Sociology Notes
Theories of Ethnicity and “Race”
Chapter Overview
- There exist numerous theories of ethnicity and “race.” Such theories are parts or braid conceptual
frameworks and approaches to a variety of social phenomena
- Primordialist theories are closely linked with socio-biology approaches to ethnicity and “race.”
- There is a great divide between culturalist theories that emphasize the role of culture in analyzing
ethnic and “racial” differences and inequalities and critical political economy approaches that tend
to focus on the role of social structures.
- Intersectional analysis and standpoint theory seek to connect ethnicity and “race” with social
class and gender. Together, they constitute fundamental bases of social inequality.
- Critical race theories, post-colonial analyses, and studies of “whiteness” are rooted in the colonial
experience. They are closely linked with the conflict perspective and seek not only to analyze
racism and social inequalities but also to redress them
Primordialism and Socio-biology
● Primordial approaches to the understanding of "race" and ethnic phenomenon have a seductive,
common-sense appeal because they emphasize that there is something natural and inevitable
about groups of people wanting to "stick together."
○ Literally, to be primordial means to be original, forming or constituting a beginning, an
origin.
○ Primordial approaches conceptualize ethnicity and "race" as being discrete, ascriptive
characteristics that are given at birth and which derive from objective biological or blood
ties.
■ Group members are believed to share a genetic and cultural heritage.
■ They are derived directly from kinship and clan biological structures of society
and, as such, ethnic and "racial" groups are more or less fixed, permanent, and
immutable.
○ Ethnicity comprises primordial affinities and attachments with which individuals are born
(Isaacs, 1975).
■ It represents deeply rooted, old sentiments and impulses for other members of
your "own kind."
■ Fellow group members are sought because of an inherent need for belonging
together with other, similar individuals.
○ People's genetic inheritance, it is argued, gives rise to spontaneous feelings or urges of
emotional attachment (Fleas, 2012).
■ It is natural for people to form bonds with their "own kind" since we are "wired" by
human evolution and survival requirements. Biological ties within groups give rise
to similar types of behaviors by individual group members.
● The socio-biology perspective is one variant of a primordial approach and is best represented by
Pierre van den Berghe.
○ In his controversial 1981 work, The Ethnic Phenomenon, he conceives the origins of
ethnic bonding as extensions of kinship group solidarity.
, ■ Kinship groups, he argues, tend to act together for self-preservation. Ethnic
groups can be seen as "extensions of the idiom of kinship" or "in-breeding
super-families."
■ They band together, cooperate, and provide mutual aid to their related members
because of their common biological ancestry.
○ Sticking together, so to speak, ensures the long-term survival and propagation of the
group.
■ This bonding protects and promotes the evolutionary survival of one's own ethnic
kind (Fleras, 2012).
○ Van den Berghe (1981) argues that in order to maximize their chances of survival,
individuals resort to inclusive fitness; they inter-marry and have children within their own
kind, which, in biological terms, allows them to "leave behind" as many of their genes as
possible.
■ He suggests that the basic mechanism of ethnic solidarity is nepotism, which is
the tendency to exhibit in-group bias, or to favour members of the same ethnic or
"racial" group.
○ Ethnic nepotism "advances commonality of genetic interest as a type of interest distinct
from others, such as class interests" (van den Berghe, 1986: 250).
Theories of Ethnicity and “Race”
Chapter Overview
- There exist numerous theories of ethnicity and “race.” Such theories are parts or braid conceptual
frameworks and approaches to a variety of social phenomena
- Primordialist theories are closely linked with socio-biology approaches to ethnicity and “race.”
- There is a great divide between culturalist theories that emphasize the role of culture in analyzing
ethnic and “racial” differences and inequalities and critical political economy approaches that tend
to focus on the role of social structures.
- Intersectional analysis and standpoint theory seek to connect ethnicity and “race” with social
class and gender. Together, they constitute fundamental bases of social inequality.
- Critical race theories, post-colonial analyses, and studies of “whiteness” are rooted in the colonial
experience. They are closely linked with the conflict perspective and seek not only to analyze
racism and social inequalities but also to redress them
Primordialism and Socio-biology
● Primordial approaches to the understanding of "race" and ethnic phenomenon have a seductive,
common-sense appeal because they emphasize that there is something natural and inevitable
about groups of people wanting to "stick together."
○ Literally, to be primordial means to be original, forming or constituting a beginning, an
origin.
○ Primordial approaches conceptualize ethnicity and "race" as being discrete, ascriptive
characteristics that are given at birth and which derive from objective biological or blood
ties.
■ Group members are believed to share a genetic and cultural heritage.
■ They are derived directly from kinship and clan biological structures of society
and, as such, ethnic and "racial" groups are more or less fixed, permanent, and
immutable.
○ Ethnicity comprises primordial affinities and attachments with which individuals are born
(Isaacs, 1975).
■ It represents deeply rooted, old sentiments and impulses for other members of
your "own kind."
■ Fellow group members are sought because of an inherent need for belonging
together with other, similar individuals.
○ People's genetic inheritance, it is argued, gives rise to spontaneous feelings or urges of
emotional attachment (Fleas, 2012).
■ It is natural for people to form bonds with their "own kind" since we are "wired" by
human evolution and survival requirements. Biological ties within groups give rise
to similar types of behaviors by individual group members.
● The socio-biology perspective is one variant of a primordial approach and is best represented by
Pierre van den Berghe.
○ In his controversial 1981 work, The Ethnic Phenomenon, he conceives the origins of
ethnic bonding as extensions of kinship group solidarity.
, ■ Kinship groups, he argues, tend to act together for self-preservation. Ethnic
groups can be seen as "extensions of the idiom of kinship" or "in-breeding
super-families."
■ They band together, cooperate, and provide mutual aid to their related members
because of their common biological ancestry.
○ Sticking together, so to speak, ensures the long-term survival and propagation of the
group.
■ This bonding protects and promotes the evolutionary survival of one's own ethnic
kind (Fleras, 2012).
○ Van den Berghe (1981) argues that in order to maximize their chances of survival,
individuals resort to inclusive fitness; they inter-marry and have children within their own
kind, which, in biological terms, allows them to "leave behind" as many of their genes as
possible.
■ He suggests that the basic mechanism of ethnic solidarity is nepotism, which is
the tendency to exhibit in-group bias, or to favour members of the same ethnic or
"racial" group.
○ Ethnic nepotism "advances commonality of genetic interest as a type of interest distinct
from others, such as class interests" (van den Berghe, 1986: 250).
