Ethnicity, Culture and Class: A Discussion

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

I hold Ethnicity to be a fetish. An unimportant concept that is more harmful than helpful.

Culture on the other hand is the true defining characteristic of a group -- its behaviors and modes of interaction. Culture is not racially bound.

Social Class is the one factor of human interaction that seems to be supra-ethnic/racial and supra-cultural. As G. W. Bush said, "My people are the haves and have mores."

So Class seems to be a factor beyond both Ethnicity and Culture -- the heart of the matter as it were.

What role and importance do you assign to Ethnicity, Culture and Class and how do you differentiate between the three?

The concept of "Ethnic" is a binding of race and culture as an inseparable entity, which is why I think it is useless.

OED definitions of Ethnic:

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A. adj.
1. Pertaining to nations not Christian or Jewish; Gentile, heathen, pagan.
c1470 HARDING Chron. Printer's Pref. ix, The bible bookes of Iudges and Kynges..farre surmounting all ethnike dooynges. 1545 UDALL Erasm. Par. Pref. 3 An ethnike and a pagane kyng. 1581 MARBECK Bk. of Notes 61 That all composition is against the nature of God even the Ethnicke Philosophers perceived. 1611 SPEED Hist. Gt. Brit. VI. xlix. §171 Professing himselfe to be a Christian, and withall protesting that he would not be a soueraigne ouer an Ethnike Empire. 1651 HOBBES Leviath. III. xlii. 281 Exhorted their Converts to obey their then Ethnique Princes. 1804 MOORE Epist. III. iii. 45 All the charm that ethnic fancy gave To blessed arbours o'er the western wave. 18.. LONGFELLOW Drinking Song vii, These are ancient ethnic revels Of a faith long since forsaken. 1851 CARLYLE Sterling I. vii. (1872) 45, I find at this time his religion is as good as altogether Ethnic, Greekish. 1873 LOWELL Among my Bks. Ser. II. 107 There is first the ethnic forecourt, then the purgatorial middle-space.
2. a. Pertaining to race; peculiar to a race or nation; ethnological. Also, pertaining to or having common racial, cultural, religious, or linguistic characteristics, esp. designating a racial or other group within a larger system; hence (U.S. colloq.), foreign, exotic.
1851 D. WILSON Preh. Ann. (1863) I. ix. 229 That ethnic stock which embraced all existing European races. 1865 Reader 11 Feb. 163/1 The slight development of ethnic peculiarities in childhood. 1875 LIGHTFOOT Comm. Col. (1886) 133 Heresies are at best ethnic: truth is essentially catholic. 1935 HUXLEY & HADDON We Europeans iv. 136 Nowhere does a human group now exist which corresponds closely to a systematic sub-species in animals, since various original sub-species have crossed repeatedly and constantly. For existing populations, the noncommittal term ethnic group should be used. Ibid. vi. 181 The special type of ethnic grouping of which the Jews form the best-known example. 1936 Discovery June 167 [In Africa] linguistic divisions are a very fair indication of ethnic groups. 1939 C. S. COON Races of Europe xi. 444 The Jews are an ethnic unit, although one which has little regard for spatial considerations. Like other ethnic units, the Jews have their own standard racial character. 1964 Listener 6 Feb. 233/2 There are many groupings of people, ethnic units, population aggregatescall them what you willthat may be distinguished from each other. 1965 Sun 6 Dec. 7/6 Ethnic..has come to mean foreign, or un-American or plain quaint. 1969 New Yorker 30 Aug. 76/2 Its hopelessly reactionary nature is best exemplified not..even by the ethnic comedians. 1970 Daily Tel. 16 Apr. 18 The situation is fast becoming greatly complicated by the presence in Cambodia of large numbers, put at 400,000 to 500,000, of ‘ethnic’ Vietnamese.
b. ethnic minority (group), a group of people differentiated from the rest of the community by racial origins or cultural background, and usu. claiming or enjoying official recognition of their group identity. Also attrib.
1945 Amer. Sociol. Rev. X. 481 (heading) Status and housing of ethnic minorities. 1964 GOULD & KOLB Dict. Social Sci. 244/1 R. E. Park and his students have done outstanding research work into the patterns of adjustment, accommodation, and assimilation of ethnic minorities. 1968 [see BILINGUALITY]. 1974 Educ. & Community Rel. Jan. 1, Primary and secondary schools were included which were in areas of ethnic minority group settlement but had no ethnic minority group children in the school. 1976 Equals Oct./Nov. 1/1 An all-out campaign against both racial hatred and the discrimination and disadvantages facing ethnic minorities in Britain has been launched by the Trades Union Congress. 1984 Guardian 20 Nov. 8/7 Ethnic minorities will hopefully be tempted into the force by the fact that a black and female PC is given a starring role in the film.
B. n.
1. One who is not a Christian or a Jew; a Gentile, heathen, pagan. Obs.
c1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Barnabas 161 A part of It [the temple] fel done & mad a gret distruccione Of ethnykis. c1534 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camd. Soc.) I. 169 Beinge on all sides beesett with the Tracherie of these rude æthenickes, hee was sodainlie slayne. 1588 ALLEN Admon. 37 Yf he..heare not the Churche, let him be taken for an Ethnike. 1625 B. JONSON Staple of N. II. iv, A kind of Mule! That's half an Ethnick, half a Christian! 1664 EVELYN Sylva (1776) 614 The Ethnics do still repute all great trees to be divine. 1728 MORGAN Algiers I. iv. 77 They look upon them [the Jews] as several degrees beneath..Heathens, Ethnicks, Pagans, and Idolaters.
2. Greek Antiq. An epithet denoting nationality, derived from or corresponding to the name of a people or city [= (Steph. Byz.)]. Also gen.
1828 J. A. CRAMER Anc. Greece III. Index p. i, The Greek ethnic of each town or place has been subjoined where there was authority for it. 1902 D. G. HOGARTH Nearer East 194 Where the ‘Arab’ (to use the ethnic widely) lives under conditions similar to the Greek, he resembles him. 1921 C. T. SELTMAN Temple Coins Olympia 103 The dies..upon which the full ethnic F appears. 1921 Brit. Mus. Return 79 The ethnics of Damastium and Pelagia. 1959 A. G. WOODHEAD Study Gk. Inscriptions 44 Sometimes the single name, without further elaboration, sometimes with patronymic and demotic or ethnic, or with one of the two.
3. A member of an ethnic group or minority. orig. U.S.
1945 WARNER & SROLE Social Syst. Amer. Ethnic Groups (Yankee City Ser. III) v. 68 The Irish..had their origins largely in the peasant stratum... The Jews were of the burgher class... These differences in the ethnics' social-class backgrounds will be seen later to have important bearing on their adaptation. Ibid. 93 The ethnics have conspicuously succeeded in ‘getting ahead’ in the Yankee City social hierarchy. 1961 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Nov. 828/4 The former ‘ethnics’, a polite term for Jews, Italians, and other lesser breeds just inside the law. 1963 T. & P. MORRIS Pentonville iii. 62 It is the general view of the prison staff that the majority of ‘coloureds’ and ‘ethnics’ are West Indians. 1964 S. M. MILLER in I. L. Horowitz New Sociology 297 As the white ethnicsfirst the Irish, later the Jews, and still more recently the Italians..gained strength.

