Table of Contents

1. Identity, Inter-Ethnic Relations, and Multiculturalism in Ethiopia.............................................2

Introduction:.................................................................................................................................2

1.1. Identity, Ethnicity, and Race: Identification and Social Categorization...............................2

1.1.1. Ethnicity: What's in a Name?.........................................................................................2

1.1.2. Ethnicity – A Short Historical Overview.......................................................................2

1.1.3. The Term Itself –Ethnicity.............................................................................................2

1.2. Conceptualizing Ethnicity – What's It?.................................................................................3

1.3. Ethnic Groups and Ethnic Identity........................................................................................4

1.4. Race - The Social Construction of Racial Identity...............................................................5

1.5. Theories of Ethnicity: Primordialism, Instrumentalism, and Social Constructivism...........5

1. Identity, Inter-Ethnic Relations, and Multiculturalism in Ethiopia

Introduction:
Chapter delves into the complex social world of identity, ethnicity, race, inter-ethnic relations,
and multiculturalism, particularly within the Ethiopian context. It acknowledges that these
concepts are not merely academic abstractions but are deeply intertwined with the survival of
humankind, personal identity, morality, political behavior, and everyday existence. The chapter
emphasizes that these identities are not static but are actively shaped and negotiated.

1.1. Identity, Ethnicity, and Race: Identification and Social Categorization

1.1.1. Ethnicity: What's in a Name?

The Rise of Ethnicity: The chapter notes the increasing prominence of ethnicity as a topic of
study and discussion in recent decades. This is partly due to the failure of modernization theories
to predict the decline of ethnic and national identities. Instead, ethnicity has become increasingly
important in political and social life.

The term "ethnic" is derived from the Greek word "ethnos," which originally referred to a group
of people bound together by shared customs and features. However, the ancient Greeks often
used the term to refer to non-Greeks, considering them second-class peoples.

In its modern sense, the term "ethnic" gained prominence after World War II, replacing the term
"race" due to its association with Nazi ideology. "Ethnic" was adopted as a substitute for
"minority groups" in North America and as a synonym for "nationhood" in Europe. The
Racialization of Ethnicity: Despite attempts to distance ethnicity from race, popular discourses
have often "racialized" the concept, preserving the quasi-biological sense of race and using it
interchangeably with ethnicity.

1.1.2. Ethnicity – A Short Historical Overview

The Need for a Historical Perspective: The chapter emphasizes the importance of understanding
the historical evolution of the term "ethnicity" to grasp its current meanings and complexities.
The term 'ethnicity' has been used in various ways to refer to different human 'groupings' and
how this is opened a door for the elasticity and ambiguity of its conceptual meaning.

1.1.3. The Term Itself –Ethnicity

The English Origin: The English origin of the term 'ethnicity' is connected to the term
“ethnic,”—which is much older and has been in use since the Middle Ages.
The Greek Origin: The word is derived from the Greek term 'ethnos' (which in turn, derived from
the Latin word ‘ethnikos'), which literally means “a group of people bound together by the same
manners, customs or other distinctive features"

1.2. Conceptualizing Ethnicity – What's It?

The Lack of a Clear Definition: The chapter notes that many scholars who use the term
"ethnicity" either find definition unnecessary or are reluctant to provide a general framework for
the concept.

Max Weber's Contribution: Max Weber provided an early and influential sociological conception
of ethnicity, defining an "ethnic group" as based on the belief in common descent, political
solidarity, and shared customs, language, religion, values, morality, and etiquette.

The Primacy of Politics: Weber argued that ethnic membership does not constitute a group but
only facilitates group formation, particularly in the political sphere. He suggested that the belief
in common ancestry is often a consequence of collective political action rather than its cause.

Frederik Barth's Boundary Perspective: Frederik Barth shifted the focus from the cultural
characteristics of ethnic groups to the relationships of cultural differentiation and the contact
between "us" and "them." He emphasized that ethnic boundaries are not determined by objective
cultural differences but are actively maintained through social interaction.

The Importance of Signals and Value Orientations: Barth identified two orders of cultural
contents in ethnic dichotomies: overt signals or signs (such as dress, language, and style of life)
and basic value orientations (the standards of morality and excellence).

Ethnicity as an Organizational Vessel: Barth argued that ethnic categories provide an

organizational vessel that may be given varying amounts and forms of content in different socio-
cultural systems.

The Social Action Perspective: Barth turned the traditional understanding of cultural difference
on its head, defining ethnicity from the "outside in." He argued that it is not the possession of
cultural characteristics that makes social groups distinct but rather the social interaction with
other groups.

The Universalist Approach: Barth's research established a foundation for understanding ethnicity
in universalist rather than in particularist terms. Since culture and social groups emerge only
through interaction with others, then ethnicity cannot be confined to minority groups only.

