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101-552: Orcadians , also known as Orkneymen , are an ethnic group native to the Orkney Islands , who speak an Orcadian dialect of the Scots language , a West Germanic language, and share a common history, culture and ancestry. Speaking Norn , a native North Germanic language into the 19th or 20th century, Orcadians descend significantly from North Germanic peoples , with around a third of their ancestry derived from Scandinavia , including

202-496: A host of men, a band of comrades as well as a swarm or flock of animals. In Classical Greek , the word took on a meaning comparable to the concept now expressed by "ethnic group", mostly translated as " nation , tribe, a unique people group"; only in Hellenistic Greek did the term tend to become further narrowed to refer to "foreign" or " barbarous " nations in particular (whence the later meaning "heathen, pagan"). In

303-510: A Canadian archeologist, summarized the four major theories with an overview of evidence: and Since the 1950s, anthropologists, archaeologists, linguists and ethnohistorians have combined multidisciplinary research to conclude that "a wholly indigenous and discrete Iroquoian people were present in the St Lawrence Valley when Cartier arrived. The current anthropological convention is to designate these people St Lawrence Iroquoians, all

404-399: A few larger villages housed considerably more. The Iroquoians occupied their villages for ten or more years until their longhouses deteriorated and the fertility of the soil for their crops declined. Then, they built a new village and cleared land for crops, usually only a few miles from their previous home. The frequent changes of location has given problems to archaeologists in estimating

505-421: A focus on the interface between groups. "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries", therefore, is a focus on the interconnectedness of ethnic identities. Barth writes: "...   categorical ethnic distinctions do not depend on an absence of mobility, contact, and information, but do entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation whereby discrete categories are maintained despite changing participation and membership in

606-561: A majority of their patrilineal line. According to anthropological study, the Orcadian ethnic composition is similar to that of Icelandic people ; a comparable islander ethnicity of North Germanic origin. Historically, they are also descended from the Picts , Norse , and Lowland Scots. An Orcadian ethnicity has developed since around 900 AD. Goethe University 's historian, Daniel Föller, describes

707-523: A matrilineal, clan-based social organization, and a political system sufficiently structured to permit confederation at times. Most of them engaged in guerrilla warfare, grew and used tobacco, and produced pottery vessels." Sunflowers were also grown for their oily seeds. Investigations at several former settlements have indicated that their most important foods were maize and fish. They hunted white-tailed deer and other game. In 1535, French explorer Jacques Cartier commented on cultural differences between

808-499: A mercurial character. Ronald Cohen concluded that ethnicity is "a series of nesting dichotomizations of inclusiveness and exclusiveness". He agrees with Joan Vincent's observation that (in Cohen's paraphrase) "Ethnicity   ... can be narrowed or broadened in boundary terms in relation to the specific needs of political mobilization." This may be why descent is sometimes a marker of ethnicity, and sometimes not: which diacritic of ethnicity

909-510: A narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, depending on group identification, with some groups having mixed genetic ancestry. By way of assimilation , acculturation , amalgamation , language shift , intermarriage , adoption , and religious conversion , individuals or groups may over time shift from one ethnic group to another. Ethnic groups may be divided into subgroups or tribes , which over time may become separate ethnic groups themselves due to endogamy or physical isolation from

1010-479: A need for defense. The villages usually were 2 hectares (4.9 acres) to 3.25 hectares (8.0 acres) in area. Inside the palisades the St. Lawrence people lived in longhouses , typical of other neighboring Iroquoian peoples. The longhouses were 18 metres (59 ft) to 41 metres (135 ft) in length and each housed several families. Archaeologists have estimated that villages had an average population of 150-250 people although

1111-461: A population of 1,000; and the Montreal and Quebec city areas with a population of 2,000 to 3,000. There were also settlements in northernmost Vermont and neighboring Ontario near Lake Champlain . Most of the St. Lawrence Iroquoian villages were located in inland locations a few kilometers from the river itself. By the end of the 15th century they were encircled by earthworks and palisades, indicating

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1212-519: A preoccupation with scientists, theologians, and the public. Religious institutions asked questions about whether there had been multiple creations of races (polygenesis) and whether God had created lesser races. Many of the foremost scientists of the time took up the idea of racial difference and found that white Europeans were superior. The ethnicity theory was based on the assimilation model. Park outlined four steps to assimilation: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. Instead of attributing

1313-412: A process known as ethnogenesis, a period of several generations of endogamy resulting in common ancestry (which is then sometimes cast in terms of a mythological narrative of a founding figure ); ethnic identity is reinforced by reference to "boundary markers" – characteristics said to be unique to the group which set it apart from other groups. Ethnicity theory argues that race