OED Definitions of Culture --(I think reviewing the agri-cultural roots of the idea of culture is useful.)

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I. The cultivation of land, and derived senses.
1. a. The action or practice of cultivating the soil; tillage; = CULTIVATION n. 1. Now chiefly with of.
c1450 tr. Palladius De Re Rustica (Bodl.) I. 21 In places there thou wilt have the culture. c1475 (?a1440) B. BURGH Distichs of Cato (Rawl. C.48) l. 348 in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1905) 115 311 Iff thou list, my child..to knowe the tilthe and the cultur..summe is arable [v.r. erable] and summe is pasture. a1530 (c1425) ANDREW OF WYNTOUN Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Royal) II. i. 106 Scho gert men thraly set thaire cure Corne to wyne wytht thare culture. 1665 R. BOYLE Occas. Refl. V. vii. sig. Ll3v, Such a..Plot of his Eden..gratefully crowns his Culture (for Toil I cannot think it) with chaplets of Flowers. 1676 J. EVELYN (title) A philosophical discourse of earth, relating to the culture and improvement of it for vegatation. 1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husb. & Gardening 3 Man was..imploy'd in the Culture of the Garden. 1785 T. MARTYN tr. J. J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. xvii. 244 Our Wild Smallage..which is common by ditches and brooks, cannot be rendered esculent by culture. 1803 Gazetteer Scotl. at Kilpatrick, The soil is clay, and difficult of culture. 1866 J. E. T. ROGERS Hist. Agric. & Prices I. 11 The same kinds of grain..are sown..and the same mode of culture is adopted. 1891 Centralia (Wisconsin) Enterprise & Tribune (Electronic text) 6 June, Deep culture of the soil allows an excess of moisture to pass away from the roots of plants. 1962 D. R. WEIMER City & Country in Amer. 292 The theory of agrarianism is that the culture of the soil is the best and most sensitive of vocations. 1976 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald Jrnl. 7 Mar. 25/6 The culture of the earth had been one of his constant joys. 2000 Policy Rev. (Nexis) 1 Apr. 63 Agriculture, after all, means not food production, but ‘the culture of the soil’.
b. concr. A piece of tilled land; a cultivated field. Obs.
a1475 in A. Clark Eng. Reg. Godstow Nunnery (1906) 592 Which is diched bitwene the crofte called herbelot and the culture called the hamehore. 1557 MS. Indenture 30 June, [Conveying] a culture of land called the flatte, in Brantingham, Yks. 1560 P. WHITEHORNE tr. N. Macchiavelli Art of Warre (1573) 27 b, Euery culture where bee Vines and other trees lettes the horses. 1757 J. DYER Fleece IV. 143 From their tenements..proceeds the caravan Through lively-spreading cultures, pastures green. 1773 J. RAMSDEN Hist. Acct. Kirkstall-Abbey 17 Robert, son of Hubert, gave one flat or culture of land here in Wythage.
c. Cultivated condition. Obs. rare.
a1538 T. STARKEY Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 9 The erth..by..dylygent labur..ys brought to marvelous culture & fortylite. 1879 H. N. MOSELEY Notes by Naturalist xix. 485 The land along the road is in the very highest culture. A great deal of it was covered with yellow-blossomed crops of rape.
2. a. The cultivating or rearing of a plant or crop; = CULTIVATION n. 2a; (also) an instance of this.
For compounds with modifying noun specifying the crop, asflax culture, grape-culture, olive culture, etc., or the method, as drill culture, drip culture, glass culture, etc.: see the first element.
1580 T. NEWTON Approoued Med. f. 63v, The wilde Uyne differeth in nothinge from the Gardein vyne, but onely in Cultures. 1607 E. TOPSELL Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 721 Virgill also maketh mention of them.., writing of the culture or tilling of vines. 1626 BACON Sylva Sylvarum §402 These..were slower than the ordinary Wheat..and this Culture did rather retard than advance. 1697 DRYDEN tr. Georgics I, in tr. Virgil Wks. 51 The Culture suiting to the sev'ral Kinds Of Seeds and Plants. 1750 JOHNSON Rambler No. 33 2 The fruits, which without culture fell ripe into their hands. 1789 J. MORSE Amer. Geogr. 395 A culture [sc. of tobacco] productive of infinite wretchedness. 1856 R. W. EMERSON Eng. Traits v. 98 [England] is too far north for the culture of the vine. 1887 Pall Mall Gaz. 15 Oct. 11/2 There are eighty acres devoted to bulb culture. 1931 C. L. JONES Caribbean Backgrounds & Prospects x. 184 Some success is reported..in spreading the culture of crops of wider demand, such as cacao,..and rice. 2006 Mail on Sunday (Nexis) 21 Feb. (Live section) 39 The Albariza soil..is favoured locally for the culture of grapes for lighter sherries.
b. The rearing or raising of certain animals, such as fish, oysters, bees, etc., or the production of natural animal products such as silk.
culture pearl = cultured pearl at CULTURED adj. 1d; cf. MIKIMOTO PEARL n.
bee-culture, cattle-culture, fish-culture, etc.: see the first element.
1744 G. A. BAZIN Nat. Hist. Bees sig. A2, The care and culture of Bees have always been one of the most agreeable and useful employments of country life. 1796 J. MORSE Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 679 The culture of silk. 1862 Cornhill Mag. 5 201 The dredgers at Whitstable have so far adopted oyster culture. 1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 23 Sept. 6/2 In the interests of bee-culture, and in the search of improved races of bees. 1904 N.Y. Herald 9 Oct. (Mag. section) 4/6 In 1900 some specimens of the culture pearl were exhibited in the Paris International Exhibition. 1921 Current Hist. July 623/1 Jewelers in London have been greatly perturbed over a new type of [Japanese] ‘culture’ pearls which is said to be so perfect that it cannot be distinguished from the natural article. 1963 Times 12 Mar. (Austral. Suppl.) p. v/7 Culture-pearl farms. 1975 L. PERL Slumps, Grunts, & Snickerdoodles x. 85 The would-be entrepreneurs..tried their skills at glass-blowing, wine-making, silk culture, and even lumbering. 2006 Eastern Daily Press (Nexis) 28 June, There is no satisfactory alternative within the Wash area where such mussel culture can be carried on with.
3. Biol.
a. The artificial propagation and growing of microorganisms, or of plant and animal cells, tissues, etc., in liquid or solid nutrient media in vitro. Freq. attrib. Cf. culture medium n. at Compounds 2, culture plate n. at Compounds 2.
1880 G. M. STERNBERG tr. A. Magnin Bacteria II. i. 113 Cohn, in order..to get rid of the moulds,..employed the following culture-fluid [Fr. liquide nourricier]. 1890 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 57 487 Experiments upon the culture of excised barley embryos on nutrient liquids. 1938 R. C. PARKER Methods Tissue Culture xvi. 208 The method of tissue culture has also served as a direct means of studying the further development of complex structures and organ rudiments. 1950 L. E. HAWKER Physiol. Fungi ii. 32 Most fungi will remain viable in undisturbed culture for several months at room temperature. 1987 E. W. BURR Compan. Bird Med. xiii. 80/1 Culture and sensitivity tests for gram-negative bacteria are warranted. 2003 New Scientist 11 Jan. 51 (advt.) You'll be supervising the cell culture of hybridoma cells and the preparation of harvests for the purification team.
b. The product of such culture; a growth or crop of artificially maintained microorganisms, cells, etc.
