Introduction
The social sciences were designed to study individuals and society and encompass many disciplines, both humanities and STEM ones. Such interaction contributes to the emergence of innovative and groundbreaking theoretical frameworks, methodologies and practices, but creates new scientific problems. One of them is that some anthropological and sociological terms, concepts, and variables are too broad and have too high interchangeability. It could potentially distort the intentions of the researchers and undermine the accuracy of the research. One such interchangeable social work variable with a wide meaning that needs to be clarified is ethnicity (Blakemore, 2019). Another reason this particular term was chosen is the growing popularity of ethnic studies and related courses and classes (Flannery, 2020). This work aims to provide a new conceptual definition for such a complex social variable as ethnicity.
What Ethnicity Is
The categorization of individuals in terms of ethnicity is based on a combination of primary or inherited aspects, such as race and genetics, and secondary or acquired ones, including language, dialect, culture, religion, tradition, and rites. Inherited elements are called paramount because it is the race and genetics of a person that are the unchangeable influencing internal characteristics of a person. They define to a large extent secondary attributes the individual will obtain in the course of the formation of their ethnic identity. It is crucial to note that the genetic aspect of ethnicity implies not only the genes possessed by a person but also their biological parents and genealogy. Heredity and membership are conceptually close to ethnicity; it means both of these concepts (Onuch & Hale, 2018). This first group of factors describes and explains the category of heredity within ethnicity.
The group of acquired aspects of ethnicity is titled secondary because they can potentially be changed. A person may lose or even not obtain some of the elements of their ethnicity during his or her lifetime. An individual may not know the native language of their ethnicity due to growing up and living in a non-native territory or forget it due to moving to another country. The same goes for dialect, culture, religion, rites, and tradition. The reasoning behind why these factors are crucial for defining ethnicity despite their highly changeable status is that they serve as external channels for transmitting information within an ethnic group. They form a sense of membership, a “we-they distinction” crucial for internal ethnic self-identification and external recognition by others (Eriksen, 2019, p. 31). However, one must be careful when studying ethnicity through the prism of religion. Religion is not always an aspect of ethnicity; this is especially true of major religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Believers of these and other global faith communities include many ethnic groups.
Conclusion
This work attempts to provide a conceptual definition of ethnicity. Ethnicity in the social sciences is a combination of primary biological and secondary societal elements. The former implies racial origin and genetics, while the latter means language, dialect, culture, religion, tradition, and rites. The hierarchy of ethnicity elements is based on the properties of primacy and substitutability. It is essential to mention that religion is not always an aspect of ethnicity and ethnic identity. Universal religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism that are egalitarian and inclusive in nature should be considered a tertiary factor in ethnicity.
References
Blakemore, E. (2019). Race and ethnicity, explained.National Geographic. Web.
Eriksen, T. H. (2019). The epistemological status of the concept of ethnicity.Anthropological Notebooks, 25(1), 27-36. Web.
Flannery, M. E. (2020).Ethnic studies classes growing in popularity. National Education Association. Web.
Onuch, O., & Hale, H. E. (2018). Capturing ethnicity: The case of Ukraine.Post-Soviet Affairs, 34(2-3), 84-106. Web.
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