Sociology

RACE AND ETHNICITY

Race

The sociological meaning of race

The race is the word used to describe the physical characteristics of a person. These characteristics can include everything from skin colour to eye colour and facial structure to hair colour. This term is physiological in nature and refers to distinct populations within the larger species. The race was once a common scientific field of study. Today, however, most scientists agree that genetic differences among races do not exist. Although when we think of race in terms of biological elements, the race is a socially constructed concept.

Definition of race

Race is a cultural construct that groups people together based on perceived biological similarities. In the biological sciences, a race is a “geographically related subdivision of a species”. This definition does not apply to Homo sapiens. Genetically, it is clear that human groups have been interbreeding for millennia as we are genetically similar to one another. This is not to say that there is no diversity in human beings; one only has to look around to see some variability, but at a genetic level the diversity we see is, well, superficial. Race can be defined as a socially constructed category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that society considers important.

1. Hooton (1926) defined race as a great division of mankind, the members of which, though individually varying, are characterised as a group with a certain combination of morphological and metrical features, primarily non-adaptive, which have been derived from their common decent. 

2. Montagu (1942) defined race or an ethnic group as representing number of populations under species Homo sapiens, which individually maintain their differences, physical and cultural, by means of isolating mechanisms such as geographic and social barriers. 

3. Dobzhansky provided a genetic definition of human race. According to him “Races are defined as populations differing in the incidence of certain genes, capable of exchanging genes across boundaries that separate them”. 

4. Boyd (1950) defined human race as a population which differs significantly from other human populations with regard to the frequency of one or more genes it possesses. 

5. According to Garn (1960) “Race is a breeding population, partially isolated reproductively from other breeding populations, arising commonly but not exclusively from geographic isolation.” 

6. Hulse (1963) stated, “Races are populations which can be readily distinguished from one another on genetic grounds alone”.

7. Buettner-Janusch (1969) defined race as “Mendelian population separated from another by major geographical barriers; breeding isolate; a population distinguished from another by demonstration of differences in allele frequencies.” 

8. According to Mayr (1969) race is “An aggregate of phenotypically similar populations of a species, inhabiting a geographic subdivision and differing taxonomically from other populations.” 

9. Templeton (1998) stated, “A subspecies (race) is a distinct evolutionary lineage within a species that genetically differentiated due to barriers from genetic exchange that have persisted for long periods i.e. the subspecies must have historical continuity in addition to current genetic differentiation.”

Racial types/Classification:

In 1962, Carleton S. Coon created a racial classification. Let’s discuss the following.

1. Mongoloid: 

This race is mostly found in Asia particularly in Central Asia. Its physical characteristics are gray-eyes, yellow complexion, black hair on the body, flat nose broad face and medium height. The Mongoloid can be further divided into four main subdivisions on the basis of their geographical distribution such as –

1. Classical or Central Mongoloid

2. The Arctic or Eskimoid

3. Indonesian-Malay Mongoloid and 

4. The American Indians

The Mongoloid features are predominantly found in the peoples of Asia, Indonesia and Americas. The inhabitants of China Mongolia, Tibet, North America, Siberia, Greenland, Burma, Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Philippines, Japan and North-East India showed the presence of Mongoloid racial elements. Indians of North and South America also exhibit some Mongoloid characteristics.

2. Caucasoid: 

This is known as the white race, but in fact, it is of light colour. It has hair ranging from brown to black, thin lips, eyes light blue, hair upon the chest, arms and legs. Some are medium to high structures. The Caucasoid racial group includes a large number of sub-races or groups such as –

1. Mediterranean

2. Nordic

3. Alpine

4. East Baltic

5. Dinaric (Adriatic or Illyrian)

6. Armenoid

7. Keltic

8. Lapp

9. Indo-Dravidian (Dravidian)

10. Polynesian and

11. Ainu

The Caucasoid features are mainly distributed among the Europeans and their descendants. They are also observed in North Africa and the Middle East to North India.

3. Australoid: 

These are found in Australia. Their racial characteristics are the high head, low forehead, big and broad nose, medium lips, grey eyes, wavy hair and generally with short stature. The Australoids are classified into two main groups such as –

1. Australian aborigines and 

2. Pre-Dravidian (Australoid or Veddoid)

The Australoid are predominantly found in Australia and Oceania. Some of the population groups of India particularly South and Central India showed Australoid racial elements.

4. Negroid: 

The Negroids are found in Africa. Some scholars call it the first human race. Their important characteristics are black skin, woolly hair, broad nose, thick lips, high head and varying stature. The Negroids are divided into two sub-groups as –

1. African Negro and

2. Oceanic Negro

Some anthropologists include another group the American Negro into the Negroid racial element. The Negroid features are restricted among the populations of Africa and Melanesia. A few people in America are also found to exhibit some Negroid physical features because they are the descendants of African people who were once taken to America as workers. To the Negroid race belong the peoples of Africa, the Pygmy groups of Indonesia, and the inhabitants of New Guinea and Melanesia.

