Affiliative ethnic identity: a more elastic link between ethnic ancestry and culture

This paper explains the development of affiliative ethnic identity: an individual identity rooted in knowledge, regular consumption and deployment of an ethnic culture that is unconnected to an individual's ethnic ancestry until that individual regards herself, and may be regarded by others, as an affiliate of a particular ethnic group. While ethnic culture remains identifiably linked to a particular ethnic ancestry, ideological, institutional and demographic changes have elasticized the link between ancestry and culture, making the formation of affiliative ethnic identity possible. Multiculturalism and its accompanying value of diversity have become institutionalized such that individuals regard ethnic difference as something to be recognized and celebrated. The prevalence of ethnic culture in schools, ethnically infused products of popular culture, demographic changes and growing interethnic contact allow individuals, regardless of ethnic ancestry, ready access to multiple ethnic cultures, providing the basis for the formation of affiliative ethnic identity. Keywords: Ethnicityraceidentitymulticulturalismdiversityculture Acknowledgements Thanks to John Skrentny (who helped conceptualize this paper), Prudence Carter, Allyson Hobbs, Nova Jiménez, Laura Jiménez, Monica McDermott, John Meyer, Paolo Parigi, Chiqui Ramirez, Rebecca Sandefur, Patricia Seo and two ERS reviewers for their helpful comments. Notes 1. A race is ‘a human group defined by itself or others as distinct by virtue of perceived common physical characteristics that are held to be inherent; it is a group of human beings socially defined on the basis of physical characteristics’ (Cornell and Hartmann 1998, p. 25). Some groups, like African-Americans, are both a race and ethnic group. I rely on the term ‘ethnic’ even when referring to groups that have been historically regarded as a ‘race’ since affiliative ethnic identity depends on culture, which is more closely associated with asserted ethnic rather than ascribed racial categories. 2. Many groups have a set of symbols and practices that capture the essence of belonging, but these symbols and practices are not necessarily ethnic. What distinguished an ethnic culture is that group insiders and outsiders associate culture with a particular ethnic ancestry and history. 3. The US Supreme Court declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional in the case of Loving v. Virginia (1967).