An ethnoreligious group (or an ethno-religious group) is a group of people with a common religion and ethnicity background
In a narrower sense, they refer to groups whose religious and ethnic are historically linked.
Characteristics
The elements that are defined as characteristics of an ethnoreligious group are "
social character, historical experience, and theological beliefs".
A closing of the community takes place through a strict endogamy, which is specifically for the community and that distinguishes an ethno-religious community, that is, as distinct from any other group.
Defining an ethnoreligious group
In general, ethnoreligious communities define their ethnic identity by their religious affiliation or a combination of religious affiliation and other factors, such as language, territorial origin etc. Sometimes, ethnoreligious communities can be defined as ethnic groups with close associations with a religion that can be practiced by other ethnicities, such as Irish Catholics and Swedish Lutherans.
[Yang and Ebaugh, p.369: "Andrew Greeley (1971) identified three types of relationships in the United States: some religious people who do not hold an ethnic identity; some people who have an ethnic identity but are not religious; and cases in which religion and ethnicity are intertwined. Phillip Hammond and Kee Warner (1993), following Harold J. Abramson (1973), further explicated the "intertwining relationships" into a typology. First is "ethnic fusion", where religion is the foundation of ethnicity, or, ethnicity equals religion, such as in the case of the Amish and Jews. The second pattern is that of "ethnic religion", where religion is one of several foundations of ethnicity. The Greek or Russian Orthodox and the Dutch Reformed are examples of this type. In this pattern, ethnic identification can be claimed without claiming the religious identification but the reverse is rare. The third form, "religious ethnicity", occurs where an ethnic group is linked to a religious tradition that is shared by other ethnic groups. The Irish, Italian, and Polish Catholics are such cases. In this pattern, religious identification can be claimed without claiming ethnic identification. Hammond and Warner also suggest that the relationship of religion and ethnicity is strongest in "ethnic fusion" and least strong in "religious ethnicity". Recently, some scholars have argued that even Jews' religion and culture (ethnicity) can be distinguished from each other and are separable (Chervyakov, Gitelman, and Shapiro 1997; Gans 1994)."][Hammond and Warner, p.59: "1. Religion is the major foundation of ethnicity, examples include the Amish, Hutterites, Jews, and Mormons. Ethnicity in this pattern, so to speak, equals religion, and if the religious identity is denied, so is the ethnic identity. Footnote: Let us call this pattern "ethnic fusion".]
2. Religion may be one of several foundations of ethnicity, the others commonly being language and territorial origin; examples are the Greek or Russian Orthodox and the Dutch Reformed. Ethnicity in this pattern extends beyond religion in the sense that ethnic identification can be claimed without claiming the religious identification, but the reverse is rare. Let us call this pattern "ethnic religion".
3. An ethnic group may be linked to a religious tradition, but other ethnic groups will be linked to it, too. Examples include Irish, Italian, and Polish Catholics; Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Lutherans. Religion in this pattern extends beyond ethnicity, reversing the previous pattern, and religious identification can be claimed without claiming the ethnic identification. Let us call this pattern "religious ethnicity""
Some ethnoreligious groups' identities are reinforced by the experience of living within a larger community as a distinct minority group. Ethnoreligious groups can be tied to ethnic nationalism if the ethnoreligious group possesses a historical base in a specific region.
Jews
Prior to the
Babylonian exile in the late 7th century BC and early 6th century BC, the
Israelites had already emerged as an ethnoreligious group, probably before the time of
Hosea in 8th century BC.
The ethno-religious character of the Jewish people in antiquity has been expounded upon by scholars such as Salo W. Baron, who spoke of "the ethnoreligious unity of the people",
This was expounded upon in 2001 by Shaye J. D. Cohen, when describing
Jewish identity during the late Second Temple period.
Since the 19th century, Reform Judaism has differed from Orthodox Judaism on matters of theology and practice; however, toward the end of the 20th century and into the 21st century, the Reform movement has reoriented itself back toward certain traditions and practices it had previously relinquished (for example, wearing the tallit and/or the kippah; the use of Hebrew in the liturgy).
In the United States, the increasing rate of mixed marriages has led to attempts to facilitate conversion of the spouse, although conversion to facilitate marriage is strongly discouraged by traditional Jewish law.
Israeli national identity is linked with Jewish identity as a result of Zionism.
Anabaptists
Other classical examples for ethnoreligious groups are traditional
Anabaptism groups like the
Amish, the
Hutterites, the Old Order Mennonites and traditional groups of
Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonites, like the Old Colony Mennonites. All these groups have a shared cultural background, a shared dialect as their everyday language (Pennsylvania German,
Hutterite German,
Plautdietsch), a shared version of their Anabaptist faith, a shared history of several hundred years and they have accepted very few outsiders into their communities in the last 250 years. They may also share common foods, dress, and other customs. Modern proselytizing Mennonite groups, such as the Evangelical Mennonite Conference whose members have lost their shared ancestry, their common ethnic language Plautdietsch, their traditional dress, and other typical ethnic traditions, are no longer seen as an ethnoreligious group, although members within these groups may still identify with the term
Mennonite as an ethnic identifier.
