Race, nationality, language and religion as defining factors

Overview

How race contributes to the definition of ethnicity, how religion defines ethnicity beyond belief itself and ethnicity and nationality.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What do geographers mean by an ethnic group?

   Model answer

   A population that shares, and believes itself to share, a common identity built from some combination of perceived ancestry, culture, language, religion, nationality, history and attachment to a territory, and which is seen by itself and by others as distinct on those grounds. The key point is that the group is defined by a shared sense of belonging rather than by any single measurable characteristic, so no one factor is essential to every group.

2. 2

   Explain how race contributes to the definition of ethnicity.

   Model answer

   Race refers to the classification of people according to visible inherited physical characteristics, most commonly skin colour, but also hair type and facial features. It contributes to ethnicity because these visible markers are used by others to assign people to a group, and because a history of being treated as a race can itself generate a shared identity. It is only one contributing factor, however: many ethnic groups are physically indistinguishable from their neighbours, and many people of similar appearance belong to entirely different ethnic groups.

3. 3

   Explain why geographers treat race as a social category rather than a biological one.

   Model answer

   Because the biological evidence does not support it. Genetic studies consistently find that variation within any so-called racial group is far greater than the average variation between such groups, and that visible traits such as skin colour vary continuously across space rather than in discrete blocks. Racial categories also change: the groups counted as separate races differ between countries and between censuses in the same country. Race is therefore best understood as a category societies create, though it remains geographically important because people are treated according to it.

4. 4

   How does nationality contribute to ethnic identity?

   Model answer

   Nationality operates in two senses. Legally it means citizenship of a state, carrying a passport, rights and obligations. Culturally it means a felt membership of a nation, a people with a shared history, symbols and often a claimed homeland. Both can supply an ethnic identity, through national language, flags, anthems, commemorations, sport and school curricula. The two senses can diverge, and where they do, national identity rather than citizenship is usually the ethnic marker.

5. 5

   Why is it a mistake to assume that nationality and ethnicity map onto each other?

   Model answer

   Because states and ethnic groups have different boundaries. Almost every state contains more than one ethnic group, so a single citizenship covers many identities. Conversely, one ethnic group is frequently spread across several states, either because borders were drawn across its territory or because of migration, so a single ethnic group may hold several nationalities. People may also hold a national identity different from their legal citizenship, and dual nationals hold two at once.

6. 6

   What makes language such a powerful marker of ethnic identity?

   Model answer

   Language is both a carrier of culture, holding a group's literature, songs, oral history, humour and religious texts, and an immediate everyday boundary: those who share it can communicate and those who do not are excluded. It is learned in the home so it links identity to family and childhood, it is publicly audible so it identifies speakers instantly, and it appears in the landscape through signage, place names, broadcasting and the medium of education, which is why language rights become political issues.

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