1414-508: A stand-in for "paganism" in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an "ethnic character" (first recorded 1953). The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. Depending on context, the term nationality may be used either synonymously with ethnicity or synonymously with citizenship (in a sovereign state). The process that results in emergence of an ethnicity

1515-433: A territory stretching over 600 km, from Lake Ontario to east of Île d'Orléans . Extensive archaeological work in Montreal has revealed the 1,000-year history of human habitation on the site. In 1992 a new museum, Pointe-à-Callière (Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History), opened here to preserve the archaeology and mark new understandings of the city and the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. Major exhibits have displayed

1616-443: Is a social category and is only one of several factors in determining ethnicity. Other criteria include "religion, language, 'customs', nationality, and political identification". This theory was put forward by sociologist Robert E. Park in the 1920s. It is based on the notion of "culture". This theory was preceded by more than 100 years during which biological essentialism was the dominant paradigm on race. Biological essentialism

1717-423: Is called ethnogenesis , a term in use in ethnological literature since about 1950. The term may also be used with the connotation of something unique and unusually exotic (cf. "an ethnic restaurant", etc.), generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the dominant population of an area was established. Depending on which source of group identity is emphasized to define membership,

1818-420: Is called ethnogenesis. Members of an ethnic group, on the whole, claim cultural continuities over time, although historians and cultural anthropologists have documented that many of the values, practices, and norms that imply continuity with the past are of relatively recent invention. Ethnic groups can form a cultural mosaic in a society. That could be in a city like New York City or Trieste , but also

1919-578: Is detected in the Saguenay River region of Quebec in about 1000 CE. By 1250 or 1300 maize was being grown in what would become the Quebec City area. By about 1300, four distinct subculture areas of St. Lawrence Iroquoian culture existed: (1) Jefferson County, New York with a population of about 2,500; Grenville County, Ontario with a population of 2,500; the Lake St. Francis basin west of Montreal with

2020-642: Is not a noun in Britain. In effect there are no "ethnics"; there are only "ethnic relations". In the U.S., the OMB says the definition of race as used for the purposes of the US Census is not "scientific or anthropological" and takes into account "social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry", using "appropriate scientific methodologies" that are not "primarily biological or genetic in reference". Sometimes ethnic groups are subject to prejudicial attitudes and actions by

2121-442: Is salient depends on whether people are scaling ethnic boundaries up or down, and whether they are scaling them up or down depends generally on the political situation. Kanchan Chandra rejects the expansive definitions of ethnic identity (such as those that include common culture, common language, common history and common territory), choosing instead to define ethnic identity narrowly as a subset of identity categories determined by

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2222-455: Is sometimes used interchangeably with the term nation , particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism . Ethnicity may be construed as an inherited or societally imposed construct. Ethnic membership tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage , ancestry, origin myth , history , homeland , language , dialect , religion, mythology , folklore , ritual , cuisine , dressing style , art , or physical appearance . Ethnic groups may share

2323-431: Is the belief that some races, specifically white Europeans in western versions of the paradigm, are biologically superior and other races, specifically non-white races in western debates, are inherently inferior. This view arose as a way to justify enslavement of African Americans and genocide of Native Americans in a society that was officially founded on freedom for all. This was a notion that developed slowly and came to be

2424-684: The Canadian Encyclopedia (1985) and various publications of the Government of Canada, such as "The Origin of the Name Canada" published by the Department of Canadian Heritage , suggest instead the former theory that the word "Canada" stems from a Huron-Iroquois word, kanata , that also meant "village" or settlement. The account of Canada's name origin reflects theories first advanced in the 18th and 19th centuries. General texts have not kept up with

2525-654: The 1979 Scottish devolution referendum , and a history of seeking "political status that the Channel Islands , the Isle of Man , and the Faroese Islands " have in relationship with the sovereign states of the UK and Denmark, respectively. During the colonial era, Orcadians have been documented migrating in search of opportunity. York University historian, Carolyn Podruchny, notes that "freemen" (as opposed to " voyageurs "), involved in

2626-544: The Algonquian peoples were fearful of the powerful Iroquois. The anthropologist Bruce G. Trigger believes the political dynamics were such that the Huron were unlikely to enter Iroquois territory to carry out an attack against the St. Lawrence people to the north. In the mid- to late-16th century, the St. Lawrence Valley was likely an area of open conflict among tribes closer to the river. Because nothing remained of their settlements,

