Cultural Evolution: Ethnogenesis

`Poor people in silk shirts'

“…The emergence of these new ethnic identities was not simply a question of terminology but signaled historical and cultural shifts that made previous identities less relevant and gave rise to new social forms. The use of the term 'ethnogenesis' to describe the historical development of new ethnicities dates to the mid-1800s, when theories of ethnogenesis were advanced to refute doctrines of racial purity by positing that all nations and ethnicities arose from ongoing cultural interactions and waves of migrations (Moore, 2004). Ethnogenesis is similar to creolization, hybridity, and transnationalism in drawing attention to the malleability and changeability of social identities, but provides a more precise term for those situations in which new ethnic identities are formed.…”