Question of The Day

The author of the passage refers to Native American people in the second paragraph in order to provide an examples of

Two divergent definitions have dominated sociologists discussions of the nature of ethnicity. The first emphasizes the primordial and unchanging character of ethnicity. In this view, people have an essential need for belonging that
(5) is satisfied by membership in groups based on shared ancestry and culture. A different conception of ethnicity de-emphasizes the cultural component and defines ethnic groups interest groups. In this view, ethnicity serves as a way of mobilizing a certain population behind issues
(10) relating to its economic position. While both of these definitions are useful, neither fully captures the dynamic and changing aspects of ethnicity in the United States. Rather, ethnicity is more satisfactorily conceived of as a process in which preexisting communal bonds and common
(15) cultural attributes are adapted for instrumental purposes according to changing real-life situations. One example of this process is the rise of participation by Native American people in the broader United States political system since the Civil Rights movement of the
(20) 1960s. Besides leading Native Americans to participate more actively in politics (the number of Native American legislative officeholders more than doubled), this movement also evoked increased interest in tribal history and traditional culture. Cultural and instrumental components of
(25) ethnicity are not mutually exclusive, but rather reinforce one another. The Civil Rights movement also brought changes in the uses to which ethnicity was put by Mexican American people. In the 1960s, Mexican Americans formed
(30) community-based political groups that emphasized ancestral heritage is a way of mobilizing constituents. Such emerging issue as immigration and voting rights gave Mexican American advocacy groups the means by which to romote Ethnic solidarity. Like European ethnic groups in the
(35) nineteenth-century United States, late-twentieth-century Mexican American leaders combined ethnic with contemporary civic symbols. In 1968 Henry Censors, then mayor Of San Antonio, Texas, cited Mexican leader Benito Juarez As a model for Mexican Americans in their fight for contemporary
(40) Civil rights. And every year, Mexican Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo as fervently as many Irish American people embrace St. Patricks Day (both are major holiday in the countries of origin), with both holidays having been reinvented in the context of the United States
(45) and linked to ideals, symbols, and heroes of the United States.

how ethnic feelings have both motivated and been strengthened by political activity