Ethnicity

![CDATA[Ethnicity, defined as a group identity based on shared memories, traditions, cultural values, religion, and place of origin, which serves as a focus for attachment and belonging, has attracted considerable interest from social scientists since the early years of the 20th century. As a concept, it emerged in opposition to older ideas of race as the basis for human difference. While ethnicity does overcome some of the more prejudicial assumptions embedded in race discourse, the meaning of ‘ethnic’ is not fixed, and its constituent elements— memory, tradition, and religion—do not hold the same value for all ethnic groups. Further, in contemporary societies, ethnic groups may be misrecognised as racial groups. For these reasons, an investigation of race is a necessary precursor to a study of ethnicity, and of the alignment, or lack of it, between race, ethnicity, and religion.]]