2727-458: The Caribbean and South Asia . Max Weber maintained that ethnic groups were künstlich (artificial, i.e. a social construct ) because they were based on a subjective belief in shared Gemeinschaft (community). Secondly, this belief in shared Gemeinschaft did not create the group; the group created the belief. Third, group formation resulted from the drive to monopolize power and status. This

2828-569: The Iroquois Confederacy or the Huron , and likely consisted of numerous groups. Pendergast notes that while Iroquoians and topical academics have mostly reached consensus on this theory, some historians have continued to publish other theories and ignore the archaeological evidence. The St. Lawrence Iroquoians did share many cultural, historical, and linguistic aspects with other Iroquoian groups; for example, their Laurentian languages were part of

2929-450: The New World were multi-ethnic from the onset, as they were formed as colonies imposed on existing indigenous populations. In recent decades, feminist scholars (most notably Nira Yuval-Davis) have drawn attention to the fundamental ways in which women participate in the creation and reproduction of ethnic and national categories. Though these categories are usually discussed as belonging to

3030-575: The North American fur trade up until the early 19th-century came from a range of disparate ethnic groups and "could be métis , Orcadians, other Scots, English , and Iroquoians from the St. Lawrence valley ". Emigrants to London and York, England , also found inland posts related to the fur trade. According to ethnohistorian Jennifer S. H. Brown , "at least twenty-eight Orkneymen became either governors, chief factors, chief traders, or district master between

3131-591: The North Sea Empire has allowed Orcadians to remain "ethnically distinctive". With regards to self-governance, Laurentian University 's historian Daniel Travers has written that Orkney Islands Council has "considerably more influence over insular matters than other counties " in the United Kingdom . Researcher, James B. Minahan, has described the Orcadian people as a stateless nation, noting their history of seeking independence from Scotland, their opposition to

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3232-624: The Wendat (Huron). However, recent archaeological finds suggest distinctly separate groups may have existed among the St. Lawrence Iroquoians as well. The name "St Lawrence Iroquoians" refers to a geographic area in which the inhabitants shared some cultural traits, including a common language, but were not politically united. The name of the country of Canada is probably derived from the Iroquoian word kanata, which means village or settlement. For years historians, archeologists and related scholars debated

3333-481: The mtDNA ancestry of Orcadians is around 36 percent "Scandinavian", suggesting an ethnic composition comparable to Icelanders , a modern North Germanic ethnic group. 2003 research found that the majority of Orcadians can trace their patrilineality to Scandinavia, with 55% of Y chromosome DNA relating to migrating North Germanic peoples . In research analysing different European ethnic groups, physician Lars Klareskog and geneticist Peter K. Gregersen have compared

3434-561: The 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of "peculiar to a tribe, race, people or nation", in a return to the original Greek meaning. The sense of "different cultural groups", and in American English "tribal, racial, cultural or national minority group " arises in the 1930s to 1940s, serving as a replacement of the term race which had earlier taken this sense but was now becoming deprecated due to its association with ideological racism . The abstract ethnicity had been used as

3535-501: The 20th century have unearthed similar villages further southwest, near the eastern end of Lake Ontario and are finding evidence of additional discrete groups of St. Lawrence Iroquoians. At just about the period Jacques Cartier contacted them, Basque whalers started to frequent the area in yearly campaigns (peaking at around 1570–80), holding friendly commercial relations with Saint Lawrence Iroquoians and other natives. The Basques referred to them as Canaleses, probably derived from

3636-606: The Greeks. Herodotus (8.144.2) gave a famous account of what defined Greek (Hellenic) ethnic identity in his day, enumerating Whether ethnicity qualifies as a cultural universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf , do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen ,

3737-469: The Iroquoian family and aspects of culture and societal structure were similar. The St. Lawrence Iroquoians appear to have disappeared from the St. Lawrence valley some time prior to 1580. Champlain reported no evidence of Native habitation in the valley. By then the Haudenosaunee used it as a hunting ground and avenue for war parties. As the historian Pendergast argues, the determination of identity for

3838-472: The Iroquoian word "kanata" which means settlement or village. Basques and American natives of the Labrador-Saint Lawrence area developed a simplified language for the mutual understanding, but it shows a strong Mi'kmaq imprint. The archaeologist Anthony Wonderley found 500-year-old ceramic pipes in present-day Jefferson County, New York that were associated with the St. Lawrence Iroquoians and

