| achieved status | Social status that comes through talents, choices, actions, efforts, activities, and accomplishments, rather than ascription.
|
 |
|
|
| ascribed status | Social status (e.g., race or gender) that people have little or no choice about occupying.
|
|
|
|
| assimilation | The process of change that a minority group may experience when it moves to a country where another culture dominates; the minority is incorporated into the dominant culture to the point that it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit.
|
|
|
|
| colonialism | The political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an extended time.
|
|
|
|
| cultural colonialism | The internal domination by one group and its culture/ideology over others; for example, Russian domination of the former Soviet Union.
|
|
|
|
| descent | Rule assigning social identity on the basis of some aspect of one's ancestry.
|
|
|
|
| discrimination | Policies and practices that harm a group and its members.
|
|
|
|
| ethnic expulsion | The removal of ethnic groups that are culturally different from the majority group.
|
|
|
|
| ethnic group | Group distinguished by cultural similarities (shared among members of that group) and differences (between that group and others); ethnic group members share beliefs, values, habits, customs, and norms, and a common language, religion, history, geography, kinship, and/or race.
|
|
|
|
| ethnicity | Identification with, and feeling part of, an ethnic group, and exclusion from certain other groups because of this affiliation.
|
|
|
|
| ethnocide | Process in which ethnic groups survive but lose or severely modify their ancestral cultures.
|
|
|
|
| First World | The "democratic West"--traditionally conceived in opposition to a "SecondWorld" ruled by "communism." The First World includes Canada, the United States, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
|
|
|
|
| forced assimilation | Use of force by a dominant group to compel a minority to adopt the dominant culture--for example, penalizing or banning the language and customs of an ethnic group.
|
|
|
|
| hypodescent | Rule that automatically places the children of a union or mating between members of different socioeconomic groups in the less-privileged group.
|
|
|
|
| majority groups | Superordinate, dominant, or controlling groups in a sociopolitical hierarchy.
|
|
|
|
| minority groups | Subordinate groups in a sociopolitical hierarchy, with inferior power and less secure access to resources than majority groups.
|
|
|
|
| multiculturalism | The view of cultural diversity in a country as something good and desirable; a multicultural society socializes individuals not only into the dominant (national) culture but also into an ethnic culture.
|
|
|
|
| nation | Once a synonym for "ethnic group," designating a single culture sharing a language, religion, history, territory, ancestry, and kinship; now usually a synonym for state or nation-state.
|
|
|
|
| nationalities | Ethnic groups that once had, or wish to have or regain, autonomous political status (their own country).
|
|
|
|
| nation-state | An autonomous political entity; a country like the United States or Canada.
|
|
|
|
| négritude | Black association and identity--an idea developed by dark-skinned intellectuals in Francophone (French-speaking) West Africa and the Caribbean.
|
|
|
|
| phenotype | An organism's evident traits, its "manifest biology"--anatomy and physiology.
|
|
|
|
| plural society | A society that combines ethnic contrasts and economic interdependence of the ethnic groups.
|
|
|
|
| prejudice | Devaluing (looking down on) a group because of its assumed behavior, values, capabilities, attitudes, or other attributes.
|
|
|
|
| race | see social race
|
|
|
|
| racism | Discrimination against an ethnic group assumed to have a biological basis.
|
|
|
|
| refugees | People who have been forced (involuntary refugees) or who have chosen (voluntaryrefugees) to flee a country, to escape persecution or war.
|
|
|
|
| Second World | The Warsaw Pact nations, including the former Soviet Union, the Socialist and once Socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Asia.
|
|
|
|
| social race | A group assumed to have a biological basis but actually perceived and defined in a social context, by a particular culture rather than by scientific criteria.
|
|
|
|
| state (nation-state) | Complex sociopolitical system that administers a territory and populace with substantial contrasts in occupation, wealth, prestige, and power. An independent, centrally organized political unit; a government. A form of social and political organization with a formal, central government and a division of society into classes.
|
|
|
|
| status | Any position that determines where someone fits in society; may be ascribed or achieved.
|
|
|
|
| stereotypes | Fixed ideas--often unfavorable--about what the members of a group are like.
|
|
|
|
| stratified | A sociopolitical system with strata, sharp social divisions based on unequal access to wealth and power.
|
|
|
|
| Third World | The term used to refer to the "less developed" and "developing nations" of the world.
|
|
|
|
| |
|