1880 tr. L. Pasteur in Lancet 6 Nov. 751/2 The cultures of the parasite [Fr. les cultures du parasite] are necessarily made in contact with the air, for our virus is an aerobe being, whose development is not possible without it. 1910 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 15 Oct. 1379/2 The plasmatic media were inoculated with many tissues or organs, of which all were found to multiply or grow. The cultures of the different tissuesas we shall call themcontain common characteristics. 1932 R. ROBISON Significance Phosphoric Esters in Metabolism 101 (caption) Osteogenesis in a hanging-drop culture of mesoderm from a 6-day embryonic jaw. 1965 P. R. WHITE & A. R. GROVE Proc. Internat. Conf. Plant Tissue Culture 9 Experiments with excised roots as organ cultures. 1999 J. ELKINGTON & J. HAILES New Foods Guide iv. 158 Whole or skimmed milk is fermented with a ‘starter culture’ of bacteria, usually Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus.
II. Worship (see the etymology).
4. Worship; reverential homage. Obs. rare.
1483 CAXTON tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende f.lxxxi/1, Whan they departe fro the culture and honour of theyr god.
III. Extended uses (from branch I.).
5. a. The cultivation or development of the mind, faculties, manners, etc.; improvement by education and training.
?1510 T. MORE tr. G. F. Pico della Mirandola Let. in tr. Lyfe J. Picus sig. d.iii, To the culture & proffit of their myndis [L. animi cultum]. ?1608 S. LENNARD tr. P. Charron Of Wisdome I. xlvii. 185 Necessarie for the culture of good maners. 1651 T. HOBBES Leviathan II. xxxi. 189 The education of Children [is called] a Culture of their mindes. 1711 J. ADDISON Spectator No. 10 ¶1 Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture. 1752 JOHNSON Rambler No. 189 12 She..neglected the culture of [her] understanding. 1848 MACAULAY Hist. Eng. II. 55 The precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried. 1865 R. W. DALE Jewish Temple xiv. 155 The Jewish system was intended for the culture of the religious life of the Jews. 1922 L. MUMFORD Story of Utopias 50 The two branches of Greek education, music and gymnastic, applied..to the culture of the body and the culture of the mind. 1999 Times (Nexis) 29 Jan., I used to think houses in the country were for saints or fools... But they ate fortunes, ruined marriages and dulled the culture of the mind.
b. The training and improvement of the human body. Now rare.
1628 T. HOBBES tr. Thucydides Peloponnesian War I. vi, Amongst whom [sc. the Lacedaemonians]..especially in the culture of their bodies, the nobility observed the most equality with the commons. 1793 T. BEDDOES Let. to E. Darwin 60 To suppose the organization of man equally susceptible of improvement from culture with that of various animals and vegetables. a1813 A. F. TYTLER Universal Hist. (1834) I. xi. 219 Nor was the culture of the body neglected. The youth were trained to every manly exercise. 1894 Nevada State Jrnl. (Electronic text) 5 Jan., Unless proper attention is given to the culture of the body good health cannot be expected. 1965 Brit. Jrnl. Educ. Stud. 13 207 Vittorino, like a true humanist, emphasized the culture of the body no less than that of the mind.
c. The devoting of attention to or the study of a subject or pursuit; = CULTIVATION n. 3a.
1692 J. NORRIS Coll. Misc. 72 Not he whose rich and fertile mind Is by the Culture of the Arts refin'd. a1761 J. CAWTHORN Poems (1771) 44 As now his op'ning parts, Ripe for the culture of the arts, Became in ev'ry hour acuter, Apollo look'd out for a tutor. 1843 tr. Voltaire Philos. Dict. II. 523 An entire nation is led, during its early culture of the arts, to admire authors abounding in the defects and errors of the age. 1856 G. BANCROFT Hist. U.S. (ed. 15) I. 2 Our national resources are developed by an earnest culture of the arts of peace. 1905 Science 8 Sept. 303/2 America's scientific capital is equal to ours; she is well in the way toward preceding us in the culture of the sciences. 1931 G. A. PFISTER & E. S. KEMP tr. R. Romain Goethe & Beethoven 113 The times were ripe for meditation and the culture of the arts. 1992 P. DAVIS Experience of Reading 149 David..has eschewed his father's old-fashioned humanist culture of the arts for fast-lane industrial power and money.
6. Refinement of mind, taste, and manners; artistic and intellectual development. Hence: the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.
In origin an elliptical use of sense 5a.
1678 I. BARROW Serm. Several Occasions iv. 120 We may observe it growing with Age, waxing bigger and stronger together with the encrease of wit and knowledge, of civil culture and experience. 1703 tr. S. von Pufendorf Law of Nature & Nations II. ii. 91/1 Men of any tolerable Culture and Civility must needs abhor the entring into any such Compact [L. unde & abhorret à consuetudine hominum cultiorum tale pactum inire]. 1790 S. W. MORTON Ouâbi IV. 42 As no images can with propriety be taken from culture or civil society in the dialogues, I am under the necessity of frequently repeating the most striking objects of nature. a1807 WORDSWORTH Prelude (1959) XII. 466 Where grace Of culture hath been utterly unknown. 1837 R. W. EMERSON Jrnl. 24 Nov. (1910) IV. 371 It seems to me that the circumstances of man are historically somewhat better here and now than ever,that more freedom exists for Culture. 1860 J. L. MOTLEY Hist. Netherlands (1868) I. ii. 47 His culture was not extensive. 1871 ‘G. ELIOT’ Middlemarch (1872) I. I. ix. 137 He wants to go abroad again..[for] the vague purpose of what he calls culture, preparation for he knows not what. 1873 M. ARNOLD Lit. & Dogma Pref. p. xiii, Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world. 1888 A. JESSOPP Coming of Friars iii. 131 Some few of the larger..monasteries..[were] centres of culture. 1916 E. WHARTON Xingu i. 3 Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet alone. 1939 tr. H. Johst in C. Leiser Nazi Nuggets 83 When I hear the word ‘culture’ [Ger. Kultur] I slip back the safety-catch of my revolver. 1948 T. S. ELIOT Notes Def. Culture ii. 43 The primary channel of transmission of culture is the family. 1963 Pasadena (Calif.) Independent 20 June 23/4, I am pleased that you workers appreciate culture. What opera are you going to see? 2001 Financial Times 27 Jan. (Weekend Suppl.) p. vi/5 In 15 years culture has moved from the most sublime performances of opera, dance and classical music to street parties, social inclusion, and fun.
7. a. Chiefly as a count noun. The distinctive ideas, customs, social behaviour, products, or way of life of a particular society, people, or period. Hence: a society or group characterized by such customs, etc.
