Hey there,
I am working on my PhD on ethnicity in Africa and some colleague of mine suggested that there is a difference between tribes and ethnicity. For example, he said that in Tanzania there are only tribes and not ethnic groups. I come from an economist/political science background (meaning I have absolutely no clue why there should be a difference), so any suggestions for literature on the difference between tribes and ethnic groups is greatly appreciated!!!!
Thanks a lot!!!
A.
I am working on my PhD on ethnicity in Africa and some colleague of mine suggested that there is a difference between tribes and ethnicity. For example, he said that in Tanzania there are only tribes and not ethnic groups. I come from an economist/political science background (meaning I have absolutely no clue why there should be a difference), so any suggestions for literature on the difference between tribes and ethnic groups is greatly appreciated!!!!
Thanks a lot!!!
A.
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Texas
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Re: Tribe versus ethnicity
Fri, June 20, 2008 - 3:43 PMHey!
Unfortunately, I am only an undergraduate student and I don't have expertise in that particular section of anthropology past introductory level. But the University of Alabama does have an online glossary for anthropology and this may be a good start for you.
www.as.ua.edu/ant/glossary.htm
tribe-A relatively small group of people (small society) who share a culture, speak a common language or dialect, and share a perception of their common history and uniqueness. Often refers to unstratified social groups with a minimum of (or no) centralized political authority at all, organized around kinship lines. (Hunter and Whitten, 1982)
a territorial population in which there are kin or nonkin groups with representatives in a number of local groups. (Ember and Ember, 1999)
ethnicity-The characteristic cultural, linguistic, and religious traditions that a given group of people use to establish their distinct social identity -usually within a larger social unit. (Hunter and Whitten, 1982)
Ethnicity is a multifactorial concept including, but not limited to, cultural constructs, genetic background, ecological specialization, and self-identification (Crews and Bindon, 1991).
Maybe you should start by looking up those authors. Good Luck! -
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Re: Tribe versus ethnicity
Sat, June 21, 2008 - 8:54 PMIt seems to me that the difference is contextual. You have a group of people that share a history and culture and are self-contained (tribe) and one that is part of a larger group, like a subset of that group (ethnicity) i.e pygmies vs. basque etc. -
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Re: Tribe versus ethnicity
Sun, June 22, 2008 - 1:53 AMSure it can be defined as simply as "ethnicity" being a genetic correlation while tribes are social groups ? -
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Re: Tribe versus ethnicity
Sun, June 22, 2008 - 11:28 AMThe thing about that Bloke, is that ethnicity isn't necessarily related to genetics. You can have two people in an ethnic group that are not closely related genetically. Ethnicity, just like race is a man-made concept as genetic research has proven. It's an issue of identity, not physiology other than what our eyes tell us. -
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Re: Tribe versus ethnicity
Sun, June 22, 2008 - 11:40 AMBadly phrased on my part (and at 4:37 am - probably not the time to fix it :)
But "ethnicity" (and I did us the " " in my first post) is about the identity a "look" creates.. - especially to outsiders.. -
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Re: Tribe versus ethnicity
Mon, June 23, 2008 - 12:32 PMNo, not at all.
I have red hair and fair skin, and am ethnically Irish (well, Irish-American, which is a sort of quasi-fictive subset). So are people who are very brown-skinned and brown-eyed, those with black hair and blue eyes, etc. Some Italians are blond, others dark. People can have very dark brown skin, live in roughly the same place in Africa, and have an entirely different genetic makeup.
Ethnicity has to do with language, customs, self-identification, etc. Tribes are social structures, perhaps administrative units: family structure, region where you live, lineage, history, etc.
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Re: Tribe versus ethnicity
Tue, July 1, 2008 - 8:35 AMIf I understand correctly, there are tribal societies in which tribes prefer to select mates from outside the tribe, such as by trading females.
The larger society could be more-or-less genetically homogeneous as a result of this, even if the tribes have different laws, religious practices and linguistic variants. -
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Re: Tribe versus ethnicity
Tue, July 1, 2008 - 2:16 PMFor example, Scotland was once a tribal society. At one point, everybody spoke Gaelic (or English, depending on the point in history). Everybody lived in Scotland, and looked, well, Scottish. But the social structure was clan-based. Each clan had a leader, a territory, a kinship structure, and a specific set of kinship and territorial alliances. Of course you would marry outside the clan--you forged alliances that way with neighboring clans, and also avoided the unpleasantries of incest.
I'm wondering now if ethnicity, like race, is only recently relevant and only relevant as describing a set of self/other relationships. For the traditional Scots, ethnicity only became relevant when the culture was threatened by outside, being not-English, whereas the clan system was how they organized themselves internally.
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