Ethnic group

Ethnic groups are people who share a common heritage based on physical appearance, common ancestry, kinship, religion, language, and territory. The word ethnicity originates from the Greek word ethnos which mean nation or people of the same race who share a distinctive culture. In recent times, the word ethnic and ethnicity have been associated with exotic people, minority issues, and race. The first person to introduce this word into social science is Max Weber ethnic who consider ethnic groups as human groups with a common descent because of similarities in their physical appearance or custom or because they hold common memories of colonization of migration irrespective of their blood relationship. He held a view that ethnic groups or communities did not exists because they were based on beliefs that were purely subjective and its purpose was to hold power and status in the society. His were against the prevailing trend of the time that socio-cultural behavioral differences were due to believed that inherited traits of a race. There are different approaches to the study of ethnic groups namely: primordialism perennialism, constructivism, modernism and instrumentalism. According to theory of primordialism, ethnic groups were in the existence through out human history and are closely linked with the idea of nations, and have their roots in kinship and biological heritage. This theory is further classified into Essentialist primordialism, kinship primordialism, Geertz's primordialism which stresses that ethnicity groups is a natural phenomena of every society. But this view is opposed to Perrennialism theory and looks at ethnicity beyond the natural order with its roots in history. However, constructivists view ethnic groups as a product of human interaction and would remain in existence as far as the society validates its necessity. Furthermore, modernism theory considers ethnic group as a modern invention that came into existence with the rise of modern states. Finally, the instrumentalism theory considers ethnic groups as mere instrument that stratifies the society and is similar to other divides like gender and socio-economic status. However, it is interesting to know that the term ethnic groups have different connotations in different countries.