1860 A. GUROWSKI Slavery in Hist. i. 7 This Egyptian or Chamitic civilization..preceded by many centuries the Shemitic or Aryan cultures. 1867 E. A. FREEMAN Hist. Norman Conquest I. iv. 167 A language and culture which was wholly alien to them. 1891 Spectator 27 June 888/2 Speaking all languages, knowing all cultures, living amongst all races. 1903 C. LUMHOLTZ Unknown Mexico I. 117 A thrifty people whose stage of culture was that of the Pueblo Indians of to-day. 1921 E. SAPIR Lang. x. 222 Historians and anthropologists find that races, languages, and cultures are not distributed in parallel fashion. 1948 T. S. ELIOT Notes Def. Culture i. 28 The culture with which primitive Christianity came into contact..was itself a religious culture in decline. 1981 P. DAVIES Edge of Infinity (1983) i. 2 The common interest in astronomy among such diverse cultures as the Sumerians and the North American Indians. 1991 Aloha Feb. 64/3 Also included are fascinating tidbits about Hawai'i's unique culture and history. 2000 Z. SMITH White Teeth xii. 245 They're Englishifying him completely! They're deliberately leading him away from his culture and his family and his religion.
b. With modifying noun: a way of life or social environment characterized by or associated with the specified quality or thing; a group of people subscribing or belonging to this.
For more established compounds, as café culture, drug culture, youth culture, etc., see the first element.
1912 in P. Farrer Confid. Corr. on Cross Dressing (1997) 29 Truly she comes from the very core of corset culture, Austria; but really, when she speaks of 7 and 8-inch waists, one needs must in politeness suspect a printer's error. 1940 C. F. C. HAWKES Prehist. Found. Europe vi. 233 With the rise of the warrior cultures a new element was thus let loose into European civilization. 1973 Maclean's Oct. 84/3 They've developed a beer-parlor culture. 1994 Times 2 Aug. 4/7 We are not a gun culture like the United States. 2003 C. WHITEHEAD Colossus of N.Y. 42 This is his tenth attempt to join the jogging culture. This latest outfit will do the trick.
c. The philosophy, practices, and attitudes of an institution, business, or other organization. Cf. corporate culture n. at CORPORATE adj. and adv. Additions
1940 D. CLEMMER Prison Community xii. 299 We may use the term prisonization to indicate the taking on in greater or less degree of the folk~ways, mores, customs, and general culture of the penitentiary. 1978 L. GOODWYN Populist Moment iv. 102 The supportive culture of the movement helped encourage the mass aspirations that made the Populist effort such a unique moment in American history. 1991 Managem. Accounting Sept. 30/2 Managers see their role as creating a culture in which the team can make a sound contribution to agreed goals. 2004 Business Rev. Weekly 30 Sept. 63/1 Smart corporations have realised that fast growth and high profitability is best created through unique intellectual property and unique organisational cultures.
PHRASES
two cultures n. (in the terminology of C. P. Snow) science and the arts, considered as being in opposition to each other.
1956 C. P. SNOW in New Statesman 6 Oct. 413/1 The separation between the two cultures has been getting deeper under our eyes; there is now precious little communication between them... The traditional culture..is, of course, mainly literary..the scientific culture is expansive, not restrictive. 1959 C. P. SNOW Two Cultures 16 Those in the two cultures can't talk to each other..very little of twentieth-century science has been assimilated into twentieth-century art. 1961 Listener 16 Nov. 809/1 The lack of communication between scientists and non-scientists, which has been so much discussed recently in terms of ‘the two cultures’. 1967 ‘W. HAGGARD’ Conspirators ii. 14 He could explain things to laymen simply, despising ill-digested chatter about two cultures. 1981 H. SHAW Death of Don (1982) xix. 145, I still embody Newman's idea of a liberal education. None of your two cultures for me. 2002 Y. ABRIOUX in P. Gossin Encycl. Lit. & Sci. 70 Throughout much of the century..the split between the ‘two cultures’ has also been undermined from within scientific practice.
COMPOUNDS
C1. a. attrib. and objective genitive with sense ‘of, belonging to, or characteristic of a (particular) culture’ (see sense 7a), as culture area, culture conflict, culture myth, etc.
1881 Harper's Mag. Dec. 106/2 All such legends are culture-myths. 1903 Daily Chron. 11 June 3/1 The hero-tales and culture-legends of the prehistoric period of the Hebrews. 1921 E. SAPIR Lang. x. 223 That a group of languages need not in the least correspond to a racial group or a culture area is easily demonstrated. 1922 D. H. LAWRENCE Fantasia of Unconscious xi. 203 The woman is now the responsible party, the law-giver, the culture-bearer. 1931 H. J. ROSE tr. W. Schmidt Orig. & Growth Relig. V. xiv. 221 Leo Frobenius, a pupil of Ratzel, enlarged..the doctrine of ‘culture-circles’ (or ‘spheres’, Kulturkreise). 1933 Downside Rev. 51 185 Russia is a culture-complex in itself, and Russia's problem is not ours. 1938 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 44 365 The culture shift is toward urbanization and anglicization. 1949 M. MEAD in M. Fortes Social Structure 27 Teacher, physician, nurse..each in turn represents some different form of culture conflict. 1953 Proc. Prehistoric Soc. 19 41 (title) The prehistoric culture-sequence in the Maltese Archipelago. 1962 D. HARDEN Phoenicians i. 24 To pick out what is Egyptian and Mesopotamian among finds and culture-traits in Phoenicia is not nearly so hard. 1978 PMLA 3 370/1 His powerful rendering of the culture myth that Woolf..sensed at the heart of Western literary patriarchy. 2003 Jrnl. Anthropol. Res. 59 571 The culture history of the Yuchi reflects the distinctiveness of the tribe within the generalized regional patterns common to the Southeastern culture area.
b. attrib., objective, and objective genitive (in sense 6) as culture hunger, culture instinct, culture snob, etc.; culture-hungry, culture-loving, culture-rich, culture-specific, adjs.
1889 G. B. SHAW in Star 23 Aug. 201 The race of culture humbugs. 1897 M. KINGSLEY Trav. W. Afr. 28 The present culture-condition of West Africa. 1897 M. KINGSLEY Trav. W. Afr. Pref. p. ix, Your superior culture-instincts may militate against your enjoying West Africa. 1901 R. W. ROGERS Hist. Babylonia & Assyria I. x. 297 The cities of Assyria were not so ancient as those of Babylonia, and their general character was..military rather than peaceful and culture-loving. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 2 Jan. 11/2 A modernised, constitutional, culture-loving Turkish State. 1927 Charleston (W. Va.) Gaz. 7 Aug. 6/7 The culture hungry public must grow accustomed to such sights and the nude statue was allowed to kneel without disturbance. 1931 A. HUXLEY Music at Night 226 Most professional intellectuals will approve of culture-snobbery (even while intensely disliking most individual culture-snobs). 1933 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 39 301 (title) The bureaucratic culture pattern and political revolution. 1938 D. THOMAS Let. 23 Mar. in Sel. Lett. (1966) 190 Advanced writing..sells very well over there [i.e. in America], they're such culture-snobs. 1939 ‘M. INNES’ Stop Press III. iii. 376 You couldn't have a more persistent culture-hound. 1940 Philos. Sci. 7 492 The task of the social sciences is an enduring one, for their facts are transitory and culture specific. 1955 20th Cent. June 536 An attack on contemporary ‘Culture’-mongers. 1960 A. KOESTLER Lotus & Robot 279 Literacy, culture-hunger and leisure-time are increasing even more rapidly than the birth-rate. 1961 Bennington (Vermont) Evening Banner 31 Aug. 4/1 Ours is a culture-rich state which prides itself on getting along without the works of expatriots like Henry Miller. 1990 What Satellite July 97/1 American Forces TV for the troops in Germany..would be the best bet for transatlantic culture fiends. 2007 Sunday Rev. (Nexis) 11 Feb. 9 Forget Barcelona and Paris: the key cities for culture-hungry travellers are not where you'd expect.
