How do you define the word "ethnicity"?

Oct 30, 2020 6:39:54 GMT Clovis Merovingian said:

Do you define the word ethnicity, by culture or by ancestry? I noticed that old worlders tend to do it by culture while settler societies like the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and I think Latin America tend to define it by ancestry. I think that if you were to ask an American what their ethnicity is they would just list off the groups that their ancestors came from and put it as a hyphen before the word American (for example Irish American).

It can be defined in either way and perhaps in other ways, because a TRIBE or ETHNIKON is a society of people who live (dwell, do things, make things, ….) on a territory of the Earth. The society is not a mere crowd/bunch of people; it is an INTERACTING assemblage of people, and thus it has many and diverse interactions. For instance: -- They create or use a language (for communicating by voices rather than by gestures). So, if, some reason or other, the peopleof a tribe are called Franks [Free Men], their territory is called France. and their language is said to be French. French, English, Chinese, Greek, Portuguese are ethnic languages. {Incidentally, notice that the Frenchness of a language is not an inherent quality of the language, such as the rhythm and the timbre of a phrase or verse, but a reflected quality from the people of the land. Of course, those people may stop being free, but their name persists and,therefore their present language continues to be called French. -- this is my psycho-logy of a language. // Resuming my For instance:

-- They create or use laws/norms of behavior between each other, such as "do not impose on others, do not force them to give up their money; wherefore: Let the other be FREE. (All crimes are impositions.) [I have just exemplified the principle of Roman jurisprudence and adjudication: An act of a free man (such as was a citizen of the Roman Republic/Society) is criminal if it does not respect the freedom of others. The Roman republic was established for the sake of preserving and defending the Freedom of the people, as well as Justice, "Libertas et Justitia". [This very motto or formula in quotation marks was inscribed on the first silver coins that were issued by the American republic! ] //

-- They also plow the territory or use it for playgrounds, or for foundations of buildings, etc. So, a tennis court in France can be called French.  It is an ethnic tennis court even though  the court is structured similarly to the tennis courts in other tribes/nations and the tennis game prescription is identical with the prescription in other tribes. //

In all of the above cases, ethnicity is defined by culture (by the internal interactions, the interrelationships) of the people or citizens of a tribe. However, the people in a country (in an inhabited territory) were either born there [they are natives] or immigrated from another country, So, ethnicity by place of birth is a cultural ethnicity (since a place or a time of birth is not a  quality of one's own reality/essence; it is a circumstantial condition). A biological ethnicity is a peculiar format or a racial quality that the citizens of a country have. I am what I am: If I am black, blackness is part of my essence; it is not a temporary or accidental condition of my being. In fact, I cannot eliminate my blackness, and it is inherited, something I am born with [innate, aboriginal], rather than acquired -- like the lameness due to a traffic accident. In conclusion, ethnicity can be defined by culture or by essence (by the sort of thing a reality is).[Ethnicity is the similar essence and communal culture the people of a tribe or community has.]

What is an ethnicity defined by ancestry? If the tribesmen have the same essence as their ancestors (remote parents), that means that they have inherited their essence, and that they and their ancestors form one species of humans. (Can a species mutate? That's another story we will not get into right now.)If a tribe's culture (language, law, religion, customs) is (largely) inherited from their ancestors, rather than self-made non-aboriginal), then part of their ethnicity/*tribality is derived/contingent rather than essential.