Ethnicity. Aspect of a Relationship or Property of a Group?

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, grade: 1.0, Queen's University Belfast (School of History and Anthropology), course: Social Anthropology, language: English, abstract: In this essay, I intend to analyse Eriksen's (2002) assertion that ethnicity is an aspect of a relationship, rather than a property of a group (2002:12), and do so in light of other relevant theories and issues in order to provide a critical discussion of the concept as a whole. Since its introduction into the spectrum of anthropological discussion, the notion of ethnicity has been received with considerable debate and postulation. At a general level, however, it has been examined as an element closely related to, or even governing, broader areas such as cultural identity, nationalism, as well as individual and group identification.