3939-482: The Orcadian ethnic group's early ethnogenesis occurring between the 10th and 12th centuries, during the same period in which the Swedish , Norwegian , Danish , and Manx ethnicities emerged. According to historian James Hunter , the "ethnic composition" of Orcadians was then significantly impacted by colonisation from Lowland Scots people between 1494 and 1659. Anthropologist Agnar Helgason 's research in 2001 found that

4040-474: The Orcadian ethnicity in relation to other European island-based ethnicities, such as Sardinian people . Orcadians have a range of ethnic or national identities, including Orcadian, Scottish, and British. Swedish artist, Gunnie Moberg , suggests that within the Orkney Islands, "People are Orcadian first, then Scots or British ". Historian Hugh Kearney has written that Orkney's historical connection with

4141-702: The Quebec area was the most northerly location in northeastern North America in which agriculture was practiced, especially during the cooler temperatures of the Little Ice Age in the 16th century. For Stadaconans, depending on agriculture was a riskier subsistence strategy than for the people of Hochelaga and they probably relied less on agriculture and more on exploitation of sea mammals, fishing, and hunting. The St. Lawrence Iroquoians were not united politically and villages and cultural groups may have been unfriendly and competitive with each other, as well as being hostile to

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4242-554: The St. Lawrence Iroquoians and settlements visited by Cartier some 75 years earlier. Historians and other scholars have developed several theories about their disappearance: devastating wars with the Iroquois tribes to the south or with the Hurons to the west, the impact of epidemics of Old World diseases , or their migration westward toward the shores of the Great Lakes . Innis guessed that

4343-576: The St. Lawrence Iroquoians appeared to have been overwhelmed by other groups. Some St. Lawrence Iroquoian survivors may have joined the neighbouring Mohawk and Algonquin tribes, by force or by mutual agreement. By the time Champlain arrived, the Algonquins and Mohawks were both using the Saint-Lawrence Valley for hunting grounds, as well as a route for war parties and raiding. Neither nation had any permanent settlements upriver above Tadoussac,

4444-596: The St. Lawrence Iroquoians is important because, "our understanding of relations between Europeans and Iroquoians during the contact era throughout Iroquoia hinges largely upon the tribe or confederacy to which Stadacona and Hochelaga are attributed." Prehistoric Iroquoian culture and maize agriculture in Canada is first detected by archaeologists in 500 CE at the Princess Point site in Hamilton, Ontario . Iroquoian culture

4545-498: The St. Lawrence Iroquoians provided them with a remedy, an herbal infusion made of the annedda . The French recorded this as the St. Lawrence Iroquoian name of the white cedar of the region. Cartier noted the word in his journal. On a later expedition when Champlain asked for the same remedy, the natives he met did not know the word annedda . This fact confused many historians. Given new evidence, it appears that Champlain met Five Nations Iroquois who, although related, did not speak

4646-493: The St. Lawrence Iroquoians were peoples distinct from nations of the Iroquois Confederacy or the Huron . Since the 1990s, they have concluded that there may have been as many as 25 tribes among the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, who numbered anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 people. They lived in the river lowlands and east of the Great Lakes, including in present-day northern New York and Vermont. Before this, some scholars argued that

4747-518: The United States that the ethnicity theory was exclusively based on the immigration patterns of the white population and did take into account the unique experiences of non-whites in the United States. While Park's theory identified different stages in the immigration process – contact, conflict, struggle, and as the last and best response, assimilation – it did so only for white communities. The ethnicity paradigm neglected

4848-994: The added value of being able to describe the commonalities between systems of group identity in both tribal and modern societies. Cohen also suggested that claims concerning "ethnic" identity (like earlier claims concerning "tribal" identity) are often colonialist practices and effects of the relations between colonized peoples and nation-states. According to Paul James , formations of identity were often changed and distorted by colonization, but identities are not made out of nothing: Categorizations about identity, even when codified and hardened into clear typologies by processes of colonization, state formation or general modernizing processes, are always full of tensions and contradictions. Sometimes these contradictions are destructive, but they can also be creative and positive. Social scientists have thus focused on how, when, and why different markers of ethnic identity become salient. Thus, anthropologist Joan Vincent observed that ethnic boundaries often have

4949-449: The belief of common descent. Jóhanna Birnir similarly defines ethnicity as "group self-identification around a characteristic that is very difficult or even impossible to change, such as language, race, or location." Different approaches to understanding ethnicity have been used by different social scientists when trying to understand the nature of ethnicity as a factor in human life and society. As Jonathan M. Hall observes, World War II

