II.5 - National and ethnic diversity of world's population - LO 2R

National and ethnic diversity of world's population

Zróżnicowanie narodowościowe i etniczne ludności świata

HUMAN RACES

CAUCASIAN (biała)

NEGROID (czarna)

MONGOLOID (żółta)

also called europeanized (EUROPEIDALNA)

AFRICAN (afrykańska)

AUSTRALIAN (australijska)

ASIAN (azjatycka)

AMERICAN (amerykańska) - Native Americans (Indians) and their descendants

INDIAN-IRANIAN (indyjsko-irańska)

EUROPEAN

Within each race, there are a lot of local differences.

SEMITIC-HAMITIC (semicko-chamicka)

There are also mixed races:

• MESTIZO (Metysi) - descendants of the Caucasians and the Mongoloids,
• MULATTO (Mulaci) - descendants of the Caucasians and the Negroids,
• ZAMBOS (Zambo) - descendants of the Negroids and the Mongoloids.

RASISM

Although people of different races have their distnguishing features, like the skin colour, the shape of their noses, eyes and faces, they are more alike than we think. The most important features are the same for all humans. A lot of anthropogenic, biological and psychological research proved that all people of all races have similar intelectual and physical level of development and there is NO race that is better than the others.

However, these different features of appearance are the basis of RASISM - a prejudicial and unfounded opinion than one human race is better than the others. In 1966 the United Nations (ONZ) announced that rasism is a crime against mankind. Unfortunately, in a lot of different parts of the world it is still present and causes conflicts.

APARTHEID

It was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 until the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap (or white supremacy), which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's minority white population.

NATION vs ETHNIC GROUP

NATION - is a group of people sharing the same history, culture, language, territory and history. The language is the most common and obvious attribute. However, there are multilingual nations - in their case some other factors decide about the nation (e.g. territory, national awareness).

German, French, Italian, Romansh

French and Dutch

English and French

There are also nations, like the Jews or the Kurds, that are scattered around the world but haven't lost their identity.

ETHNIC GROUP - its members have a common cultural heritage, language, believes or customs. Acknowledging an ethnic group as a nation has its political consequences. It is considered that a nation has its right to political independence and its own country.

Lakajowie - uzbecka grupa etniczna w Tadżykistanie

Suazi - afrykańska grupa etniczna

NATION MINORITIES and ETHNIC MINORITIES

NATION MINORITY – is a group of people constantly living in a given country but having a different culture, history and language. They have their own existing country although they live in some other country where their ancestors settled down at least 100 years before (e.g. the Germans living in Poland)

ETHNIC MINORITY – a group of people constantly living in a giving country but they are not related to any other nation and they do not have their own country. However, they have their own history, culture and language differing from the rest of the citizens of that country they live in (e.g the Roma people in Poland)

Łemkowie

HOMOGENOUS COUNTRIES (państwa homogeniczne, jednolite narodowościowo, zwarte socjoetnicznie) - these are countries where the percentage of national minorites is very small (e.g. Poland, Portugal, Argentina)

MULTINATIONAL COUNTRIES (państwa wielonarodowościowe) - these are countries where a lot of different national or ethnic minorites live (e.g. Montenegro, Zambia, Great Britain)

Poland belongs to the most homogenous countried in the world. However, until the II World War Poland had been a multinational country. The holocaust, repatriations and the change of the borders after the war caused that 96-98% of the population are Poles.

Fractinalization Index - it's an index showing how diversified (niejednolity) a country is. The highest the index the more nationally and etnically diversed the country. A low index depicts that the country is rather homogenous.

AMERICAN DIVERSITY

The region with the biggest cultural diversity is America (both continents). It is strictly connected with MONGRELISING (METYSAŻ - mieszanie się odmian/ras). The beginning of this process dates back to the colonisation voyages from Europe and bringing the Blacks from Africa. As a result, the Europeans and the Blacks mixed with the Native Americans (the American Mongoloid race - rasa żółta). For this reason, it this part of the world there are, apart from the European Caucasian and the Black, a lot of Mestisos, Mulattos and Zambos.

The most common human race in America are the Mestisos. They live mostly in the former Spanish colonies. In Paraguay or Salvador, they consitute 90% of the population.

Poland is a country ethnically and nationally homogenous. The last population census (spis ludności) in 2011 revealed that about 95% of people declared ONLY Polish nationality. 1,5% declared NON-POLISH nationality. People could choose only one nationality or two, they could also choose ethnic minority or ethnic society (like the Silesians or Kurps) alongside with the nationality.

According to the survey, the biggest national minority were (in 2011) the Germans, the Ukrainians and the Belarusians. The biggest ethnic minority in Poland are the Roma people (Romowie).

NATIONAL AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN EUROPE

Europe:

• some countries are nationally homogenous: Poland, Greece, Portugal
• some countries are multicultural: Latvia, Belgium, France, Great Britain
• mostly national diversity (about 100 nations)
• there is no country with ONLY ONE nation

In African countries the diversity is mostly ethnical (the population structure in a lot of countries constitute different ethnic groups).

PROBLEMS OF THE COUNTRIES WITH SOCIO-ETHNIC CONCISION

Nationally homogenous countries do not face too many problems connected with social tensions around the minorities. The situation is different in multicultural countries. The dominant group (grupa dominująca) usually fights the minorities (their efforts to become independent and have their own political representation) but they deal better with the situation of having minorities on their territory. Some advantages of socio-ethnic diversity:

• richer culture,
• diverse cuisine,
• an increase in tolerance to otherness,
• more diverse service development.

Some threats of socio-ethnic diversity:

• social tensions around the minorities,
• the pursuit of liberty and a risk of state desintegration,
• discrimination and repressions towards the minorities,
• the risk of civil wars and people slaughter.
• problems with common standards in public administration,
• problems with constituting an official language and languages taught at schools,
• forming isolated districts of given societies,
• problems with law connected with different customs and religions of the minorities.

Prepared by Daria Płatek

THAT'S ALL! :)

Resource: Nowa Era "Oblicza geografii 2", geografia 24.pl, inne źródła Internetu