StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Sociology of the Micro-Culture: Ethnicity - Research Paper Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Sociology of the Micro-Culture: Ethnicity" discusses ethnicity as the prime building block of society; it is a common identity among the individual members of society. Ethnicity provides the person a sense of belongingness to a group by means of highly similar cultural characteristics…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.9% of users find it useful
Sociology of the Micro-Culture: Ethnicity
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Sociology of the Micro-Culture: Ethnicity"

Ethnic origin provides an individual with a sense of identity from other people. It reinforces the idea that a certain individual is what he or she is because of his or her belongingness to this certain group, where the culture of that group is passed on to that individual by means of language. It is quite comparable to an intangible home of the individual where different members of a huge family interact in seemingly similar ways and value similar cultural norms. Ethnicity is closely linked to the concept of nationality, which, in Political Science, refers to the perception of belongingness to a group or a collective of people exhibiting uniqueness or a sense of distinction from other groups of people.

Ethnicity is Janus-faced as it presents two paradoxical roles in society. The concept of Ethnicity unites people of the same ethnic origin and consolidates a homogenous collective group of that same ethnic origin. We can see this in the classic example of the Chinese. In seemingly most major cities in the world, there is always a sector in that city deemed a Chinatown, where most, if not all, people, citizens or migrants, that are ethnically and conservative Chinese establish their homes and their businesses. It strengthens the Chinese identity of the people by reinforcing the group ethnicity, employing endogamy, maintaining Chinese beliefs and culture, and preserving the language as a means of communication in their homes or among the members of the group. It reinforces the Chinese-ness amongst the people even if they are half a world away from their motherland

Ethnicity, while consolidating the members of the same ethnic group, it separates this group from the mainstream culture, especially if the ethnic group is located in a foreign land away from their ancestral domain. The dominant culture, or the culture of the majority, though acknowledges the existence of other cultures in their immediate territory; the dominant culture would still always claim to be the rightful and correct culture to be followed. It considers the out-group to be deviant and thus violates the values that the dominant culture’s norms are, though these violations may not necessarily be illegal, as these violations can be immoral or unusual. Through ethnicity, it creates a bigger heterogeneous social environment consisting of at least two different ethnicities. A heterogeneous social environment is prone to misunderstanding and conflict or clash of ideas as the ethnic groups perceive the world differently, depending upon their culture’s worldview and how their culture interprets the events, sceneries, and perceptions of the individuals of the collective ethnic group.

There are a number of public policies that the government or any other body of organization with the respective authority in order to address the negative effect of ethnicity on social consolidation, one of which is assimilation.

Assimilation is directly learning, understanding, and adapting another culture as part of an individual or a couple of individuals’ purpose of being part of that respective society. It’s like a process of unlearning one’s own culture and adopting another culture. This usually happens as a response to migration movements of people from across the borders of the world. Migration is good for a country, especially for a dying population (old people > young people, i.e. Canada), as it adds up to their population count. Excessive Migration, on the other hand, can over-power the culture of the accepting society, threatening such culture to be extinct. Furthermore, excessive migration produces a sheer heterogeneous society of different ethnic origins with different cultures and thus making one’s community prone to cultural problems and misunderstanding. Through assimilation, governments can ensure the unity of their population by facilitating an assimilation program for migrants to accept and understand the culture of the society the government stands for, regardless of the ethnic origin of the migrant.

Ethnicity is indeed one of the most fundamental ingredients for the creation of social institutions, as it is the main embodiment of all of the cultures of a certain group of individuals or of a society. It acts as a blueprint as to how one interacts with one another, and ultimately, the nature of social institutions that seeks to promote the culture of the ethnic group to the young generations. What is problematic about Ethnicity is that by strengthening the ethnic group’s closeness to its members, it creates a barrier and sets a distance between its members and the non-members. It often breeds misunderstanding, and conflicts usually arise because of this misunderstanding. In order to combat this misunderstanding, the individual person must learn to understand each other’s culture even by mere exposure to their environments, otherwise, more problematic means will be utilized, such as assimilation, in order to maintain national security within the territory.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Paper 3 Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/other/1419332-paper
(Paper 3 Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
https://studentshare.org/other/1419332-paper.
“Paper 3 Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/other/1419332-paper.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Sociology of the Micro-Culture: Ethnicity

Comparison of the Social Sciences

This research paper "Comparison of the Social Sciences" concentrates on how anthropology, psychology, and sociology could be used to understand human cultures better and to promote understanding and respect for each other's culture and human interaction in large groups.... ... ... ...
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Paper

The sociological perspective

There may be diverse levels of English comprehension based on their subculture or ethnicity, but there's still one universal language that everybody follows.... The paper dwells upon the sociological questions about the reforms of society, theoretical perspectives, the macro-and micro-level approaches in sociology....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Formal organizations

Using micro sociology a.... Microsoft companies can be grouped as a utilitarian formal organization.... In a utilitarian organization, the members of the organization are mainly brought together as a way of earning a living.... The organization is formal due to its high institutional context....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

Introduction to Sociology

Race, Ethnicity, Gender, And Class: The sociology of Group Conflict And Change.... Additionally, at each level, the interaction is studied using concrete evidence as well as Introduction to sociology What is your understanding of the “sociological perspective”?... According to sociology, what is a ?... sociology in Our Times....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Cultural Norms Determine Emotional

While discussing various approaches, special attention was paid to dramaturgical and structural perspectives of the sociology of emotions.... These are the key points and issues to be discussed in this essay which aims to illustrate the dramaturgical and structural perspectives on the sociology of emotions by contrasting them....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Sociology of Education - Interactions and Marxism

The author of the paper "sociology of Education - Interactions and Marxism" states that sociology is a social science.... Sociology has many subfields like social stratification, political sociology, criminology, sociology of gender, and others.... sociology of Education is yet another relevant field of Sociology.... The word sociology is a combination of the term 'Socio-' which is derived from the Latin word socius which means people in general and the suffix '-logy' which means 'study of'....
16 Pages (4000 words) Essay

Sociological Knowledge and Understanding of Contemporary Health Issues

sociology of health and illness is a skeptical response to the medical model of health and illness.... Human behavior is partly determined by the organization of society and social factors (age, ethnicity, education, employment, etc.... Analyzing this case from a macro perspective will help in giving a sociological interpretation of adjacent issues of ethnicity, employment, education, gender, stratification, health and illness, and social class and social status in social structure....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

The Different Aspects of Sociology

Examples of areas of study include group dynamics theories, ethnicity, gender, race, and deviance.... The paper "The Different Aspects of sociology" tells that the understanding of the different concepts culminating in the definition of sociology can help in the development of an informed understanding of self and can drive towards lifting the barriers towards making greater achievements.... There have been changes in sociology since the term was coined, but it remains an important discipline to develop a clear understanding of daily life and the world we live in....
16 Pages (4000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us