5050-415: The boundaries of the nation-state. St. Lawrence Iroquoians The Pointe-à-Callière Museum estimated their numbers as 120,000 people in 25 nations occupying an area of 230,000 square kilometres (89,000 sq mi). However, many scholars believe that estimate of the number of St. Lawrence Iroquoians and the area they controlled is too expansive. The current archaeological evidence indicates that

5151-573: The context of European colonial expansion, when mercantilism and capitalism were promoting global movements of populations at the same time that state boundaries were being more clearly and rigidly defined. In the 19th century, modern states generally sought legitimacy through their claim to represent "nations". Nation-states , however, invariably include populations who have been excluded from national life for one reason or another. Members of excluded groups, consequently, will either demand inclusion based on equality or seek autonomy, sometimes even to

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5252-422: The course of individual life histories." In 1978, anthropologist Ronald Cohen claimed that the identification of "ethnic groups" in the usage of social scientists often reflected inaccurate labels more than indigenous realities: ... the named ethnic identities we accept, often unthinkingly, as basic givens in the literature are often arbitrarily, or even worse inaccurately, imposed. In this way, he pointed to

5353-526: The cultural traits of such groups have no demonstrated genetic connection with racial traits. Because serious errors of this kind are habitually committed when the term "race" is used in popular parlance, it would be better when speaking of human races to drop the term "race" altogether and speak of "ethnic groups". In 1982, anthropologist David Craig Griffith summed up forty years of ethnographic research, arguing that racial and ethnic categories are symbolic markers for different ways people from different parts of

5454-496: The discrediting of such earlier theories by the linguistic comparative studies of the later 20th century. For instance, the "Huron-Iroquois theory" of word origin appeared in the article on "Canada" in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1996. The earlier mystery of annedda also shows how historical understanding has been changed by recent research. When Cartier's crew suffered scurvy during their first winter in Canada,

5555-447: The distant past. Perspectives that developed after the 1960s increasingly viewed ethnic groups as social constructs , with identity assigned by societal rules. The term ethnic is ultimately derived from the Greek ethnos , through its adjectival form ethnikos , loaned into Latin as ethnicus . The inherited English language term for this concept is folk , used alongside

5656-452: The distinctions of ethnicity and race that function to set off categories of workers from one another. It is, nevertheless, the process of labor mobilization under capitalism that imparts to these distinctions their effective values. According to Wolf, racial categories were constructed and incorporated during the period of European mercantile expansion , and ethnic groupings during the period of capitalist expansion . Writing in 1977 about

5757-418: The early 1700s and the mid-1800s". Ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include a people of a common language , culture , common sets of ancestry , traditions , society, religion , history, or social treatment. The term ethnicity

5858-584: The early St. Lawrence Iroquoian villages. Linguistic studies indicate that the St. Lawrence Iroquoians probably spoke several distinct dialects of their language, often referred to as Laurentian . It is one of several languages of the Iroquoian language family , which includes Mohawk , Huron-Wyandot and Cherokee . Jacques Cartier made sparse records during his voyage in 1535-1536. He compiled two vocabulary lists totaling about 200 words. The St. Lawrence Iroquoians may have spoken two or more distinct languages in

5959-530: The extent of complete political separation in their nation-state. Under these conditions   when people moved from one state to another, or one state conquered or colonized peoples beyond its national boundaries – ethnic groups were formed by people who identified with one nation but lived in another state. In the 1920s, Estonia introduced a flexible system of ethnicity/nationality self-choice for its citizens, which included Estonians Russians, Baltic Germans and Jews. Multi-ethnic states can be

6060-414: The fact that identification of an ethnic group by outsiders, e.g. anthropologists, may not coincide with the self-identification of the members of that group. He also described that in the first decades of usage, the term ethnicity had often been used in lieu of older terms such as "cultural" or "tribal" when referring to smaller groups with shared cultural systems and shared heritage, but that "ethnicity" had

6161-518: The fallen monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the United States. Current topics are in particular social and cultural differentiation, multilingualism, competing identity offers, multiple cultural identities and the formation of Salad bowl and melting pot . Ethnic groups differ from other social groups, such as subcultures , interest groups or social classes , because they emerge and change over historical periods (centuries) in

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6262-580: The following types of (often mutually overlapping) groups can be identified: In many cases, more than one aspect determines membership: for instance, Armenian ethnicity can be defined by Armenian citizenship, having Armenian heritage, native use of the Armenian language , or membership of the Armenian Apostolic Church . Ethnography begins in classical antiquity ; after early authors like Anaximander and Hecataeus of Miletus , Herodotus laid

