Essay on Ethnicity and Gender: Ways of Learning About Social World

This essay delves into the concepts of ethnicity and gender as they relate to understanding the social world. It defines ethnicity as a shared culture, including practices, values, and customs, and explores the formation of ethnic groups. The essay examines gender socialization, the process by which individuals learn appropriate behaviors based on their assigned gender, and its impact on societal norms. It discusses the role of social science in studying human relationships, behavior, and the development of societies. The essay also analyzes different approaches to understanding ethnicity, such as primordialism, perennialism, constructivism, modernism, and instrumentalism. It highlights the complexities of gender, sex, and sexuality, emphasizing the importance of understanding the distinctions between them. The essay references key sociological perspectives like functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism and the queer theory. References include various books and journals which support the analysis of the topics.

WAYS OF
LEARNING ABOUT
SOCIAL WORLD

Contents
INTRODUCTION:..................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY:.........................................................................................................................................3
SEMI-CONCLUSION:...........................................................................................................................4
SEMI CONCLUSION:............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES:...........................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION:
The topics chosen for the essay is Ethnicity and gender. Ethnicity is a socially established category, and
the parameters of which can be changed depending on the existing society and political context. It is the
term which represents the shared cultures, its practices, values and customs of a particular society. An
ethnic group is the combination group of those people whose members are associated with one another
through a common heritage, which are composed of a common culture which covers a shared language
under it. The theme of the group its ideology mainly focuses on common ancestry, religion or race.
Gender socialization is the fundament by which males and females are informed regarding the policies
and behaviors related with their sex. It is the process in which individuals are aware about how to behave
socially in accordance with their respective gender which was assigned at birth to them on the basis of
their biological sex.
MAIN BODY:
Through the term social science we can have a vast knowledge of physical and social
environment. Basically, it is linked to the human relations and the scientific study of human
society. It is associated with the study of humans and their relationships, behavior the
development and resources they use and the various organizations required to carry in their daily
life. The fundamental objective of social science is to focus on the relationships among
individuals in society. To have a good amount of knowledge of social science makes people the
efficient citizen of a democracy, and also resolves the practical concerns in day to day life. It is
also vital for the communities and organizations. Social science gives the knowledge about the
civilization and culture. It also encourages the knowledge regarding social development, it
develops social behavior and civil qualities, the power of thinking and reasoning, it also develops
the modernization along with the moral and social values. It also gives the knowledge regarding
the social environment and nature and it widens the critical thinking and imagination of students.
It helps the students to learn about the importance of democracy, freedom and rights and how to
live in a society. It curves a person to become more responsible, active and reflective towards the
society and to make people aware about the culture, religion and society.( Holmes, 2008 )
ETHNICITY: It is a referred to present a shared culture and the practices it follows along with
the values and beliefs of the group which involves the various languages, religion and traditions
between the different commonalities and the method which results in emergence of an ethnicity
is termed as ethnogenesis. Max Weber who was a famous sociologist gave a theory regarding
ethnicity marking that ethnic groups are artificial that is they are socially framed due to three
reasons. Initially it was dependent on a subjective belief in shared community and secondly the
belief in these shared communities do not form any group but instead the group forms the belief
and lastly the groups which are formed results in the formation of power and status. In the year
1978, Ronald Cohen whoa was a known Anthropologist stated that the determination of the
ethnic groups in the field of social world often represents the improper labels more than the
indigenous realities. Like this he mentioned that examination of an ethnic group by outsiders

might not relate among each other as the members of that group itself. Cohen also claimed that
concerning ethnic identity are often the practices and effects of the relations between the
colonized people and the nation states. There are many approaches which is helpful in
understanding the ethnicities used by social scientists to make a try to understand the nature of
ethnicity as a prime factor in human life and society. For example these approaches includes
primordialism perennialism, constructivism, modernism and instrumentalism. (Brubaker
Loveman and Stamatov 2004).
Primordialism states that ethnicity is been present entirely in human history. According to this
the main theme of ethnicity it is closely associated to the idea of nations and is been enrolled in
the previous theory by Weber who gave the understanding of humanity.
Perennialism focuses on the point that ethnicity is varying accordingly and that while the concept
of ethnicity which exists all the time, the ethnic groups are short lived generally before these
ethnic boundaries forms some new trials.
Constructivism aims on the combination of both primordialism and perennialism which basically
states that the ethnic groups are the only the components of human social interaction, which are
organized untill this time only in order to maintain a strong social constructs in society.
SEMI-CONCLUSION:
In this way the social scientists have focused on where, when , how and why the different points
about the ethnic groups are fundamental and therefore the anthropologist Joan Vincent figured
out that the ethnic boundaries might have a mercurial nature. Ronald Cohen also concluded that
ethnicity is a series of rooting the inclusiveness and exclusiveness of the nature of ethnic groups.
It can be shortened or widened in terms of relation with the particular needs of political and
social mobilization.(Markus, H.R., 2008).
Topic 2: Gender
The gender stereotypes or comments can lead to gender socialization, the males and females are
expected to work in certain ways which are socialized by birth. The gender socialization is the
term which is aiming to educate the males and females as per the norms, behviours and beliefs of
group membership in accordance to their respective gender and now talking about the term
gender what is gender? It is the socio-cultural process of separating the people into several
components such as males and females with each having their respective roles, expectations and
stereotypes etc. The major period during which adults of a specific cultural groups treats their
children on how to react on social norms and behaviours is childhood and the gender is also
included in this process of instruction, the individuals are being educated on how to behave
socially with respect to their gender which was assigned to them by birth according to their
biological sex. The gender socialization begins even before the birth of the child, people starts
asking questions to the parents who are expecting a child about the sex of the child and by this it
leads to the beginning of social compartments which continues throughout the life. It is largely

taken into consideration that gender crisis are attributed to differences in socialization, instead of
concerning about the genetic and biological factors. The stereotypes based on gender results in
gender socialization. Judith Butler is one of the most known social theorists who is working on
the problems arising related to social construction of gender. He is a professional trained
philosopher and has worked towards feminism and queer theory. Out of his entire works the
most known work is gender trouble which details the feminism and subversion of identity and it
was published in 1991, which quarrels for gender performativity. The gender issues can also be
examined through three major theories by the sociological perspectives that is functionalism,
conflict theory and symbolic interactionism. The queer theory was an appeal to sexually studies
which determines western society’s continues splitting of gender into males and females acts and
questions about its roles.( Milkie 1994)
SEMI CONCLUSION:
Throughout this task it is clear that there are complexities of gender, sex and sexuality.
Distinction between sex, gender and sexual orientation is prime step to have a wide knowledge
and a deep examination of the problems related to it. To have a knowledge about the sociology
of gender will help the one in strengthening awareness about the discrimination which is faced
by subordinate components of people like women, homosexuals and transgender individuals.

REFERENCES:
Books and journals:
Heemskerk, I., Brink, A., Volman, M. and Ten Dam, G., 2005. Inclusiveness and ICT in
education: a focus on gender, ethnicity and social class. Journal of computer assisted learning,
21(1), pp.1-16.
Brubaker, R., Loveman, M. and Stamatov, P., 2004. Ethnicity as cognition. Theory and society,
33(1), pp.31-64.
Markus, H.R., 2008. Identity matters: Ethnicity, race, and the American dream. Just schools:
Pursuing equality in societies of difference, pp.63-98.
Holmes, M., 2008. Gender and everyday life. Routledge.
Milkie, M.A., 1994. Social world approach to cultural studies: Mass media and gender in the
adolescent peer group. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 23(3), pp.354-380.