles, which go back to the early middle ages • Even local folk tales preserve memory of wider events (Arthur, Wallace, etc)

  26. No: Modern Ethnic Revivals • England, late 1700s • Wales, early 1800s • Scotland, early 1800s • Harked back to ancient and medieval events (King Arthur’s Wales, Robert the Bruce’s Scotland, Alfred the Great’s Anglo-Saxons)

  27. One Purported Site of King Arthur’s Tomb, Glastonbury Abbey

  28. Ethnic Revival or Invention ? • Were romantic intellectuals ‘reviving’ or ‘inventing’ myths, memories, identities? • Was there a pre-modern Welsh, Scots and English ethnic consciousness, or were the players in this drama unaware of the larger picture? • Even if consciousness existed – how far down the social scale did it go?

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