| assimilation | The process of change that a minority group may experience when it moves to a country where another culture dominates; the minority is incorporated into the dominant culture to the point that it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit.
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| cultural colonialism | Within a nation or empire, domination by one ethnic group or nationality and its culture/ ideology over others—e.g., the dominance of Russian people, language, and culture in the former Soviet Union.
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| descent | Rule assigning social identity on the basis of some aspect of one's ancestry.
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| discrimination | Policies and practices that harm a group and its members.
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| ethnic group | Group distinguished by cultural similarities (shared among members of that group) and differences (between that group and others); ethnic group members share beliefs, values, habits, customs, and norms, and a common language, religion, history, geography, kinship, and/or race.
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| ethnicity | Identification with, and feeling part of, an ethnic group, and exclusion from certain other groups because of this affiliation.
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| ethnocide | Destruction by a dominant group of the culture of an ethnic group.
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| genocide | Policies aimed at, and/or resulting in, the physical extinction (through mass murder) of a people perceived as a racial group, that is, as sharing defining physical, genetic, or other biological characteristics.
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| hypodescent | A rule that automatically places the children of a union or mating between members of different socioeconomic groups in the less privileged group.
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| majority groups | Superordinate, dominant, or controlling groups in a social-political hierarchy.
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| minority groups | Subordinate groups in a social–political hierarchy, with inferior power and less secure access to resources than majority groups have.
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| multiculturalism | The view of cultural diversity in a country as something good and desirable; a multicultural society socializes individuals not only into the dominant (national) culture, but also into an ethnic culture.
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| nation | Once a synonym for "ethnic group," designating a single culture sharing a language, religion, history, territory, ancestry, and kinship; now usually a synonym for "state" or "nation-state."
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| nationalities | Ethnic groups that once had, or wish to have or regain, autonomous political status (their own country).
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| nation-state | An autonomous political entity, a country like the United States or Canada.
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| phenotype | An organism's evident traits, its "manifest biology"—anatomy and physiology.
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| plural society | A society that combines ethnic contrasts, ecological specialization (i.e., use of different environmental resources by each ethnic group), and the economic interdependence of those groups.
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| prejudice | Devaluing (looking down on) a group because of its assumed behavior, values, capabilities, or attributes.
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| race | An ethnic group assumed to have a biological basis.
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| racism | Discrimination against an ethnic group assumed to have a biological basis.
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| refugees | People who have been forced (involuntary refugees) or who have chosen (voluntary refugees) to flee a country, to escape persecution or war.
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| stereotypes | Fixed ideas—often unfavorable—about what members of a group are like.
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