Ethnic & Religious Groups
- Sameer celebrates the colorful holiday of Holi dedicated to the god Krishna
- Two girls both have very blond hair, blue eyes and a very pale complexion.
- Kamal and Jedda are both nomadic herders like their father.
- On Sunday, the entire family attends a church service.
- Karen and Sue both speak the French language.
Ethnic Group or Religious Group?
- Smaller religious groups we MIGHT discuss include: Yazidis, Zoroastrians, and Baha'i
More Ethnic group or Religious Group?
- Christians (Practice Christianity)
- Bowing in prayer toward Mecca as part of a daily prayers ritual.
- Wearing a heavy alpaca poncho because my family and I live high in the Andes mountains.
- I visited Japan and saw the notes left to the Kami spirits in the shrine.
- There are 3 main religious groups in Southwest Asia:
- We call ourselves Afrikaners because our forefathers came to South Africa from Europe to settle in a new land.
Religious Groups
- Religious groups are people who share a common belief system/ people who follow the same religion
- Usually involves devotional and ritual observances
- A person belongs to a religious group based upon what he or she believes about life and God.
- People can leave religious groups if they choose to no longer believe
- often containing a moral code governing or dictating people’s behavior.
Ethnic Groups
- A group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage
- This common heritage may be based upon:
- a common ancestry (lineage)
- history / traditions
- beliefs / customs
- language
- shared territory / nationality
- physical appearance / race
- Some words used to refer to a group as a separate ethnic group are: tribe, clan, kinship, lineage, family, society, community and heritage.
Ethnic Groups
- Ethnic groups are NOT defined by borders
- There are around 200 countries in the world, but more than 5,000 ethnic groups
- Language helps to define an ethnic group
- Ancestry, history, customs, and traditions give us certain traits related to the past
- A person is NOT part of an ethnic group by CHOICE; not about a choice or a belief
- Physical appearances can help identify ethnic groups
Ethnic Groups
vs.
Religious Groups
Unit 3
Ethnic Groups
- There are 3 main ethnic groups in Southwest Asia:
- Other important ethnic groups we will talk about include Bedouins and Turks