Ethnic group

An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, social, cultural or national experience. Unlike most other social groups, ethnicity is primarily an inherited status. Membership of an ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language and/or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, and physical appearance.

Ethnic groups, derived from the same historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages and share a similar gene pool. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for some individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group and become part of another (except for ethnic groups emphasizing racial purity as a key membership criterion).

Ethnicity is often used synonymously with ambiguous terms such as nation or people.

Depending on which source of group identity is emphasized to define membership, the following types of (often mutually overlapping) groups can be identified:

Ethnicities (journal)

Ethnicities is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes research in the fields of sociology and politics concerning questions of ethnicity, nationalism and related issues such as identity politics and minority rights. It was established in 2001 and is published bimonthly by SAGE Publications. The editors-in-chief are Stephen May (University of Auckland) and Tariq Modood (University of Bristol).

History

Ethnicities was established in 2001, initially with three issues a year. The following year it moved to four issues and in 2012 to six issues. The founding editors were Stephen May and Tariq Modood.

Debate Section Ethnicities carries a Debate section that addresses topics of debate within the subject area, including: constructivist and realist conceptions of culture (volume 1.2), critical multiculturalism (volume 1.3), cosmopolitanism (volume 3.4), feminism, ethnicity and reproductive technology (volume 5.2), whiteness (volume 6.2), symbolic ethnicity (volume 9.1), critical race theory (volume 9.2).