6363-672: The foundation of both historiography and ethnography of the ancient world c.  480 BC . The Greeks had developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes . Although there were exceptions, such as Macedonia, which was ruled by nobility in a way that was not typically Greek, and Sparta, which had an unusual ruling class, the ancient Greeks generally enslaved only non-Greeks due to their strong belief in ethnonationalism. The Greeks sometimes believed that even their lowest citizens were superior to any barbarian. In his Politics 1.2–7; 3.14, Aristotle even described barbarians as natural slaves in contrast to

6464-558: The genes. Examples of various approaches are primordialism, essentialism, perennialism, constructivism, modernism, and instrumentalism. Ethnicity is an important means by which people may identify with a larger group. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf , do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. The process that results in emergence of such identification

6565-579: The historical past from the current Native people, writings of the French explorer Jacques Cartier , earlier histories, and anthropologists ' and other scholars' work with archaeological and linguistic studies since the 1950s. Archaeological evidence has established that the St. Lawrence Iroquoians were a people distinct from the other regional Iroquoian peoples, the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee and

6666-437: The identity of the Iroquoian cultural group in the St. Lawrence valley which Jacques Cartier and his crew recorded encountering in 1535–36 at the villages of Stadacona and Hochelaga . An increasing amount of archaeological evidence collected since the 1950s has settled some of the debate. Since the 1950s, anthropologists and some historians have used definitive linguistic and archaeological studies to reach consensus that

6767-433: The kernel of a nation which must be defended in times of conflict, or in iconic figures such as Britannia or Marianne . Ethnicity is used as a matter of cultural identity of a group, often based on shared ancestry, language, and cultural traditions, while race is applied as a taxonomic grouping, based on physical similarities among groups. Race is a more controversial subject than ethnicity, due to common political use of

6868-479: The largest known village had a population of about 1,000 and their total population was 8,000–10,000. The traditional view is that they disappeared because of late 16th-century warfare by the Mohawk nation of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois League, which wanted to control trade with Europeans in the valley. Knowledge about the St. Lawrence Iroquoians has been constructed from the studies of surviving oral accounts of

6969-639: The latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan (in the sense of disparate "nations" which did not yet participate in the Christian ecumene ), as the Septuagint used ta ethne 'the nations' to translate the Hebrew goyim "the foreign nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews". The Greek term in early antiquity ( Homeric Greek ) could refer to any large group,

7070-504: The least advantageous territorial position in the area in relation to hunting and the fur trade along the St. Lawrence River. French trading was then based at Tadoussac , downstream at the mouth of the Saguenay River , within the territory of the Innu . The Mohawk wanted to get more control of the St. Lawrence trade routes connecting to the Europeans. During this period, Champlain reported that

7171-477: The marginalized status of people of color in the United States to their inherent biological inferiority, he attributed it to their failure to assimilate into American culture. They could become equal if they abandoned their inferior cultures. Michael Omi and Howard Winant 's theory of racial formation directly confronts both the premises and the practices of ethnicity theory. They argue in Racial Formation in

7272-479: The modernist understanding of ethnicity as proposed by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson see nations and nationalism as developing with the rise of the modern state system in the 17th century. They culminated in the rise of "nation-states" in which the presumptive boundaries of the nation coincided (or ideally coincided) with state boundaries. Thus, in the West, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation , developed in

7373-547: The neighboring Algonquian peoples and other Iroquoian groups. Breton , Basque , and English fishermen may have come into contact with the St. Lawrence Iroquoians early in the 16th century. French navigator Thomas Aubert visited the area in 1508 and sailed 80 leagues, perhaps 350 kilometres (220 miles), through the Gulf of St Lawrence and into the St. Lawrence River. He took back to France seven natives, possibly Iroquoians, whom he had captured during his voyage. Jacques Cartier

7474-413: The northern hunting Indians around Tadoussac traded furs for European weapons and used these to push the farming Indians south. Archaeological evidence and the historical context of the time point most strongly to wars with the neighbouring Iroquois tribes, particularly the Mohawk . Located in eastern and central New York, they had the most to gain in war against the St. Lawrence Iroquians, as they had

7575-427: The numbers on the St. Lawrence Iroquoian people. Dating techniques may not be precise enough to determine whether villages were occupied simultaneously or sequentially. In addition to the characteristic villages, the St. Lawrence Iroquoian peoples had "a mixed economy, in which they drew their subsistence from growing maize , squash , and beans , hunting , fishing , and gathering . These nations also had in common

