All people are equal and belong to one species, and no race has a higher degree of evolution than another.

Ethnic relations are the theme of contemporary anthropology, sociology, political science and other disciplines. The reason is that with the development of globalization and modernization, different groups live together or have more frequent contacts, and ethnic groups are intertwined with other organizations and groups, forming a complex and diverse culture. In this complex and pluralistic pattern, the adaptation of members within ethnic groups and the coordination between ethnic groups not only affect local areas, but even spread to the whole world; From the Middle East conflict that lasted for half a century to the recent Yugoslav crisis, it has been proved that ethnic conflicts and coordination have become the primary issue of our times.

This book is a part of the project "Rethinking the Han Dynasty —— A Study of Ethnic Interaction in Lingnan". Most of the collected articles are from the Symposium on Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Mr. Rong Guanqiong's Teaching and Ethnic Relations, which supplemented the achievements of some members of the research group. This paper expounds the basic concepts, theories and related issues of ethnic groups.

I. Ethnic groups, ethnicity and ethnic identity

(1) Ethnic groups

The term "ethnic group" first appeared in A.D. 1930 to describe the cultural contact between two groups or the cultural adaptation of small and medium-sized groups in a big society. After World War II, the word "ethnic group" was used to replace "tribe" and "race" in Britain, and it was used more widely. Ethnic groups are in the same society.

There are various concepts about ethnic groups. In 1950s, Weber gave a definition of ethnic group: ethnic group refers to a group that has subjective beliefs about the same ancestor because of similarities in physique or customs or in colonial and immigrant memories. This belief is of great significance to the same relationship of non-relatives. Ethnic groups are different from relatives.

According to Macmillan's anthropological dictionary, ethnic group refers to a group of people who are either part of themselves or separated from other groups. They have different characteristics from other groups, and these groups exist or communicate with each other. These distinctive features can be linguistic, racial and cultural. The concept of ethnic groups includes the social process of interaction and identity of these groups.

The "ethnic group" in the Dictionary of Anthropology edited by Wu is like this: a group formed by ethnic groups themselves. The boundary of this combination is the unconscious identity among its members, while the outside world thinks they are the same. It may also be because of a special language, race or culture that people who have been in contact with or * * * are excluded. Therefore, ethnic group is a very broad concept. It can be used to refer to social classes, urban and industrial social racial groups or ethnic minority groups, and can also be used to distinguish social groups with different cultures among residents. Therefore, the concept of ethnic groups combines social standards and cultural standards.

Many anthropologists and sociologists appreciate this definition: ethnic groups refer to groups with their own cultural characteristics in a larger cultural and social system; Among them, the most striking features are the religious and linguistic features of this group, as well as the physical, ethnic and geographical origins of its members or ancestors.

The above definitions are all based on the * * * identity within a group, that is, emphasizing the characteristics of language, race and culture. Bass defines a group from its exclusiveness and attribution. He believes that "ethnic group" is a category recognized by its own members, which leads to that ethnic group is mainly its "boundary" rather than its "connotation" such as language, culture and blood relationship. Ethnic boundaries are not necessarily geographical boundaries, but mainly "social boundaries". In the competition of ecological resources, a group excludes others by emphasizing specific cultural characteristics, thus limiting the "boundary" of our group. Bath's viewpoint opened a new milestone in ethnic studies. His view reveals the defects of the theory of objective characteristics. The theory of objective characteristics can only express the general connotation of a ethnic group at most, but can't explain the ethnic boundary problem. It is impossible to discuss ethnic boundaries.

Later, the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups considered the combination of boundary and connotation when defining ethnic groups: ethnic groups are groups with a certain scale, aware that they are different from their surroundings, "we are not like them, and they are not like us", and have certain characteristics to distinguish them from other ethnic groups. These characteristics have the same geographical origin, migration, race, language or dialect, religious belief, and transcend relatives.

After years of discussion, although there are many differences, social scientists have reached a meaningful understanding of ethnic studies: that is, "ethnic groups" do not exist alone, but exist in the interactive relationship with other ethnic groups. Simply put, without "alien consciousness", there is no "native consciousness", without "them", there is no "we", without "ethnic edge", there is no "ethnic group".

American scholar Gordon proposed to study ethnic relations from seven aspects: 1) cultural contact, 2) structural assimilation, 3) intermarriage, 4) ethnic identity, 5) prejudice, 6) discrimination and 7) conflict of values and power.

