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Are ethnicity and culture inextricably linked?

I've been hearing a lot in the news lately about the idea of culture and the loss of culture from immigration to various countries. Many times I see the intertwining of culture and ethnicity as being equivalent. I'm not convinced that these two concepts are as intertwined as we make them out to be. You can't change your ethnicity, but you can adopt/learn different cultural norms.

"Ethnicity of a person is related more with his racial affinities while Culture of a particular people is a shared set of beliefs, morals, values that are reflective of way of life."

SteveB 7 Jan 11
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6 comments

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All human beings have ethnicity and all human beings demonstrate in-group behaviour, that is culture.
That cultural behaviour is not inherant and instinctual but is learned. I have lived in another country that had different cultural practices to my native culture and I observed my adoptive country's behavioural norms willingly as they did not conflict with my own values and were concordant with them. The conflict we see in Europe from mass immigration is the enforced migration/immigration of people whose culture is very different from their adoptive country and with a strict, rigid belief system such as Islam prescribing and proscribing the behaviour of men and women, there is a clash where the cultural norms are not compatible. Many are fleeing war or fleeing poverty and their survival drive sends them to Europe, yet they are culturally conflicted in many cases and have a hard time adjusting and integrating. My own opinion is, if you do not approve of or feel comfortable with the culture of a country you have migrated to, you should move to a country that suits your culture. When in Rome do as Rome does.

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I see that as often depending on where a family or individual is raised, and lives.

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And not all the people from a given ethnicity share the same culture.. Geography, outside local influence, personal situations, marriage....give to a given culture those "shades" that make those from the north to be different from the ones from the south of the same country.

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No

We here in this country might be better served if we didn’t always absolutely try to fit in. the idea of a melting pot is a recipe for cultural change/dissolution. And then there’s “fake” or “almost” ethnic culture. Irish americans are consistently doing stuff in attribution to their Irish heritage that real Irish folks in real Ireland wouldn’t think to do. So there’s that too.

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Have you ever met a firey woman who could celebrate Quanza and St. Patrick's Day? Then you would understand.

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Well being a cultural Jew is ethnic as well-ask Hitler.

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