7676-551: The parent group. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a panethnicity and may eventually merge into one single ethnicity . Whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis . Although both organic and performative criteria characterise ethnic groups, debate in the past has dichotomised between primordialism and constructivism. Earlier 20th-century "Primordialists" viewed ethnic groups as real phenomena whose distinct characteristics have endured since

7777-485: The people of Hochelaga (Montreal area) and Stadacona (Quebec area). Cartier described the large and productive maize fields surrounding Hochelaga, and said its inhabitants were sedentary, as compared to the people of Stadacona who were migratory. The Stadaconans were closer to the salt-water resources ( fish , seals , and whales ) of the lower St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St Lawrence and ranged widely in their birch bark canoes in search of marine animals. Moreover,

7878-519: The people were the ancestors or direct relations of historic Iroquoian groups in the greater region, such as the Huron or Mohawk , Onondaga or Oneida of the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee encountered by later explorer Samuel de Champlain . Since the 18th century, several theories have been proposed for the identity of the St. Lawrence River peoples. The issue is important not only for historical understanding but because of Iroquois and other indigenous land claims. In 1998 James F. Pendergast,

7979-450: The problem of racism became the sole responsibility of already disadvantaged communities. It was assumed that if a Black or Latino community was not "making it" by the standards that had been set by whites, it was because that community did not hold the right values or beliefs, or were stubbornly resisting dominant norms because they did not want to fit in. Omi and Winant's critique of ethnicity theory explains how looking to cultural defect as

8080-433: The public, political sphere, they are upheld within the private, family sphere to a great extent. It is here that women act not just as biological reproducers but also as "cultural carriers", transmitting knowledge and enforcing behaviors that belong to a specific collectivity. Women also often play a significant symbolic role in conceptions of nation or ethnicity, for example in the notion that "women and children" constitute

8181-567: The result of inherited traits and tendencies. With Weber's introduction of the idea of ethnicity as a social construct, race and ethnicity became more divided from each other. In 1950, the UNESCO statement " The Race Question ", signed by some of the internationally renowned scholars of the time (including Ashley Montagu , Claude Lévi-Strauss , Gunnar Myrdal , Julian Huxley , etc.), said: National, religious, geographic, linguistic and cultural groups do not necessarily coincide with racial groups: and

8282-483: The result of two opposite events, either the recent creation of state borders at variance with traditional tribal territories, or the recent immigration of ethnic minorities into a former nation-state. Examples for the first case are found throughout Africa , where countries created during decolonization inherited arbitrary colonial borders, but also in European countries such as Belgium or United Kingdom . Examples for

8383-495: The same language dialects as the St. Lawrence Iroquoians—thus, they did not know the word annedda and its reference. Archaeologists have not determined the exact location of Hochelaga . In the early 20th century historians debated this vigorously and the reasons for its disappearance, but changing interests in the field led in other directions. In the late 20th century, First Nations activism , as well as increased interest in history of indigenous peoples renewed attention to

8484-525: The second case are countries such as Netherlands , which were relatively ethnically homogeneous when they attained statehood but have received significant immigration in the 17th century and even more so in the second half of the 20th century. States such as the United Kingdom , France and Switzerland comprised distinct ethnic groups from their formation and have likewise experienced substantial immigration, resulting in what has been termed " multicultural " societies, especially in large cities. The states of

8585-413: The site of present day Quebec City . The Stadaconians met the French "very familiarly" probably indicating previous trading contacts with Europeans. In his follow-up expedition of 1535 and 1536, Cartier visited several Iroquoian villages north of Île d'Orléans (near present-day Quebec), including the villages of Stadacona and Hochelaga in the vicinity of modern-day Montreal . Archaeologists in

8686-420: The source of inequality ignores the "concrete sociopolitical dynamics within which racial phenomena operate in the U.S." It prevents critical examination of the structural components of racism and encourages a "benign neglect" of social inequality. In some cases, especially those involving transnational migration or colonial expansion, ethnicity is linked to nationality. Anthropologists and historians, following

8787-407: The state or its constituents. In the 20th century, people began to argue that conflicts among ethnic groups or between members of an ethnic group and the state can and should be resolved in one of two ways. Some, like Jürgen Habermas and Bruce Barry, have argued that the legitimacy of modern states must be based on a notion of political rights of autonomous individual subjects. According to this view,

8888-441: The state should not acknowledge ethnic, national or racial identity but rather instead enforce political and legal equality of all individuals. Others, like Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka , argue that the notion of the autonomous individual is itself a cultural construct. According to this view, states must recognize ethnic identity and develop processes through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated within