[John H. Redekop: A People Apart: Ethnicity and the Mennonite Brethren, 1987.][Royden Loewen: The Poetics of Peoplehood: Ethnicity and Religion among Canada's Mennonites in Paul Bramadat, David Seljak: Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada, 2008.]
Examples
The concepts of
ethnoreligious fusion and
ethnic religion have been applied by reliable sources to the following groups:
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Armenian Apostolic Church
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Assyrian Church of the East
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Balinese Hinduism
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Chaldean Catholic Church
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Church of Greece
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Coptic Catholic Church
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Coptic Orthodox Church
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Coptic Evangelical Church
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Druze
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Dutch Reformed Church
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Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
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Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
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Judaism
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Kalash religion
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Mandaeism
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Maronite Church
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Russian Orthodox Church
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Samaritanism
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Sikhism
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Shintoism
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Tengriism
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Tibetan Buddhism
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Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church
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Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate
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Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)
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In a broader sense, the concept of a religious ethnicity has been applied to communities—particularly minority group living in religious borderlands, belonging to distinctive religions or sects, and maintaining in-group boundaries—where religious and ethnic identities have historically reinforced one another through endogamy, sociopolitical and cultural separation, and clear religious distinction from neighboring groups. The following is a selective, non-exhaustive list of religious ethnicities, meeting several of the aforementioned criteria:
Armenians,[For Assyrians as a Christian people, see:
][Ladykowski, P., Estonian Cottage. Setu – ethno-religious borderland group., Warsaw University Press] Tibetans,
As a legal concept
Australia
In Australian law, the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 of New South Wales defines "race" to include "ethnic, ethno-religious, or national origin".
The reference to "ethno-religious" was added by the Anti-Discrimination (Amendment) Act 1994 (NSW).
John Hannaford, the NSW Attorney-General at the time, explained, "The effect of the latter amendment is to clarify that ethno-religious groups, such as Jews, Muslims, and Sikhs, have access to the racial vilification and discrimination provisions of the Act.... extensions of the Anti-Discrimination Act to ethno-religious groups will not extend to discrimination on the ground of religion".
The definition of "race" in Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 (Tasmania) likewise includes "ethnic, ethno-religious, or national origin".
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom the landmark legal case
Mandla v Dowell-Lee placed a legal definition on ethnic groups with religious ties, which, in turn, has paved the way for the definition of an ethnoreligious
[ policypaperdraft . Policy.hu. Retrieved on 2010-12-23.] group. Both
Jews[ Ethnic minorities in English law – Google Books. Books.google.co.uk. Retrieved on 2010-12-23.] and
Sikhs[ Immigrant Sub-National Ethnicity: Bengali-Hindus and Punjabi-Sikhs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Allacademic.com. Retrieved on 2010-12-23.][ Ethno-Religious Strife Closes Bridge of Hope Center – Gospel for Asia . Gfa.org (2008-08-05). Retrieved on 2010-12-23.] were determined to be considered ethnoreligious groups under the Anti-Discrimination (Amendment) Act 1994 (see above).
The Anti-Discrimination (Amendment) Act 1994 made reference to Mandla v Dowell-Lee, which defined ethnic groups as:
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a long shared history, of which the group is conscious as distinguishing it from other groups, and the memory of which it keeps alive;
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a cultural tradition of its own, including family and social customs and manners, often but not necessarily associated with religious observance;
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either a common geographical origin, or descent from a small number of common ancestors;
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a common language, not necessarily peculiar to the group;
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a common literature peculiar to the group;
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a common religion different from that of neighbouring groups or from the general community surrounding it;
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being a minority or being an oppressed or dominant group within a larger community. For example, a conquered people (say, the inhabitants of England shortly after the Norman Conquest) and their conquerors might both be ethnic groups.
The significance of the case was that groups like Sikhs and Jews could now be protected under the Race Relations Act 1976.
Malaysia
In Malaysian law, as per Article 160(2),
it is stipulated that an individual classified as Malay must be a
Muslim, converse in the
Malay language, and adhere to
Malay customs.
According to this legal framework, a Malay man or woman who undergoes conversion from Islam to another religion ceases to be recognized as Malay. Consequently, the privileges accorded to so-called Bumiputra, specifically the entitlements outlined in Article 153[Adam, Ramlah binti, Samuri, Abdul Hakim bin & Fadzil, Muslimin bin (2004). Sejarah Tingkatan 3. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. .] of the Constitution, the New Economic Policy (NEP), and other related provisions, are forfeited in the event of such conversions.
See also
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Ethnolinguistic group
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Folk religion
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List of ethnic religions
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Phyletism
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Religious assimilation
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Religious segregation
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Symbolic ethnicity
Notes
Bibliography
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Yang, F. and Ebaugh, H. R. (2001), Religion and Ethnicity Among New Immigrants: The Impact of Majority/Minority Status in Home and Host Countries . Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40: 367–378. doi:10.1111/0021-8294.00063
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Phillip E. Hammond and Kee Warner, Religion and Ethnicity in Late-Twentieth-Century America, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social, Vol. 527, Religion in the Nineties (May, 1993), pp. 55–66
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External links
