Transcript Ethnicity

Ethnicity
What Is It?
► Refers
to a group of people who share a common
identity.
► First came into popular usage during the 1940’s as
an alternative to the term “race,” which was
negatively associated with Hitler’s Nazi regime.
► Involves more than physical characteristics
associated with race; also includes a person’s
perceived social and cultural identity.
Charter Group
► The
first ethnic group to establish cultural norms
in an area.
► Sometimes called the “first effective settlement” or
“first self-perpetuating society,” whose imprint
affects modern cultural geography or an area.
► Cultural geography of the eastern United States
was heavily influenced by British settlers, while
southwestern cultural geography displays more
Spanish influence.
Ethnocentrism
► Tendency
to evaluate other cultures against
the standards of one’s own, implying
superiority of one’s ethnic group.
► Can be negative in multiethnic societies by
provoking social discord and isolation.
► Can be positive when ethnic groups exist in
relative isolation by providing familiarity
through traditions, friends, business
opportunities, and political identification.
Ethnic Enclaves
►A
relatively small area occupied by a distinct
culture or ethnicity, which largely result from chain
migration.
► “Little Italy” or “Chinatown” are common names of
ethnic enclaves that exist in numerous American
cities.
► Ease the adaptation process by providing business
opportunities, community, and cultural items and
traditions from home such as food and clothes.
Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide
► Cleansing
involves the effort to rid a country
or region of everyone of a particular
ethnicity either through forced migration or
genocide.
► Genocide is a premeditated effort to kill
everyone from a particular ethnic group.
Ethnic Neighborhoods
► Concentrations
of people from the same ethnicity
in certain pockets of the city.
► Results from friends and relatives who have
immigrated, encouraging friends and relatives
back home to join them where opportunities or
freedom are more available.
► When ethnic groups are forced to live in
segregated parts of the city, the ethnic
neighborhood becomes a “ghetto.”
► Ghettos exist in some of the least desirable
locations within a city.
Ethnic Islands
► Small,
rural areas settled by a single ethnic group
as opposed to ethnic neighborhoods or enclaves,
which are urban.
► Formed in the United States by later settlers
including Scandinavians in the north central
states; Germans in the Appalachians, upper
midwest, and Texas; Slavics in the western plains;
and Armenians and Italians in California.
► Leave their imprint in rural areas through housing,
barn style, and farmstead layouts.
Ethnic Provinces
► When
entire regions become associated
with ethnic or racial aggregations.
► Include French Canadians in Quebec;
African Americans in the U.S. southeast;
Native Americans in Oklahoma, the
southwest, the northern plains and prairies;
and Hispanics in the southwestern border
states.
Social Distance
► Measure
of the perceived differences between an
immigrant ethnic group and the charter or host
society.
► Increases with greater perceived differences
between groups, diminishing the likelihood of the
charter group assimilating the newcomers.
► When distance is high, ethnic neighborhoods or
enclaves exist for much longer than when it is low.
Segregation
► Measure
of the extent to which members of a
particular minority ethnic group are not uniformly
distributed among the total population.
► Quantitatively measured using the segregation
index or index of residential dissimilarity.
► Index indicates the percentage difference between
two ethnic groups.
► In New York, in 2000, segregation measured at 82
percent, meaning 82 percent of blacks (or whites)
need to locate to new census tracts before equal
distribution is achieved.
Diaspora
► Experiences
of people who come from a common
ethnic background but live in different regions or
ethnic neighborhoods.
► Often used to refer to Jews or blacks of African
descent, who maintain aspects of their common
heritage despite living outside their home
community.
► Often illustrates itself through music, food, or
religious traditions that allow individuals to
celebrate and maintain common heritage outside
of native culture region.
Gender and Sex
Gender refers to socially created distinctions between
masculinity and femininity, while sex connotes biological
differences between males and females.
► Geographers are increasingly interested in spatial
behavior pattern differences between males and
females.
► For example, females, for safety reasons, may be less
willing to travel alone in certain parts of a city as
compared to males.
► Culture can play a strong role in determining a woman’s
role in society, which often has implications for
economic development.
►
Popular “Pop” Culture
► Conveys
a notion of cultural productions fueled by
mass media and consumerism.
► Includes visual and performing arts, culinary arts,
architecture and city planning, music, fashion,
sports, leisure activities, and other forms of
entertainment.
► Does not reflect local environment; looks virtually
the same anywhere it appears.
► Rapidly changes over time as evidenced by terms
such as fad or trend commonly used in pop culture
lingo.
Cultural Imperialism
► Dominance
of one culture over another.
► Historically, often occurred as a result of
colonization.
► Occurs in present day as pop culture, which is so
easily diffused across national boundaries; causes
local traditions to either die out or become
completely commercialized.
► Sometimes called cultural homogenization, as pop
culture continually pervades the globe.
Folk Culture
► Refers
to cultural practices that form the sights,
smells, sounds, and rituals of everyday existence
in traditional societies in which they developed.
► Usually rural, with strong family ties and strong
interpersonal relationships leading to cohesive
group identity.
► Usually form a subsistence economy, where most
goods are handmade, and most individuals
perform a variety of tasks father than specializing
in any one area.
► Elements vary dramatically from place to place but
do not change much over time.
Folk Cultures Today
► Very
few exist today, especially in North America.
► Many traditions perpetuated, materially and
nonmaterially, through art and other handicraft as
well as music, stories, philosophies, and belief
systems.
► Relics of past folk culture exist in the present in
the form of different types of houses, food and
drink, and music, and different kinds of medicines
and remedies.
Vernacular Regions
►A
perceptual region defined by perceived unique
physical and cultural characteristics in that area.
► While region boundaries are based on individual
perception, much overlap exists among people as
to where these regions exist.
► For example, most people in the United States
would define the boundaries of the “Deep South”
similarly.
► Many of the defining characteristics are based on
stereotypes, often from mass media sources,
particularly if an individual has not had direct
experience with a place.
Sense of Place
► Term
used to connote attachment to and comfort
in a particular place.
► Typically individuals have strongest sense of place
attached to where they grew up, which is
manifested by loyalty to sports teams and other
items people associated with “home.”
► Many argue that individuals are losing it as
“placeless” landscapes of pop culture increasingly
take over the unique characteristics of local
landscapes.
Placelessness
► Loss
of distinct local features in favor of
standardized landscapes.
► Happens as a result of pervasiveness of pop
culture and mass production and availability of a
wide variety of consumables.
► Fought through opposition of establishment of pop
culture elements such as big box stores like
Walmart or standardized and stagnant strip malls.
► Communities fighting placelessness work to
promote local businesses and local characteristics
to keep their place unique.