C2. culture-bound adj. determined or limited by the presuppositions or restrictions of one's culture.
1921 Jrnl. Philos. 18 604 Leaving them *culture-bound just as other species are structure-bound and instinct-bound. 1951 R. FIRTH Elem. Social Organization iii. 109 He is culture-bound in his desires as well as his activities. 2005 Trav. Afr. Autumn 11/2 The opportunity to counter the negativity about Africa projected by a culture-bound, crisis-devouring mass media.
culture centre n. = cultural centre n. at CULTURAL adj. and n. Special uses.
1890 Sandusky (Ohio) Daily Reg. 19 May 2/6 The church is to be not only the spiritual but the mental, social and physical *culture center of influence in the community. 1961 C. JONES Archit. Today & Tomorrow vii. 76 Aalto's second major building..was the Library and Culture Center for Viipuri. 1987 Jrnl. Rom. Stud. 77 223 Alexandria, the greatest culture-centre of the eastern Mediterranean. 2007 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Jrnl. Sentinel (Nexis) 15 Mar. 10 Money to convert the building into a Great Lakes Indian education and culture center.
culture clash n. conflict or discord resulting from the interaction of (two) different cultures; an instance of this.
1926 Times 6 Aug. 8/3 In Africa the *culture-clash could not be handled without a deeper knowledge of the African. 1964 Pacific Hist. Rev. 33 355 The book is also an illuminating..study in culture contactor more accurately,..culture clash. 2004 Time Out N.Y. 26 Aug. 11/1 Everybody thinks the whole shebang is a simple culture clash between the red-staters and the liberal weenies.
culture contact n. the state of interacting with other societies or cultures; interaction of this sort; an instance of this.
1892 J. JACOBS Indian Fairy Tales 234 The fairy-tales..were invented once for all in a certain locality, and thence spread to all the countries in *culture contact with the original source. 1936 Mind 45 294 In the modern world, with its ever-increasing facilities for culture-contacts, a world-culture is in process of formation. 2005 Austral. Aboriginal Stud. (Nexis) 22 Mar. 16 An emerging theme in..the archaeology of culture contact in Australia is the idea of ‘shared’ or ‘entangled’ histories.
culture festival n. = cultural festival n. at CULTURAL adj. and n. Special uses.
1927 Geogr. Rev. 17 342, I have especially in mind here Nelson's descriptions of *culture festivals, masks, [etc.]. 1979 Washington Post (Nexis) 18 Apr. B1 The Japanese culture festival..seemed to her made to order to advance the great project of each country's learning a bit more about the other. 2007 Calgary Herald (Nexis) 31 Mar. A3 Comedienne Lily Tomlin is performing a one-woman show as part of the culture festival.
culture gap n. a difference in values, behaviour, or customs between two cultures or groups of people, esp. as a hindrance to mutual understanding and communication.
1912 C. HOSE Pagan Tribes Borneo II. xxi. 231 These civilised or semi-civilised visitors and settlers were separated from the indigenous Borneans by a great *culture gap. 1940 Mississippi Valley Hist. Rev. 27 332 The author does not seem to regard Mrs. Whitman as congenitally unsuited to bridge the race and culture gap, as is required of missionaries. 2006 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 9 Apr. I. 1/2 Europeans are struggling to come to grips with a widening culture gap between themselves and an increasingly alienated Muslim immigrant community.
culture hero n. Anthropol. and Mythol. a (typically mythological) historical figure who embodies the culture of a particular society, and is freq. considered to have founded or shaped that culture; (also more generally) a person who is prominent or important within a particular culture.
1868 N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 640 One of the most widely famous of these *culture-heroes was Manabozho, or Michabo, the Great Hare. 1907 A. C. HADDON in N. W. Thomas Anthropol. Ess. 183 The death dances were introduced into the Western Islands by two culture heroes from New Guinea. 1945 Mind 54 78 The culture-hero has a vague complex status, part man, part demi-god. 1986 City Limits 29 May 83 The direct antithesis of all that Eagleton and his '70s culture-heroes advocated. 2001 L. ÖPIK in P. Moore 2002 Yearbk. Astron. II. 161 Hidatsa mythology made references to sky powers and shamanistic journeys of culture heroes across the Milky Way.
culture heroine n. Anthropol. and Mythol. a female culture hero.
1901 Contemp. Rev. Mar. 455 The ancient ‘*culture-heroine’. 1993 J. GREEN It 5 The ‘bonking bimbo’..has become in her way, a culture heroine. 2002 Jrnl. Anthropol. Res. 58 516 Sina was a culture heroine responsible for the origin of coconuts.
culture jammer n. orig. N. Amer. a participant in culture jamming; cf. culture jamming n.
1990 Verbiage Battles in alt.postmodern (Usenet newsgroup) 13 Aug., Then I'm a *culture jammer? 2004 T. JORDAN & P. A. TAYLOR Hacktivism & Cyberwars iv. 83 Once culture jammers enter the empire of signs and begin their work re-manipulating the semiotic viruses transmitted by corporations, they risk being trapped there.
culture jamming n. orig. N. Amer. the subversion of advertising and other mass-media output (by parody, alteration, etc.) as a form of protest against consumerism, corporate culture, and the power of the media.
[1985 ‘NEGATIVLAND’ JamCon '84 (cassette inlay notes) (title) Crosley Bendix reviews JamArt and Cultural Jamming.] 1991 Ottawa Citizen 26 Dec. A10/1 Their anti-television television advertisements surface with increasing regularity. Turn off the TV, is the message. Get a life. Adbusters co-publisher Kalle Lasn calls it ‘*culture jamming.’ 2006 Times 6 Dec. 74 Beginning with spoof advertisements, culture-jamming has grown to encompass defacing billboards to alter their message and campaigns such as TV Turnoff Week and Buy Nothing Day.
culture lag n. = cultural lag n. at CULTURAL adj. and n. Special uses.
1925 Jrnl. Social Forces 3 355/2 In spite of ‘*culture lag,’ the family institution is involved in change. 1980 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 14 Jan. B6 Modern music we may hear on FM radio... But the culture lag in modern poetry makes the Grand Canyon look like a crack in the sidewalk. 2000 Polit. Sci. & Politics 33 1/1 Waltz and the globalists are both right in focusing on the U.S. as the world's politico-economic giant, a condition stirring..external resentment globalists blame on envy and culture-lag.
culture medium n. Biol. a nutrient liquid or solid in or on which microorganisms, cells, etc., are cultured.
1883 Science 28 Sept. 433/2 What is the minimum quantity of each of these agents which will restrict the multiplication of each specific disease-germ in a suitable *culture medium? 1965 P. R. WHITE & A. R. GROVE Proc. Internat. Conf. Plant Tissue Culture 28 Sterile seedlings of tomato..were grown in 50 ml of the inorganic solution of the standard root culture medium. 2005 Nature 3 Nov. 33/2 When algal species were first cultured more than 100 years ago, they were grown on a defined plant culture medium that lacked vitamins.
culture plate n. Biol. a flat container, esp. a Petri dish, holding or designed to hold a culture of bacteria, fungi, etc. on or in a nutrient medium.
