Abstract
Although the term “ethnic group” (EG) is often used in social studies, its definition differs among researchers. Moreover, little is known about ordinary people’s subjective understanding of this term, even though it is often used in social discourse. We examined this issue in a cross-sectional study of 273 American, British, Mexican, and Polish students using an open-ended questions approach. Results revealed cultural differences in patterns of “ethnic group” definitions across the four countries. U.S. respondents predominantly connected EG to “race”; British participants frequently related it to “race,” but more often to “common culture” and “customs/traditions.” Both latter categories were overwhelmingly dominant in Mexico and Poland. However, “nation,” “shared history,” “religion,” “language,” and “territory” were also very popular as EG understandings in Poland. Although most participants used the newer definition of EG (referring to all groups in a society, including minority and majority groups), a few in each country used the term only to refer to minorities and people different from themselves (an older, “minus one” definition). Unexpected definitions of EG also appeared (e.g., people having similar hobbies, having similar work goals, or living in the same city). The results also indicate that for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Mexico, “ethnic group” was more a subgroup within a nation, whereas in Poland, they represented the same level of categorization. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.
Highlights
The terms "ethnic group" (EG) or "ethnicity" have been studied by a range of disciplines including statistics, demography, political science, sociology, history, ethnology, and anthropology, as well as geography and psychology
The identification of categories was oriented by the research line of "ethnic group” definitions, described in the introduction, and was taken as the reference point to establish a preliminary list of codes
The answers were grouped into the following categories, some broader than others: "race"; "nation/country"; "common culture/cultural background," "common customs/traditions," "heritage"; "religion"; "language"; "shared beliefs/values/morals"; "ancestors/family," "genes" and "physical features/looks"; geographical references such as "place of origin," "sharing territory"; "common/shared history" and "common experience"; "similar activities/interests," "common goal," "bond within a group"; "common traits"; "social group,” “social class"; "minorities" and "other than me." Some categories may overlap, but we wanted to see the patterns in detail, that is, what categories in the broader category "common culture" are important in certain countries, for example, "religion", "common customs/traditions," "language" etc
Summary
The terms "ethnic group" (EG) or "ethnicity" have been studied by a range of disciplines including statistics, demography, political science, sociology, history, ethnology, and anthropology, as well as geography and psychology. Some researchers avoid defining the term—Isajiw's (1974) meta-analysis of 65 sociological and anthropological studies dealing with ethnicity showed that only 13 of them included a definition Their reason may be what Omi and Winant (1994, p.14) summarized as “The definition of the terms ‘ethnic group’ and ‘ethnicity’ is muddy.”. Human groups are constantly moving and mixing and, as a result, people have some freedom to choose their cultural and ethnic identity and the group with which they want to identify Such phenomena as ethnic or national identity are becoming increasingly dynamic and based on the differing interests, ideas and choices of individuals (Burton, Greenberger & Hayward, 2005; Shiraev & Levy, 2004)
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