The Basic Social Anthropological Model: The chapter summarizes the "basic social
anthropological model of ethnicity" as follows:

* Ethnicity is a matter of cultural differentiation.

 * Ethnicity is centrally a matter of shared meanings.

* Ethnicity is no more fixed or unchanging than the way of life of which it is an aspect.

Ethnicity, as an identification, is collective and individual.

1.3. Ethnic Groups and Ethnic Identity

Ethnic Group as the Basic Concept: The chapter notes that the concept of "ethnic group" is the
most basic, from which the others are derivative. It refers to ethnicity as the collective
phenomenon.

Ethnic Identity ashes Individual Experience: Ethnic identity refers to ethnicity as an individually
experienced phenomenon.

Weber's Definition Revisited: Weber's definition of an ethnic group is once again associated with
the term. According to Weber, an 'ethnic group' is based on the belief in common descent shared
by its members, extending beyond kinship, political solidarity vis-a-vis other groups, and
common customs, language, religion, values, morality, and etiquette

Anderson's Imagined Community: Anderson described ethnic groups as “an imagined

community” that possesses a “character and quality"

Schermerhorn's Unique Characteristics: Schermerhorn conceptualize ethnic group as a unit of

population having unique characteristics in relation with others, binding with common language,
myth of origin, and history of ethnic allegiance

Barth's Self-Defined Group: Barth define ethnic groups as a self-defined group based on
subjective factors and/or fundamental cultural values chosen by members from their past history
or present existing conditions in which members are aware of-and-in contact with other ethnic
groups

Hutchinson and Smith's Main Features: Hutchinson and Smith identified six main features that
the definition of an ethnic group, predominantly consists. This includes; A common proper
name, to identify and express the “essence” of the community;

A myth of common ancestry that includes the idea of common origin in time and place and that
gives an ethnic group a sense of fictive kinship;

Shared historical memories, or better, shared memories of a common past or pasts, including
heroes, events, and their commemoration;

One or more elements of common culture, which need not be specified but normally, include
religion, customs, and language;
 A link with a homeland, not necessarily its physical occupation by the ethnic group, only its
symbolic attachment to the ancestral land, as with diaspora peoples; and A sense of solidarity on
the part of at least some sections of the ethnic's population

Ethnic Identity: Definitions of ethnic identity vary according to the underlying theory embraced
by researchers' and scholars' intent on resolving its conceptual meanings.

1.4. Race - The Social Construction of Racial Identity

Race as an Elusive Concept: The chapter acknowledges that race is an elusive concept, often
used interchangeably with ethnicity, but with a complex and contested relationship.

The Historical Variability of the Boundary: The boundary between the two concepts is
historically variable; what was 'racial' before 1945 may be more publicly acceptable as 'ethnic'
today.

Race as a Social Construct: The chapter emphasizes that race is a social construction, a system of
human categorization that is based on perceived common physical characteristics.

The Importance of Social Action: The concept of race is important to the extent that it informs
people's actions, where it exists as a cultural construct, whether it has a "biological" reality or
not.

The Role of Racism: Racism builds on the assumption that personality is somehow linked with
hereditary characteristics, which differ systematically between "races."

The Need for Social Scientific Study: Social scientists who study race relations need not
themselves believe in the existence of race, since their object of study is the social and cultural
relevance of the notion that race exists.

Racial Classification: A Short Historical Overview:

For some time, it was common to divide humanity into four main races, which recognized both
on the scientific and folk notions of the concept. In this regard, race was used both as a system of
human classification and social stratification

The folk Notions of the concept on the other hand, perceived race as a non-overlapping and
distinguishable categories of people; which is fixed and natural (immutable) in its character.

Modern genetics abandon race as a variable in biomedical research and tends not to speak of
races, and this has two main reasons:

There has always been so much interbreeding between human populations that it would be
meaningless to talk of fixed boundaries between races. The distribution of hereditary physical
traits does not follow clear boundaries. In other words, there is often greater variation within a
"racial" group than there is systematic variation between two groups.

1.5. Theories of Ethnicity: Primordialism, Instrumentalism, and Social

Constructivism
The Theoretical Landscape: The chapter introduces three dominant theoretical approaches to
understanding ethnicity: primordialism, instrumentalism, and social constructivism.

Primordialism:

Ethnicity is fixed at birth. Ethnic identification is based on deep, ‘primordial' attachments to a

group or culture

Instrumentalism:

Ethnicity, based on people's “historical” and “symbolic” memory, is something created and used
and exploited by leaders and others in the pragmatic pursuit of their own interests.

Constructivism:

Ethnic identity is not something people “possess” but something they “construct” in specific
social and historical contexts to further their own interests. It is therefore fluid and subjective.