1886 Bot. Gaz. 11 278 A simple circle made of a strip of zinc an inch wide will serve as a support for the glass *culture plate. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 9 Oct. 12/1 The feet of the fly..are so formed as to make effective carriers of germs, and..he showed a photograph of a culture plate on which a captured fly had been allowed to walk. 1994 Sci. Amer. June 85/1 The culture plates contain Luria broth, or LB, which provides nutrients on which the bacteria thrive.
culture shock n. a state of distress or disorientation brought about by sudden immersion in or subjection to an unfamiliar culture.
1932 Econ. Jrnl. 42 301 *Culture-shock is invoked over and over again in this volume to account for religious indifferentism, poverty, crime and mental disease. 1940 J. B. HOLT in Amer. Sociol. Rev. Oct. 744 All these citations suggest the ‘culture shock’ arising from the precipitation of a rural person or group into an urban situation. 1960 Listener 18 Aug. 244/1 The people of the host country appear to lack the normal conventions of social behaviour or to have a different and apparently illogical system... Most Europeans in Africa withdraw into their own community, and quickly equate their own way of doing things with their own superior material culture... This reaction..has been called ‘culture shock’. 1970 A. TOFFLER Future Shock i. 12 Culture shock is the effect that, immersion in a strange culture has on the unprepared visitor... Culture shock is what happens when a traveler suddenly finds himself in a place where yes may mean no, where a ‘fixed price’ is negotiable, where to be kept waiting in an outer office is no cause for insult, where laughter may signify anger. 2004 J. L. KINCHELOE in S. R. Steinberg & J. L. Kincheloe 19 Urban Questions i. 12 Many new teachers experience culture shock during the first few weeks and months in their new positions.
culture vulture n. colloq. a person who is voracious for culture.
[1941 P. LARKIN Let. 23 July (1993) 19 I'm a vulture for culture in my own way.] 1945 Life 18 June 91/1 To Crosby..a group of college girls is a ‘covey of *culture-vultures’. a1953 D. THOMAS Quite Early One Morning (1954) 67 See the garrulous others, also, gabbing and garlanded from one nest of culture-vultures to another. 2003 New! 3 Nov. 69/1 If you're a culture vulture, head for the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum with their splendid collections of paintings.
culture war n. [in sense (a) after German Kulturkampf (see kulturkampf n. at KULTUR n. Compounds)] (a) a political struggle for control of cultural and educational institutions (rare); (b) a conflict between groups with different ideals, beliefs, philosophies, etc.; (now) spec. (in the United States) an ideological struggle for political and cultural dominance between conservatives and liberals.
1879 J. R. SEELEY Life & Times of Stein VIII. ii. 449 At the same time what is now called a *Culture War was commenced. As lately the Catholic Church, so in 1819 the Universities were the object of jealousy. 1917 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 12 744 The Polish-Prussian culture war in Posen has developed some remarkable leadership and innovations. 1987 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 14 Nov. 27 The traditionalist side of the culture war wants our authorities..either squeaky clean or impeccably discreet. 2005 Guardian 5 Nov. (Guide) 3/1 According to the owner of one of these absurd religious theme parks..this is all part of America's homo-bashing culture wars.
culture warrior n. orig. and chiefly U.S. a person actively involved in protecting or promoting a particular culture or set of values regarded as being under threat; (now) spec. (esp. in the United States) an activist advocating a conservative political agenda; cf. culture war n. (b).
1982 Amer. Indian Q. 6 309 We *culture-warriors ought to listen carefully... Maybe we shouldn't bother with the military side of things. 2007 Human Events 27 Aug. 10/2 [The book is] also an arsenal for culture warriors looking for ammunition to use against the politically correct version of American history that has captured our schools.

OED Definition of Class

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1. Rom. Hist. Each of the six divisions or orders of the Roman people in the constitution ascribed to Servius Tullius. 1656 BLOUNT Glossogr. s.v. Classical, He divided the Romans into six great Armies or Bands which he called Classes; The valuation of those in the first Classe was not under two hundred pounds. a1859 DE QUINCEY Lett. Yng. Man Wks. XIV. 57 note, Such a man was rated as to his income in the third class, such another in the fourth, and so on; but he who was in the highest was said emphatically to be of the class, ‘classicus’.
2. a. A division or order of society according to status; a rank or grade of society.
Now common in the phrases higher (upper), middle, lower classes, working classes; which appear to be of modern introduction. Higher and lower orders were formerly used. This appears to be only partly derived from sense 1, and largely from the general sense 6.
[1656 BLOUNT Glossogr., Classe..an order or distribution of people according to their several Degrees.] 1772 HANWAY (title), Observations on the Causes of the Dissoluteness which reigns among the lower classes of the people. 1806 Med. Jrnl. XV. 428 Its efficacy here, among the lower class, to whom above 4,000 copies have been distributed, is beyond our expectations. 1816 OWEN (title), Two Memorials on behalf of the Working Classes. 1826 J. WILSON Noct. Ambros. Wks. 1855 I. 11, I would..introduce the upper classes into the wark. 1830 Decl. Birmingh. Pol. Union in Life T. Attwood x. (1885) 133 That the rights and interests of the middle and lower classes of the people are not efficiently represented in the Commons House of Parliament. 1832 Blackw. Mag. Jan. 131/2 Calumniating the ‘middle classes’. 1832 A. FONBLANQUE Eng. under Sev. Administr. (1837) II. 268 The best of the higher orders..the worst of the lowest classes. 1856 EMERSON Eng. Traits, Cockayne Wks. (Bohn) II. 67 The habit of brag runs through all classes, from the Times newspaper..down to the boys of Eton. a1862 BUCKLE Civiliz. (1869) II. iii. 150 Our great Rebellion was in its external form a war of classes. 1876 GREEN Short Hist. iv. §4 (1882) 193 The tyranny of class over class.
b. The system of such divisions of society; rank (esp. high rank), caste. c. the classes: the classes of the community raised above or separated from ‘the masses’ or great body of the people.
1845 DISRAELI Sybil (1863) 199 Walled out from sympathy by prejudices and convictions more impassable than all the mere consequences of class. 1886 GLADSTONE in Pall Mall G. 3 May 11/2 Station, title, wealth, social influence..in a word, the spirit and power of class..The adverse host, then, consists of class, and the dependents of class..On these and many other great issues the classes have fought uniformly on the wrong side, and have uniformly been beaten. 1887 FOWLER Princ. Morals II. ii. 99 An intense feeling of class or caste.
3. a. A division of the scholars or students of an institution, receiving the same instruction or ranked together as of the same standing. Also, the assembling or attendance of such a body; the instruction, lessons, or course of lectures given thereat.
In English Grammar Schools the traditional and conventional division is into Six Forms numbered from the lowest upward. In large schools these are for practical purposes often subdivided into lower, middle, and upper or other divisions, which are really distinct classes. The number of Classes, on the contrary, when this term is used, is unlimited, and they are usually reckoned from the highest downward.
