are made up of a large number of groups with which people identify and from which are derived distinctive values and rules for behavior. These groups have been labeled subcultures. Perhaps a hundred years ago, the term was applied to human groups with shared cultural features that distinguish the group from the wider society. A Subculture resembles a culture in that it usually encompasses a relatively large number of people and represents the accumulation of generations of human striving. However, subcultures have some important differences. They exist within dominant cultures and are often based on geographic region, ethnicity, or economic or social class.
Ethnicity
As you read earlier, the term ethnicity refers to a group of people of the same descent and heritage who share a common and distinctive culture passed on through generations. Ethnic groups can exhibit such distinguishing features as language or accent, physical features, family names, customs, and religion. Ethnic identity refers to identification with and perceived acceptance into a group with shared heritage and culture (Collier & Thomas, 1988). Sometimes, the word minority is used. Technically, of course, the word minority is used to describe numerical designations. A group might be a minority, then, if it has a smaller number of people than a majority group with a larger number. In the United States, the word majority has political associations, as in the majority rules, a term used so commonly in the United States that the two words have almost become synonymous. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term minority was first used to describe ethnic groups in 1921. Since that time, advantage has been associated with the majority, and disadvantage has been associated with the minority.
Just as definitions of words such as culture have changed, the way words are written has changed. There has been considerable controversy surrounding whether terms such as Italian-American should be spelled open or hyphenated. It has been argued that immigrants to the United States and their descendants have been called “hyphenated Americans,” suggesting that their allegiance is divided. Style manuals such as the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, suggest omitting the hyphen. In this text, the term African-American is used for American Black persons of African descent while Black is used for peoples of any national identification. However, when reporting published studies, we adhere to the identifications reported by researchers.
That ethnic identity can be the basis of a cultural identity and affect communication with others outside that group has been demonstrated by Taylor, Dubé, and Bellerose (1986). In one study of English and French speakers in Quebec, they found that though interactions between ethnically dissimilar people were perceived to be as agreeable as those between similar people, those same encounters were judged less important and less intimate. The researchers concluded that to ensure that interethnic contacts were harmonious, the communicators in their study limited the interactions to relatively superficial encounters.
Co-Culture
Whereas some define subculture as meaning “a part of the whole,” in the same sense that a subdivision is part of—but no less important than—the whole city, other scholars reject the use of the prefix sub as applied to the term culture because it seems to imply being under or beneath and being inferior or secondary. As an alternative, the word Co-culture is suggested to convey the idea that no one culture is inherently superior to other coexisting cultures (Orbe, 1998).
However, mutuality may not be easily established. Take the case of a homogeneous culture. One of the many elements of a culture is its system of laws. The system of laws in our hypothetical homogeneous culture, then, was derived from and reflects the values of that culture. Now assume immigration of another cultural group into the hypothetical culture. New immigrants may have different understandings of legal theory and the rights and responsibilities that individuals should have in a legal system. In the case of a true co-culture, both understandings of the law would be recognized.
See Focus on Culture 1.3 for a discussion of New Zealand struggling with the concept of co-culture.
Focus on Culture 1.3 The Māori of New Zealand
Māori celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on a public holiday every February 6.
Hannah Peters/Getty Images News/Getty Images
The original inhabitants of what is today known as New Zealand were Polynesians who arrived in a series of migrations more than 1,000 years ago. The original inhabitants' societies revolved around the iwi (tribe) or hapū (subtribe), which served to differentiate the many tribes of peoples. In 1769, Captain James Cook claimed the entire land for the British Crown. It was only after the arrival of the Europeans that the term Māori was used to describe all the tribes on the land. Those labeled Māori do not necessarily regard themselves as a single people.
The history of the Māori parallels the decline of other indigenous peoples in colonized lands, except for the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 by more than 500 chiefs. The treaty was recorded in Māori and in English. The Māori and the English may have had different understandings of the terms governance and sovereignty. In exchange for granting sovereignty to Great Britain, the Māori were promised full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their lands, forests, fisheries, and other properties and the same rights and privileges enjoyed by British subjects. The terms of the treaty were largely ignored as Māori land was appropriated as settlers arrived.
Activism in the late 1960s brought a renaissance of Māori languages, literature, arts, and culture, and calls to address Māori land claims as the Treaty of Waitangi became the focus of grievances.
New Zealand's population by descent is approximately 14% Māori and 71% Pākehā (European). New Zealand is governed under a parliamentary democracy system with two separate electoral rolls: one for the election of general members of parliament and one for the election of a small number of Māori members of parliament. Pākehā can enroll on the general roll only; people who consider themselves Māori must choose which one of the two rolls they wish to be on.
The following article appeared in an August 1999 edition of the newspaper The Dominion.
Map 1.2 New Zealand
What Makes a Māori?
The definition of Māori for voting purposes … is entirely one of self-definition. Nigel Roberts, head of Victoria University's School of Political Science and International Relations, says such self-identification is appropriate: “I think that ethnicity is very largely, in the late 20th century, a matter of identification—it is a cultural matter. The world has moved on from classifying people by blood, which was a meaningless definition.”
Source: Milne (1999, p. 9)
American Indians
The Census Bureau uses the term American Indian.
