We explain what an Ethnicity group is, what factors identify them, and examples from Mexico and around the world. Also, differences with a race. Please read other MTV articles for more information. If you share it, it will be of little help to us.
What is an Ethnicity group?
An Ethnicity group (from the Greek ethnos, “people” or “nation”) or ethnic group refers to a social group whose members identify with each other based on a common origin and certain shared traits, such as language, religion, and culture. The term ethnicity is often used to refer to the distinctive characteristics through which an ethnic group is recognized.
According to the British sociologist and founder of the field of ethnosymbolism, Anthony D. Smith (1939-2016), ethnic groups should be understood as “human populations that share myths about ancestry, stories, and cultures, that are associated with a specific territory, and that share a sense of solidarity.” Those who belong to the same ethnic group feel connected to each other by historical and cultural ties, like members of the same family, even if they have never met.
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Today, Ethnicity groups exist all over the world. Some have inhabited the same territory since ancient times; others, however, have spread across various regions. In general, larger ethnic groups tend to subdivide into subgroups or tribes, which, over time, can become distinct ethnic groups. Conversely, previously separate ethnic groups can merge and form a single ethnic group.
Both a person and a group can move from one ethnic group to another through processes of acculturation, assimilation, and religious conversion. Two or more ethnic groups may also influence each other through processes of interbreeding or religious syncretism.
Characteristics of an Ethnicity Group
Ethnic groups are human groups, but not all human groups constitute ethnic groups, so it is often difficult to determine what an ethnic group is. In this regard, some characteristics that are taken into account are the following:
- A certain sense of origin, expressed in a founding myth and a common historical memory.
- A shared cultural background, expressed in traditions, beliefs, and values.
- A distinct language or dialect, although many ethnic groups are multilingual and, at the same time, different ethnic groups may share the same language.
- A more or less distant kinship between members, which may be manifested in some degree of common genetic ancestry. However, it should be kept in mind that many ethnic groups have a mixed genetic ancestry.
- Additionally, the subjective experience of its members is important for identifying an ethnic group. In this sense, the belief of belonging to a culturally distinctive group, different from other groups, is an aspect that must be taken into account, along with the members’ willingness to display the group’s own characteristics (ways of dress, eating habits, religious rites, etc.).
Types of Ethnicity groups
According to the characteristic or aspect considered to define belonging to an ethnic group, these can be grouped as follows:
- Ethnolinguistic groups: These focus on a shared language or dialect. For example: the Basques.
- Ethnonational groups: These focus on a shared system of government or a sense of national identity. For example: the Poles.
- Ethnoracial groups: These focus on physical appearance, based on phenotypic traits. For example: African Americans.
- Ethnoregional groups: They focus on a sense of local belonging, derived from geographic isolation. For example: the inhabitants of the Isle of Man, in Great Britain.
- Ethnoreglical groups: They emphasize a religion or a series of religious practices. For example: the Mennonites.
- Ethnocultural groups: They focus on a common culture or tradition. For example: the Magyars.
Membership in one of these groups often overlaps with membership in one or more other groups. For example: the Basques are simultaneously an ethnolinguistic, ethnoregional, and ethnocultural group.
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Ethnic Groups by Language
Ethnic groups can also be classified by language (although there are multilingual ethnic groups and others that share a common language). Based on this, a series of large groups are recognized, corresponding to linguistic families that include one or more ethnic groups.
- Indo-Europeans: includes peoples who speak Albanian, Armenian, Greek, and the Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Indic, Iranian, Romance, and Slavic languages.
- Afro-Asiatics: includes peoples who speak Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Semitic, Khoisan, Niger-Congo, and Nilo-Saharan languages.
- Australians
- Austroasiatics
- Austronesians
- Caucasians
- Dravidians
- Paleosiberians
- Papuans
- Taikadai
- Uralic
- Basques
- Altaics: Includes peoples who speak Korean and Japanese, and Mongolian, Tungusic, and Turkic languages.
- Sino-Tibetans: Includes speakers of Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages.
- Amerindians
- Eskimo-Aleuts
Difference between ethnicity and race
Race and ethnicity are two related concepts: both refer to human groups whose members are linked by ancestry. However, they are very different notions.
Race is defined as a group that shares certain distinctive physical traits. It is linked to physical characteristics, such as skin color, eye shape, or hair texture.
Ethnicity is a group of people with a common origin and who share a cultural background, a way of life, beliefs, or a language.
Just as the concept of ethnicity is linked to cultural identification, the concept of race is often associated with biology. However, both are social constructs used to classify seemingly distinct groups. Neither race nor ethnicity can be detected in the genome.
The variations observed in humans are not due to different genes, but rather to the expression of certain genes. But even these variations are biologically insignificant: more than 99% of human genetic material is common to all members of the species, and variations occur more between individuals than between ethnic groups.
The concept of “race” to classify the human species has been widely criticized and is currently out of use in scientific circles. However, it still persists in popular culture.
The term race is not free from the racist and discriminatory considerations that gave rise to it, in a context in which Western colonial powers developed biological discourses to somehow justify the subjugation of the colonies’ peoples.