8989-512: The study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently. According to Eriksen , these debates have been superseded, especially in anthropology , by scholars' attempts to respond to increasingly politicized forms of self-representation by members of different ethnic groups and nations. This is in the context of debates over multiculturalism in countries, such as the United States and Canada, which have large immigrant populations from many different cultures, and post-colonialism in

9090-524: The term in social studies in the 1980s and 1990s. Barth went further than Weber in stressing the constructed nature of ethnicity. To Barth, ethnicity was perpetually negotiated and renegotiated by both external ascription and internal self-identification. Barth's view is that ethnic groups are not discontinuous cultural isolates or logical a priori to which people naturally belong. He wanted to part with anthropological notions of cultures as bounded entities, and ethnicity as primordialist bonds, replacing it with

9191-446: The term. Ramón Grosfoguel (University of California, Berkeley) argues that "racial/ethnic identity" is one concept and concepts of race and ethnicity cannot be used as separate and autonomous categories. Before Weber (1864–1920), race and ethnicity were primarily seen as two aspects of the same thing. Around 1900 and before, the primordialist understanding of ethnicity predominated: cultural differences between peoples were seen as being

9292-464: The trading post in the lower St. Lawrence Valley which had been important for years in the fur trade. Although historians and other scholars have been studying the St. Lawrence Iroquoians for some time, such knowledge has been slower to be part of common historical understanding. The hypothesis about the St. Lawrence Iroquoians helps explain apparent contradictions in the historical record about French encounters with natives in this area. The origins of

9393-524: The tribes of the Haudenosaunee. Their use appear to have been related to diplomatic visits among the peoples, and he suggests they indicate a territory of interaction that may have preceded the Iroquois confederacy. Related design elements and long recounting in Iroquois oral histories have been significant. By the time the explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived and founded Quebec in 1608, he found no trace of

9494-461: The usage of the term "ethnic" in the ordinary language of Great Britain and the United States , Wallman noted The term "ethnic" popularly connotes "[race]" in Britain, only less precisely, and with a lighter value load. In North America, by contrast, "[race]" most commonly means color, and "ethnics" are the descendants of relatively recent immigrants from non-English-speaking countries. "[Ethnic]"

9595-448: The ways in which race can complicate a community's interactions with social and political structures, especially upon contact. Assimilation – shedding the particular qualities of a native culture for the purpose of blending in with a host culture – did not work for some groups as a response to racism and discrimination, though it did for others. Once the legal barriers to achieving equality had been dismantled,

9696-477: The while being aware that on-going archaeological research indicates that several discrete Iroquoian political entities were present in a number of widely dispersed geographical regions on the St Lawrence River axis." As noted, anthropologists and some historians have used definitive linguistic and archaeological studies to reach consensus that the St. Lawrence Iroquoians were a people distinct from nations of

9797-443: The word canada , from which the nation derived its name, offers an example of the changes in historical understanding required by new evidence. By canada , the St. Lawrence Iroquoians of Stadacona meant "village" in their language. Cartier wrote, "[I]lz (sic) appellent une ville Canada (they call a village 'Canada')". Cartier applied the word to both the region near Stadacona and the St. Lawrence River that flows nearby. Both

9898-442: The world have been incorporated into a global economy: The opposing interests that divide the working classes are further reinforced through appeals to "racial" and "ethnic" distinctions. Such appeals serve to allocate different categories of workers to rungs on the scale of labor markets, relegating stigmatized populations to the lower levels and insulating the higher echelons from competition from below. Capitalism did not create all

9999-483: Was a turning point in ethnic studies. The consequences of Nazi racism discouraged essentialist interpretations of ethnic groups and race. Ethnic groups came to be defined as social rather than biological entities. Their coherence was attributed to shared myths, descent, kinship , a common place of origin, language, religion, customs, and national character. So, ethnic groups are conceived as mutable rather than stable, constructed in discursive practices rather than written in

10100-407: Was contrary to the prevailing naturalist belief of the time, which held that socio-cultural and behavioral differences between peoples stemmed from inherited traits and tendencies derived from common descent, then called "race". Another influential theoretician of ethnicity was Fredrik Barth , whose "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries" from 1969 has been described as instrumental in spreading the usage of

10201-583: Was the first European definitively known to have come in contact with the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. In July 1534, during his first voyage to the Americas, Cartier met a group of more than 200 Iroquoians, men, women, and children, camped on the north shore of Gaspe Bay in the Gulf of St Lawrence . They had traveled in 40 canoes to Gaspé to fish for Atlantic mackerel which abounded in the area. They were more than 600 kilometres (370 mi) from their home of Stadacona , on

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