SOC 001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: Canada Day, Symbolic Ethnicity, Racialization

• School: College of The Sequoias
• Department: Sociology (SOC)
• Course: SOC 001
• Professor: Bellin

Document Summary

Cultural values and norms that distinguish the members of a given group from others. Includes language, customs, dress, foods, festivals, etc. Differences in human physical characteristics used to categorize large numbers of individuals. Visibility of differences makes them cognitively salient. Has no significant biological basis; considerable variation within as well as between racial categories; most of us have mixed racial backgrounds" in some sense. The process by which understandings of race are used to classify individuals, groups of people, or events. Can be institutionalized into exploitive political or economic systems. Attributing superiority or inferiority to a population that shares certain physically inherited characteristics. Commonsensically, we think of this as a personal attitude, but . Ethnic identity that is chosen for the moment based on the social setting or situation. For example, speaking hindi when in the presence of certain other persons, like grandparents. Ethnicity can be strategically chosen (brubaker, wimmer) for political or boundary-drawing purposes.