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Examples of ethnic groups
There are numerous ethnic groups on the planet. The following are examples:
- The Kurdish people: Of Indo-Iranian origin, they live in the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, currently divided between Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
- The Persian people: Composed of the ancestral inhabitants of the Iranian plateau, they speak Farsi, or the Persian language. Heirs of the ancient Persian Empire, they almost entirely converted to Islam after the Muslim conquest in the 7th century.
- The Quechua people: Made up of a group of South American aboriginal peoples, they originate from the Andes Mountains. Their name derives from the Quechua language, native to the Inca Empire.
- The Armenian people: Native to the Armenian plateau in Anatolia, Asia Minor, their language is Armenian, derived from Old Persian. Many of their members are scattered throughout the world. The largest communities are found in Russia, the United States, Iran, and Lebanon.
- The Magyar people: Their members, colloquially known as Hungarians, are the current inhabitants of Hungary, in Eastern Europe. Their origins are a matter of debate. The most widely accepted explanation maintains a Uralic origin, that is, from the ancestral populations of the Ural Mountains (in the 4th millennium BC).
- The Berber peoples: They comprise a group of indigenous ethnic groups from North Africa, from the region known today as Tamazgha. They currently inhabit a vast territory, stretching from the Canary Islands to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt. They speak a set of their own languages (Tamazight), derived from Afro-Asiatic languages.
Mexico’s Main Ethnic Groups
As established by its Constitution, Mexico is a multiethnic country, home to diverse cultures, each speaking its own language and possessing its own customs and traditions. Among the main ethnic groups in Mexico are:
European descendants, whites, or Creoles
As their name suggests, these are the descendants of the European settlers who established themselves in the former Viceroyalty of New Spain between the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as the numerous European migrants that Mexico has welcomed in its subsequent history. They are mostly Catholic or Protestant, and although they speak Spanish, many retain the language of their region of origin.
Afro-Mexicans
Descendants of former African slaves forcibly brought to the Americas during the colonial era, they have primarily Yoruba and Mandingo heritage. Currently, they make up 5% of the Mexican population.
Indigenous Peoples
Despite the traumatic history of European conquest and colonization, there are many descendants of pre-Hispanic aboriginal peoples, who speak around 68 different languages and possess their own cultural identity. These peoples represent between 7% and 15% of the Mexican population. Some of the main ethnic groups are:
- The Mayan or Mayan peoples. Their origins date back to 2600 BC. For centuries, they were the central civilization of the Mesoamerican region. Today, the Mayan population numbers nearly 1.5 million people. They inhabit the regions of the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Chiapas and speak a Spanish strongly influenced by the Mayan language.
- The Nahuatl or Nahuatl peoples. Their name comes from the ancestral language that still survives among them. Most are found in the central regions of Mexico, such as the State of Mexico, Hidalgo, and Puebla. They are the descendants of the ancient Aztec or Mexica peoples.
- The Zapotec peoples. Also called Binizáa, they are the third largest indigenous Mexican ethnic group. They number nearly 800,000, almost all distributed in the southern region of the country, between Oaxaca and Veracruz. Their language, spoken by 50% of the current Zapotec population, belongs to the Otomanguean family, which also includes the Mixtec and Otomi languages.
- The Mixtec peoples. Neighbors and former allies of the Zapotecs against the Aztecs, the Mixtec peoples today number approximately 720,000 people, who still practice many of their ancestral customs.
- The Huichol peoples. Also known as Wixárika, they are native to the Sierra Madre Occidental, in the west of the country, and speak a language belonging to the Uto-Aztecan branch. Their population is estimated at 43,000.
Mexican Mestizo People
Mexico’s majority ethnic group is the result of the complex processes of cultural hybridization that occurred in the region during and after the colonial period. Its members do not fully identify with their aboriginal or European heritage, and have incorporated elements of both traditions, in what was referred to during post-revolutionary Mexican governments as the “mestizo identity.”
Arab Mexicans
They are the result of a significant migration of individuals of Turkish, Armenian, Iranian, Palestinian, and other Middle Eastern descent between the 19th and 20th centuries. Although they represent less than 5% of the country’s total population, their presence has been felt in the country’s gastronomy, giving rise to fusion dishes such as tacos Árabes. The majority of Arab Mexicans practice Latin, Maronite, or Eastern Catholic Christianity, or Orthodox Christianity.
Asian Mexicans
Representing less than 1% of the country’s population, their arrival in Mexico dates back to Filipino migration during the Spanish colonial period. Later, between the 19th and 20th centuries, Japanese, Chinese, Cambodian, Timorese, and other Asian immigrants migrated, constituting the fastest-growing immigrant group between 1880 and 1920.
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References
All the information we offer is supported by authoritative and up-to-date bibliographic sources, ensuring reliable content in line with our editorial principles.
- Ethnicity on Wikipedia.
- Ethnic group on Wikipedia.
- Ethnic group on Britannica.
- Race and ethnicity: How are they different? on National Geographic.
- Ethnic groups of Mexico on Wikipedia.
- What is the difference between race and ethnicity? (video), on Bluecinante.
- Ethnicity – What it is, race, examples of ethnic groups in Mexico and the world – concepto.de
