DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Are ethnic groups socially constructed, or are they a timeless phenomenon?

**PaulCameron** · 05-09-2011, 06:26 PM

Question: Are ethnicities (nations) socially constructed? Or is it a timeless phenomenon?

Background: I was involved in a heated debate the other day with my friend regarding the existence of ethnicities. The position I held was that ethnicities are rarely something else than social constructions, my argument revolved explicitly around the notion that ethnic groups are produced and reproduced by social circumstances such as war, economic-status, religion, etc.

This production is moreover actuated, or could also be prevented by the geographical location of the region, and as an example I used Middle East. This region has been the home for various cultures, kingdoms and battlefields; in addition, it is also an easy accessed region, and compounded with that it provides new emigrants with fertile landscape, it is also an attractive region.

Wouldn’t it therefore, in the light of these factors be adventurous to claim that these factors have not affected the genetic composition of the region? I mean, kingdoms have vanished, and people who previously adhered to that culture are now integrated into the new culture?

I know that “elite dominance and language replacement” argue that a language and culture replacement does not necessarily need to result in a genetic replacement, but if we consider Middle East and the various wars, slave-trade, etc., that have pervaded the region, it would not be far-fetched to claim that language replacements have also been followed by genetic replacement particularly in Middle East.

For example, I have a totally different mtDNA and Y-DNA than other Kurds I have shared with, paralleled with that I share higher levels of my genome with, for instance, an Englishman, than some Kurds, wouldn’t it be correct then to say that ethnicities are only constructions? At least they way we perceive them?

05-09-2011, 06:26 PM	#1
PaulCameron Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 337 Senior Member	Are ethnic groups socially constructed, or are they a timeless phenomenon? Question: Are ethnicities (nations) socially constructed? Or is it a timeless phenomenon? Background: I was involved in a heated debate the other day with my friend regarding the existence of ethnicities. The position I held was that ethnicities are rarely something else than social constructions, my argument revolved explicitly around the notion that ethnic groups are produced and reproduced by social circumstances such as war, economic-status, religion, etc. This production is moreover actuated, or could also be prevented by the geographical location of the region, and as an example I used Middle East. This region has been the home for various cultures, kingdoms and battlefields; in addition, it is also an easy accessed region, and compounded with that it provides new emigrants with fertile landscape, it is also an attractive region. Wouldn’t it therefore, in the light of these factors be adventurous to claim that these factors have not affected the genetic composition of the region? I mean, kingdoms have vanished, and people who previously adhered to that culture are now integrated into the new culture? I know that “elite dominance and language replacement” argue that a language and culture replacement does not necessarily need to result in a genetic replacement, but if we consider Middle East and the various wars, slave-trade, etc., that have pervaded the region, it would not be far-fetched to claim that language replacements have also been followed by genetic replacement particularly in Middle East. For example, I have a totally different mtDNA and Y-DNA than other Kurds I have shared with, paralleled with that I share higher levels of my genome with, for instance, an Englishman, than some Kurds, wouldn’t it be correct then to say that ethnicities are only constructions? At least they way we perceive them?
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