Ethinicity , Sects & Kinship in Social culture

1. Ethinicity

An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on common language, ancestral, social, cultural, or national experiences. Unlike most other social groups, ethnicity is primarily an inherited status. Membership of an ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, and physical appearance.

Ethnic groups, derived from the same historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages and share a similar gene pool, and may be grouped as ethno-linguistic groups (e.g. Iranian peoples, Slavic peoples, Bantu peoples, Turkic peoples, Austronesian peoples, Nilotic peoples, etc.) By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for some individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group and become part of another (except for ethnic groups emphasizing racial purity as a key membership criterion). Ethnicity is often used synonymously with ambiguous terms such as nation or people.

2. Sects

A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger religious group. Although it used to be mostly used to refer to religious groups, it can now refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and principles.

1. A group of people forming a distinct unit within a larger group by virtue of certain refinements or distinctions of belief or practice.

2. A religious body, especially one that has separated from a larger denomination.

3. A faction united by common interests or beliefs.

The term is occasionally used in a malicious way to suggest the broken-off group follows a more negative path than the original.

 A sect, in an Indian context, refers to an organized tradition.

Ex. Muslim – Siya & Sunni

Jain – Swetamber & Digamber

Hindu – Brahman , Kshatriya , Sudra & Vaishya

3. Kinship

Kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of most humans in most societies.

Kinship System in India  indicates the specific mode of behavior to determine each and every possible form of relationship between the individuals in a society and it establishes definite functions for every relationship not only by blood but by marriage as well.

Since kinship terms designate social statuses, what we must call a person ideally determines how we must behave towards him. Further, all persons who are called by the same kinship term should receive the same sort of treatment, since they enjoy ideologically identical statuses in the system of social organization.