1656 BLOUNT Glossogr., Classe..In Schools (wherein this word is most used) a Form or Lecture restrained to a certain company of Scholars. 1691 WOOD Ath. Oxon I. 80 He went through the usual classes of Logick and Philosophy with unwearied industry. 1740 J. CLARKE Educ. Youth (ed. 3) 209 The Boys of the upper Classes may be admitted. 1827 LYTTON Pelham I. ii. 11, I was in the head class when I left Eton. 1875-6 Edinb. Univ. Cal. 68 Examinations on the work done in the Class. 1883 LLOYD Ebb & Flow II. 167 There's an evening class of little street Arabs. Mod. Is the School divided into Classes or Forms?
b. spec. In U.S. colleges, a division containing all students of the same standing, who enter the same year, pursue together the various steps of the academic course, and finally graduate together at the close of their fourth year: each class is named from the year of its graduation, e.g. ‘the class of 1825’, that of Longfellow and Hawthorne, at Bowdoin College. Hence class-system, now often opposed to the ‘university system’, in which this uniform fixed curriculum does not obtain. Also class day, etc.: see 10.
1671 S. SEWALL Letter-Bk. (1886) I. 19 Remember me kindly to all our Class. 1684 in Harvard College Rec. (1925) I. 77 Mr. Samuel Mitchell was..desired to undertake ye charge of ye class of ye Sophimores untill further order. 1766 T. CLAP Ann. Yale-Coll. 14 The Senior Class were removed to Milford... The rest of the Students were removed to Saybrook. 1828 in WEBSTER. 1862 [See CLASS-DAY in 10]. 1870 PORTER Amer. Colleges 191 We do not see how an American college without fixed Classes can have an efficient common life..Should the class be destroyed or set aside by the substitution of the régime of the university for the régime of the college, the energy and interest of the common life..must inevitably go with it. Ibid. The class system is essential to an efficient and energetic common college life. 1875 LONGFELLOW Morituri Salutamus (On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Bowdoin College class of 1825). 1882 Memoir of Longfellow in Poems (Chandos) 10 It was a remarkable class in which he found himself, for it contained..Nathaniel Hawthorne, George B. Cheever, and J. S. C. Abbott. 1887 CABOT Mem. Emerson 62 The class of 1821 [Emerson's] held for fifty years its annual reunion at Cambridge.
4. A division of candidates or competitors according to merit, as a result of examination. Also attrib.; and elliptically, a class certificate or degree, as in to take a class at Oxford = to take an honours degree in one of the Schools.
1807 E. TATHAM Addr. to Convoc. (Oxf.) 15 In regard to the Schedule of the Three Classes, and particularly in regard to the First Class, there may be different opinions. 1861 M. BURROWS Pass & Class (1866) 21 The Pass papers occupy one day, the Class papers from four to five. Ibid. 29 What particular class a man has obtained. 1863 Lond. Univ. Cal., First B.A., In the course of the following week, the Examiners shall publish a list of the Candidates..arranged in Three Classes, according to their respective degrees of proficiency. 1868 M. PATTISON Academ. Org. 230 This is the distinction between what is compulsory on all, and what is left to voluntary ambitionthe distinction between ‘Pass’ and ‘Class’. Ibid. 298 Dr. Pusey, living on the spot, can discriminate between the ‘Pass’ and the ‘Class’ curriculum. Mod. I shall read for a class in History. He will be lucky if he gets his class at all. All members of the corps must go down to the butts this week to shoot their class.
5. a. A division of things according to grade or quality, as high or low, first, second, etc.
Esp. used for the different grades of accommodation in travelling by railway or steamboat. The phrases high-class, low-class, first-class, second-class, and the like, are common in attrib. use, e.g. ‘high-class goods’,‘second-class passenger’. See HIGH, etc.
1694 R. BURTHOGGE Reason 234 A Conjurer of the Highest Class. 1852 MRS. CARLYLE Lett. II. 173, I came by the second-class, and so saved the nine shillings. 1879 SALA in Daily Tel. 26 Dec., Inability..to make up her mind as to what class she means to travel by.
b. slang or colloq. Distinction, high quality; no class: of no worth; of low quality, inferior. Also attrib. or quasi-adj.
1874 HOTTEN Slang Dict., Class, the highest quality or combination of highest qualities among athletes. ‘He's not class enough’, i.e., not good enough. ‘There's a deal of class about him’, i.e., a deal of quality. 1884 Referee 24 Mar. 1/3 The elasticity necessary for anything like class at sprinting departs comparatively early. 1897 Daily Tel. June (Ware), Soldiers! Why, soldiers ain't no class. 1924 H. DE SÉLINCOURT Cricket Match ii. 26 If he'd had coaching, he'd be a class bowler. 1927 [see ARROW v. 4]. 1927 R. REES Life's what you make It xii. 161, I'm not ‘much class’. Ibid. 162, I am ‘no class’. 1948 C. DAY LEWIS Otterbury Incident ii. 18 Real class your sister is. Too good for a schoolteacher. 1954 ‘N. BLAKE’ Whisper in Gloom I. iii. 40 It was a class neighbourhood, thought Foxy, surveying the elegant, freshly-painted houses. 1969 A. HUNTER Gently Coloured iv. 52 I'm no class, I know that. I'm where I belong, a working policeman.
6. a. gen. A number of individuals (persons or things) possessing common attributes, and grouped together under a general or ‘class’ name; a kind, sort, division. (Now the leading sense.)
1664 EVELYN Kal. Hort. (1729) 201 Anemonies and Flowers of that Class should be discreetly pruned. 1709 STEELE Tatler No. 77 2 This Class of modern Wits I shall reserve for a chapter by itself. 1742 POPE Dunc. IV. 89 Whate'er of mongrel no one class admits, A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits. 1789 BELSHAM Ess. II. xli. 532 Civil incapacities affecting whole classes of citizens. 1810 COLERIDGE Friend (1865) 30 The class of readers, to which he means to address his communications. 1835 URE Philos. Manuf. 372 Comparing the wages paid to operatives of the different classes, sexes, and ages. 1870 ROLLESTON Anim. Life 132 A third nerve of the sympathetic class.
b. in Logical classification.
1846 MILL Logic (1856) I. vii. §1 By every general name which we introduce, we create a class, if there be any things, real or imaginary, to compose it. 1855 BAIN Senses & Int. III. ii. §17 (1864) 480 A class differs from a catalogue by virtue of a common resemblance in the midst of diversity. 1869 FOWLER Deduct. Logic 64 We conceive that there is no limit to our power of making classes.
c. Natural History. One of the highest groups into which the Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral Kingdom is divided, a class being subdivided into orders, and these again to genera, and species.
Intermediate groups are now often established between these; thus above classes are sub-kingdoms.
1753 CHAMBERS Cycl. Supp. s.v. Botany, The knowledge of the classes, genera, species..of plants. 1794 MARTYN Rousseau's Bot. ix, Explanation of the Classes in the Linnæan System. 1847 CARPENTER Zool. §8 The principal groups, or classes, are subdivided into others, termed orders. 1872 OLIVER Elem. Bot. II. §4. 125 The characters of a Class are common not only to its Subclasses and Divisions, but to the..Orders, Genera, and Species included in that Class.
d. Geom. (See quot.)