Guha lists six main races with nine subtypes:

1. The Negrito

2. The Proto – Australoid

3. The Mongoloid

1. Palaeo – Mongoloids

1. Long headed

2. Broad headed

2. Tibeto – Mongoloids

4. The Mediterranean

1. Palaeo – Mediterranean

2. Mediterranean

3. Oriental

5. The Western Brachycephals

1. Alpenoid

2. Dinaric

3. Armenoid

6. The Nordics

Guha has remarks that the southern tribes may have a Negrito origin, the central India tribes the proto – Australoid and North – North Eastern tribes the Mongoloid. However, it is not possible to classify the tribes according to their racial origin because the tribes like the rest of the population in the country is of mixed character.

Ethnicity

The sociological meaning of Ethnicity

The word ‘ethnic’ is much older and is derived from the Greek ethnos (which in turn derived from the word ethnikos), which originally meant heathen or pagan. An ethnic group or ethnicity is a population group whose members identify with each other based on common nationality or shared cultural traditions. Like race, ethnicity is socially constructed. On an individual level, people play up or play down cultural traits so that they fit in or stand apart from the surrounding society. Societies define some ethnic differences as important and others as not. 

Definition of Ethnicity

According to John Hutchinson and Anthony Smith (1996:4–5), the term “ethnicity” is relatively new, first appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1953, but its English origins are connected to the term “ethnic,” which has been in use since the Middle Ages. The true origins of “ethnic” have been traced back to Greece and the term ethnos, which was used in reference to band, tribe, race, a people, or a swarm.

Gerald Berreman (1972, 1981) defines ethnicity as one level of social stratification or social inequality that also includes race, class, kinship, age, estate, caste, and gender.

Theoretical concepts of Ethnicity

Jones (1997:xiii) outlines three major terms related to “ethnic”: ethnicity, ethnic identity, and ethnic group. Ethnicity is defined as “all those social and psychological phenomena associated with a culturally constructed group identity.” Ethnic identity is defined as “that aspect of a person’s self-conceptualization which results from identification with a broader group in opposition to others on the basis of perceived cultural differentiation and/or common descent.” An ethnic group is classified as “any group of people who set themselves apart and/or are set apart by others with whom they interact or co-exist on the basis of their perceptions of cultural differentiation and/or common ancestry.” 

Difference between Race and Ethnicity

1. The race is used to indicate the legacy that you have acquired by birth; you were naturally introduced to it or with it. Then again, Ethnicity is more about parts of a culture that you have learned after some time or because of standard and consistent introduction.

2. The race is something you can’t adjust as you are naturally introduced to it. You generally have the decision of modifying and notwithstanding rehearsing redirect social practices and conventions.

3. Race partitions individuals on the premise of the physical qualities they were conceived with. Then again, ethnicity alludes to an arrangement of individuals who embrace a similar arrangement of social practices.

4. Ethnicity is frequently used by individuals to accomplish a feeling of having a place by having a similar arrangement of social practices. Defining their reality by sharing an arrangement of solid practices and customs through which they associate and relate to each other. Race, then again, does not offer ascent to a feeling of fellowship, in actuality, it causes is utilized for making a gap between individuals, utilizing angles, for example, skin shading, facial sort and so forth.

5. The race is a term that is spawned by the general public and gives a feeling of division. Ethnicity, then again, is embraced by individuals readily and is utilized to make a feeling of having a place.

Racial and ethnicity are both socially defined, one involving biological traits, the other cultural traits. Therefore, the two may go hand in hand.

Ethnic Diversity in India

India is the most ethnic diverse in nature, all Indians don’t look like each other. Meaning, there isn’t a ‘typical Indian look’. Stereotypes, yes; but in reality, India's ethnic diversity is pretty much only rivalled by Africa's continent's diversity.

So, the broad ethnic groups in India are the Indo-Aryans, the Mongoloids, the Dravidians and different tribal groups. There are thousands of sub-divisions. Now the Indian subcontinent is believed to have been originally populated by indigenous Dravidian tribes. The Indo-Aryan people who have Proto-Australoid roots settled in India in and around the Paleolithic Age. The Mongoloid people in the North East of India migrated from the far East.  All these people inter-mingled over the centuries to create the incredible racial and ethnic diversity in India today.

Speaking very loosely, Northern, Western, Central, Eastern and parts of Southern India superficially look the most alike, although pockets of people do not fit this stereotype. The skin tone varies across the country, becoming steadily darker the further south you go; the features change – the noses, jawlines and chins being sharper and narrower up north. The northerners are distinctly lighter-skinned, haired and eyed than the southerners.

The North-East alone is isolated in terms of ethnicity. The population is almost entirely mongoloid here. Yes, this is a serious setback to national integration and we’ve had political, social, humanitarian issues in the northeast, pretty much forever, because of this.

Different tribal pockets in different parts of the country also have their own set of distinctive features.