Introduction

The meaning of the word “ethnic” has changed substantially over time. During the nineteenth century, the science of ethnology referred to the concept of “race”. It was not until the 1950s that a group of internationally renowned sociologists signed a statement officially replacing the word “race” with “ethnic group”. During the nineteenth century, ethnic groups, or races, were seen as natural and unchanging, groups in which the members shared inherited traits. Each group had its place in the world order. Polygenists claimed different “races” had different origins, and therefore their place in the world order was hard and fast, assigned to them by their inheritance.

In 1925 Max Weber (in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft) stated that ethnic groups are artificial constructs, created and maintained by a shared belief in common origins. Fredrik Barth (Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, 1969) pointed out that these beliefs and the way in which they create and maintain ethnic groups are continually renegotiated and reformulated to accommodate the changing environment or, rather, a changing population because a group's “ethnicity” (or any form of group identification) is only relevant in the confrontation or interaction with other groups.