‘Racism and ethnicity’: Reflections on the debatable permanence of terminology

Abstract

The concepts of biological and social race currently have debatable value. The first has lost much of its former validity through the increase in our knowledge of the genetic characteristics of humankind. This new knowledge does not support the older classifications. ‘Social race’ is a misnomer because its internal cohesion in no way depends on genetic characteristics. Anthropological terminology in English suffers as a result of the rejection, until recently, of the concept of ethnos/ethnie. Ethnicity is a blanket concept that needs to be refined and could replace the term social race. Such an exercise of finer differentiation is proposed. It is clear that future research will focus on the turbid processes of culture change. Next to using more relevant terminology, we shall have to acknowledge and understand the effects of die factors determining the course of such processes.