Ethnicity and the Modern World: Historical Trajectories

Abstract

In the first part of this chapter we follow Eriksen’s schema of types of ethnicity: we define urban minorities; indigenous peoples; ethnonational groups; ethnic groups in plural societies; and post-slavery minorities. We associate these with three historical trajectories of the modern world: the slavery and post-slavery world, the colonial and post-colonial, and nation-state formation in the capitalist West. In the latter part of the chapter we discuss the concepts of Universalism and particularism and the relationship of ethnicity to gender.