Race And Ethnicity Essay
A Malay person can be a Malay by race, but not by ethnicity.
Ethnicity and race are often used together and and hence they are always confused. There is a major difference between both of them. Ethnicity is a group of people that has a shared common culture - the practices, values, and beliefs in groups; and also language, religion and traditions; amongst others. Race, on the other hand, artificially divides people into distinct groups based on characteristics such as physical appearance (particularly skin colour), ancestral heritage, cultural history etc. What is common between these two are, both ethnicity and race are social constructs. Social construct is defined as anything that is a result of a group or idea that is built through cultural or social practice, that group people together. Other examples of social constructs are …show more content…
However, ethnicity also includes an element of race, and being a part and belonging to a racial group, as well.
For this assignment, I have chosen Malay ethnicity as the subject matter. Explaining a bit of background on “Malay”. The word Malay comes from the Siamese origin. It means “from the sea”. Malay itself has many ethnic groups such as, Malays, Brunei Malay, Malaysian Malays, Malays in Singapore, Malay Indonesian, Thai Malays, Cape Malay, Kedahan Malay, Overseas Malay, to name a few. Constitutionally being identified as a Malay is one who speaks the Malay language, practices the religion, in most case it would be Islam, and performs the rights and rituals of Malay culture.
The journal article that I have selected is written by Lian Kwen Fee, who is an Associate Professor of Sociology from National University of Singapore. His journal article is titled as “The Construction of Malay Identity across Nations: Malaysia, Singapore and
Ethnicity and race are often used together and and hence they are always confused. There is a major difference between both of them. Ethnicity is a group of people that has a shared common culture - the practices, values, and beliefs in groups; and also language, religion and traditions; amongst others. Race, on the other hand, artificially divides people into distinct groups based on characteristics such as physical appearance (particularly skin colour), ancestral heritage, cultural history etc. What is common between these two are, both ethnicity and race are social constructs. Social construct is defined as anything that is a result of a group or idea that is built through cultural or social practice, that group people together. Other examples of social constructs are …show more content…
However, ethnicity also includes an element of race, and being a part and belonging to a racial group, as well.
For this assignment, I have chosen Malay ethnicity as the subject matter. Explaining a bit of background on “Malay”. The word Malay comes from the Siamese origin. It means “from the sea”. Malay itself has many ethnic groups such as, Malays, Brunei Malay, Malaysian Malays, Malays in Singapore, Malay Indonesian, Thai Malays, Cape Malay, Kedahan Malay, Overseas Malay, to name a few. Constitutionally being identified as a Malay is one who speaks the Malay language, practices the religion, in most case it would be Islam, and performs the rights and rituals of Malay culture.
The journal article that I have selected is written by Lian Kwen Fee, who is an Associate Professor of Sociology from National University of Singapore. His journal article is titled as “The Construction of Malay Identity across Nations: Malaysia, Singapore and