(2) National characteristics

Ethnic groups use this word when describing their characteristics or nature, but it does not exist in the Oxford English Dictionary edited by 1933, but it does exist in the revised edition of 1972. The earliest records of using this word are1David and Reisman in 953, and 1965438. Neither the Readman English Dictionary of 1966 nor the American English Dictionary of 1969 accepts the word ethnic group. It was not until 1973 that the American English Dictionary became a race, and it was defined as "1, which belongs to a specific race; 2. National self-esteem. " The meaning of a term is constantly changing. The first of these two definitions is suitable for ourselves and is an objective condition. The second definition of "self-esteem" is subjective.

There are many different explanations for racial division. Macmillan Anthropology Dictionary explains that the key feature of the concept of race is to distinguish or identify any group or category of people, and make explicit or implicit comparisons between the identified group and other groups or categories of people. Here, race emphasizes the identifiability in the interaction between ethnic groups. There is no objective standard to describe the differences between ethnic groups. Japanese scholar Tsurube has done a lot of research on racial issues. In his view, ethnicity refers to "in the structure of nation-state, under the condition of mutual behavior contact, people's groups and their consciousness are formed according to the same sex of origin and culture." According to this view, ethnic groups have the dual meanings of entity (ethnic group) and consciousness (ethnic group consciousness). J Nash, an American anthropologist, declared: "The author will abandon the argument that race is usually regarded as a social group. And regard it as the identity of consciousness. " Yan Wu He, a professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: "Ethnic group refers to ethnic identity, or the characteristics of a ethnic group. Or the characteristics of a national group) "Chen Maotai, Institute of Ethnic Studies, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, explained the nation as follows:" A group of interacting ethnic groups distinguish each other's social and cultural attributes, which are recognized by our group and other groups to varying degrees. " This view is similar to the explanation in Macmillan Dictionary. Chen Maotai's Chinese annotation of this word is ethnic consciousness.

In short, some people think that the explanation of ethnic groups is entity, which is equivalent to ethnic groups. Some think it is the nature and characteristics of the nation; Some think it is national consciousness; Some people think that there are both ethnic groups and ethnic consciousness, and each has its own reasons. In this study, the author holds the view of "the nature and characteristics of ethnic groups" and expresses them by ethnic groups (some translated as ethnic groups). Because entities can be directly expressed by ethnic groups and consciousness can also be expressed by identity, ethnic groups represent the social and cultural differences of a certain ethnic group. Based on the unique attributes of this group, one group of people can be distinguished from another, so ethnic groups and.

There are many Chinese translations of nationality, such as "nationality", "ethnic relationship", "national consciousness", "national essence" and "national attribute".

(3) the distinction between ethnic groups and nationalities.

Both words come from the west. In the past, the English translation of "nation" was nation or nation. The basic meaning of a country is twofold: a country or a nation. The meaning of "country" is more widely used, that is, it refers to "nation state". For example, "(the United Nations) is a typical example." The British scholar A.D. Smith's definition of nation is also at the national level: nation is a group with horizontal and vertical integration and fixed territory. It is characterized by * * common civil rights and one (or more) * * common collective will.

In order to avoid the meaning of "nation-state", scholars in China often use nationality instead of nationality. In fact, the exact meaning of nationality is "nationality". "It is not accurate to apply the term" nationality with sovereign characteristics "to the ethnic minorities in China." Many scholars know this situation, and Mr. Lin has made a detailed discussion on it. He believes that among the many meanings of "ethnic group", there are two most commonly used today: ethnic group is equivalent to ethnic group or ethnic group, which is still translated as "ethnic group" in Chinese. He further pointed out that "ethnic group refers to a group with the characteristics of lineage and cultural identity in the same social system (country), and its scope of application is mainly within a country; The definition of nation is "nation state", and its scope of application is mainly between countries. Mr. Lin's distinction basically reflects the difference between ethnic groups and nations. Based on this view, ethnic minorities in China and different branches of the Han nationality can be called ethnic groups, while at the national level, ethnic groups can be used, such as the Chinese nation and China people. Many scholars support this view. For example, Zhang Haiyang thinks that the concept of "ethnic group" is applicable to China's cultural definition of ethnic group.