Misconception of Identifying Ethnic Groups by Cultural Elements Essay Example for Free

Misconception of Identifying paganal Groups by ethnical Elements EssayMisconception of Identifying pagan Groups by Cultural Elements The common misconception in relating sociality and culture is to secure heathen ag assorts by heathenish elements. Firstly, social sort out is a category of raft which is bound in concert by common characteristics that differentiate them from other groups. On the other hand, culture is a system of association sh bed by a relatively large group of great deal. Culture consists of values, beliefs, religion, experiences, behaviours and traditions acquired by a group of tidy sum that is passed down generations by generations (Browaeys Price, 2008). In my essay, I would like to clarify that ethnic groups can non be be by their pagan elements with several examples. Commonly, characteristics and traits of an ethnic group is identified by its cultural elements. Elements such as language, religion and customs are used to differentiate a group and another. Specified cultural elements are categorized to represent different types of ethnic groups. However this assumption is not suitable to apply in many situations. It is troublesome to identify ethnic group by cultural elements.This is because the people within an ethnic group does not necessarily possess the identical cultural elements. For instance, the Cham people in Vietnam belong to unrivaled ethnic entity, however in different areas this group of people possess different cultural elements. The Cham people in to the south central of Vietnam and in Mekong Delta have distinctive differences in religion, language and customs. In the south central Vietnam, the Cham practise localized Hinduism and Islam as religion.They speak south central dialect and their writing is originated from a script in Sanskrit. In term of custom, these Cham people are considered matrilineal and work out exogamy. On the contrary, the Cham in Mekong Delta majorly practise Islam. They speak in M ekong Delta dialect and their writing derived from the Jawi script. In their custom, they are loosely matrilineal and practice endogamy(1). This shows that cultural elements are not suitable to narrow down an ethnic group. People of the same ethnic group may not necessarily practice the same culture.In the study of the Kachin people from Burma, Edmund Leach mentioned the continent fact that devil groups of people are of different culture does not necessarily imply as has nearly always been assumed that they belong to two quite different social systems (Leach 1954 17)(2). To consider ethnic group as cultural group will fail to address many aspects of ethnic phenomena. bear-sized population of the Kachin people lives in the Kachin Hill in northern Burmas Kachin State and in neighbouring areas of china and India.They speak different languages and dialects in that location is a wide difference in cultures between the same ethnic group in different area. To support this statement , I would like to provide an example the Malay people who belonged to one ethnic entity in Malaysia are influenced by different customs. Malay people practice two distinct types of customs, the Adat Temenggung and Adat Pepatih. The former is originated from Minangkabau and widely practiced by most of the Malay states. Adat Temenggung accentuates on patrilineal relationship structure in matters such as inheritance.In contrast, the Adat Pepatih is only practiced in Negeri Sembilan. It emphasizes more on matrilineal kinship structure, in which women gain benefit in matters such as inheritance and wedding party (Shuid, Osman Othman, 2006). This depicts that people of the same ethnic group practise various and wide range of customs. Thus, it is difficult to pay back ethnic group by cultural elements. In the 19th and 20th century, large wave of immigrants from mainland China came to Malaya. Now, Chinese people are the second largest ethnic in Malaysia.Majority of these Chinese are Ha n Chinese. thither is wide spread of Chinese people in every state of Malaysia, espeacially in the town areas. til now though they are grouped as one ethnic entity, their cultural elements varied widely. Most of the local Chinese practise Buddhism and a small number of them have faith in Christianity and Islam. Futhermore, they speak garland of dialects such as Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew and many more. For example, most of the Chinese in Penang speak Hokkien whereas most of the Chinese in Kuala Lumpur speak Cantonese.Thus, the cultural elements of an ethnic are not fixed, the elements varied greatly to the extent that it is difficult to mould an ethnic group by its cultural elements. Besides that, the influence of political and stintingal circumstances has changes the cultural elements of the people while the ethnic identity remains. As time passes by, people within an ethnic group spread, share, learn and adapt cultures of other ethnic groups. There is the tend ency for different cultures to overlapse in a society. For instance, the Chinese immigrants that came to Malaya in the late 15th to 16th century were known as Peranakan Chinese.This group of immigrants consists of merchants, traders, and those who came to escape economic hardships in mainland China. They embraced the Malay customs and cultures. Most of the Peranakan Chinese engaged in intermarriage with the local Malay. However, there are part of Peranakan Chinese people without Malay ancestry. They belong to Chinese ethnic but espouse the combination of Chinese and Malay cultures. The Malay language and cultures are assimilated into their daily lives, however their ethnic and unearthly origins still remain.These Peranakan Chinese speak Malay language, wear the baju kebaya, a Malay traditional clothing, and developed their culinary art with mainly Malay spices in their every day lives, they still belong to Chinese ethnic (Tan Chee Beng, 1993). Their ethnic identity cannot be dete rmined by merely identifying their cultural elements. In conclusion, I would like to emphasize my point that ethnic groups cannot be defined by their cultural elements. Ethnic groups can hardly be measured by cultural traits as a matter of fact cultural boundaries do no always go accordingly with ethnic boundaries.Cultural traits of an ethnic group is not always fixed, people of the same ethnic group do not necessarily possess the same cultural elements. To determine ones ethnic identity by identifying his or her cultural elements with the typical cultural elements of an ethnic group is not right. The ethnic identity of a person will still remain unchanged even if his cultural elements have changed. As stated by Michael Moerman, Someone is Lue by virtue of believing and calling himself Lue and of playacting in ways that validate his Lueness (Moerman, 19651219)(3).Ethnic identity can be claimed by ones self but not by determining its cultural elements. Bibliography Browaeys M. J. , Price R. (2008) Understanding Cross Cultural Management. New York Pearson Education. Mahdi Shuid, Suzani Osman, Sazlina Othman. (2006) Sejarah Malaysia. Petaling Jaya Longman . Tan, C. B. (1993). Chinese Peranakan Heritage in Malaysia and Singapore. Kuala Lumpur Penerbit Fajar Bakti Sdn Bhd. (1)(2)Power Point Slides What is an ethnic group? Ethnic Troubles Theories of Ethnicity. (3)Reading 1 Ethnic identification in a complex civilization who are the lue?