1869 SALMON Conic Sections (ed. 5) §145 note, A curve is said to be of the nth class, when through any point n tangents can be drawn to the curve. A conic is therefore a curve of the second degree and of the second class: but in higher curves the degree and class of a curve are commonly not the same.
7. Eccl. a. = CLASSIS 3.
1785 WARTON Notes on Milton's Poems (T.), The city of London being distributed into twelve classes, each class chose two ministers and four lay-elders, to represent them in a provincial assembly.
b. In the Methodist societies: A subdivision of a congregation or society, meeting under a ‘class-leader’ for religious purposes.
1742 WESLEY Wks. (1872) I. 357 That the whole society should be divided into little companies or classesabout twelve in each class. 1791 HAMPSON Mem. Wesley III. 82 Each society is divided into companies of ten or fifteen, called classes; each of which regularly meets the leader once a week. 1885 Minutes Wesleyan Conf. 361 The Quarterly visitation of the Classes is our most important official work.
8. [L. classis, It. classe.] A fleet or navy. rare.
1596 DALRYMPLE tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. IV. (1887) 202 He furnissed a meruellous classe, quhilke to the sey he sett ladne with a multitude innumerable of men of armes. 1656 BLOUNT Glossogr., Classe (classis), a ship, or Navy.
9. attrib. or quasi-adj. (in sense 2), ‘pertaining to a class, or classes, of society’, often ‘pertaining to the upper classes’, as in class-education, -grievance, -interest, -journal, -legislation, -privilege. Now freq. pertaining to the differences or antagonisms within a class, or between the classes, of society, as in class antagonism, bar, barrier, bias, boundary, -cleavage, conflict, dialect, dictatorship, difference, distinction, division, enemy, -feeling, -hatred, -jealousy, -loyalty, morality, -prejudice, rule, solidarity, spirit, structure, struggle, -superiority, system, war, warfare; class-biased, -bound, -ridden [RIDDEN ppl. a. 4], -structured adjs.; class-conscious a. [cf. G. klassenbewusst], conscious of belonging to a particular social class and of being identified with its interests, often with implication of sharp differentiation from or hostility to other classes; so class-consciousness; class-marriage, marriage within a class; class society, a society based on division into social classes.
1850 H. MACFARLANE tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party in Red Republican 23 Nov. 183/2 The old Bourgeois Society, with its classes, and *class antagonisms. a1950 ‘G. ORWELL’ England your England (1953) 21 Class antagonisms are not all-important. 1939 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Apr. 335 Except for the *class bar, the amateur definition of the two [rowing] associations is..the same. 1889 G. B. SHAW Fabian Essays in Socialism 21 You set your life apart from theirs by every *class barrier you can devise. 1945 KOESTLER Yogi & Commissar III. iii. 224 A crumbling of class-barriers. 1863 Bee-Hive 19 Dec. 5/3 Evening schools, for the purpose of educating, free from all *class or sectarian bias, the children of the industrious classes. 1931 G. J. RENIER The English vi. 109 Impartiality..requires absence of class-bias. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 9 Sept. 2/3 A citizen Army, free from military law in times of peace, is the best alternative to the *class-biased policy of the present Government. 1950 D. RIESMAN in Psychiatry XIII. 302/2 Certain elements in Freud's view of life were narrow, class-biased, and reactionary. 1936 K. MANNHEIM Ideology & Utopia iii. 139 It [sc. humanism] broke through the fixedness of a *class-bound mentality in many respects. 1960 New Left Rev. Nov.-Dec. 28/1 The new ‘working-class consciousness’..is likely to be..less class-bound. 1959 F. DONALDSON Child of Twenties vi. 91 The *class-boundaries were still..well defined. 1959 V. PACKARD Status Seekers (1960) i. 5 Class boundaries are contrary to the American dream. 1937 J. M. MURRY Necessity of Pacifism vi. 98 Advanced Capitalism operates far more strongly towards national cohesion than towards *class-cleavage. 1898 G. B. SHAW in Sat. Rev. 29 Jan. 139/1 The alternative of achieving a real superiority or going ignominiously under in the *class conflict. 1919 J. L. GARVIN Econ. Foundations of Peace 106 Our whole future depends upon securing..better relations between Capital and Labour instead of Class-conflict. 1903 J. LONDON People of Abyss viii. 84, I was a superior, and they were superbly *class-conscious. 1906 Daily Chron. 18 Apr. 4/5 A class-conscious political party. 1907 Fabian News XIX. 94/1 The middle classes are more class-conscious than the workers. 1935 Economist 29 June 1476/2 Despite the real class distinctions that divide us, the mass of the people forgot to be class-conscious during Jubilee week. 1887 MOORE & AVELING tr. Marx's Capital I. p. xxiv, The German proletariat had attained a much more clear *class-consciousness than the German bourgeoisie. 1922 Westm. Gaz. 18 Dec., The belief that what was called class consciousness was necessary to social progress. 1959 F. DONALDSON Child of Twenties iii. 40 She did us a service by her class-consciousness..her belief that we belonged among the higher types of humanity. 1901 GREENOUGH & KITTREDGE Words & Ways v. 53 Any limited circle having common interests is sure to develop a kind of ‘*class dialect’. 1930 J. R. FIRTH Speech viii. 62 Standard English, on the other hand, is a class dialect; to adapt Lord Chesterfield, it is the ‘usage of the best companies’. 1930 L. L. LORWIN in Seligman & Johnson Encycl. Soc. Sci. III. 541/2 The establishment of *class dictatorships throughout the world. 1941 ‘G. ORWELL’ Lion & Unicorn III. 112 An English Socialist government..will not set up any explicit class dictatorship. 1879 S. A. BARNETT Let. 21 Dec. in H. Barnett Canon Barnett (1918) I. xix. 233 Our serving-man..has no sense of *class difference. 1960 20th Cent. Apr. 373 People do not necessarily weaken class differences..because they can climb from one social class to another. 1841 DICKENS Barn. Rudge xxvi. 83 If she were in a more elevated station of society, she would be gouty, Being but a hewer of wood and drawer of water, she is a rheumatic... These are natural *class distinctions. 1850 H. MACFARLANE tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party in Red Republican 23 Nov. 183/1 When Class distinctions will have finally disappeared..the public power will lose its political character. 1960 C. DAY LEWIS Buried Day iv. 80 His Christianity found nothing paradoxical in the rigid class-distinctions of the time. 1922 LD. HALDANE in Public Opinion 10 Feb. 128/2 A deep lying *class division, which tends to produce bitterness. 1961 New Left Rev. Jan.-Feb. 36/1 Traditional class divisions are gradually breaking down. 1868 M. PATTISON Academ. Org. 326 *Class-education would seem to be as rooted an idea in the English mind, as denominational religion. 1957 R. N. C. HUNT Guide to Communist Jargon iv. 8 To assert that democracyi.e. the ‘rule of the people’can be achieved under the domination of its ‘*class enemy’..would be absurd. 1839 MILL in Bain J. S. Mill (1882) ii. 53 The convictions of the mass of mankind run hand in hand with their interests or with their *class feelings. 1961 A. O. J. COCKSHUT Imagination of Dickens viii. 119 The contempt for Uriah is partly a class-feeling. 1852 DICKENS Bleak Ho. vii. 58 The turkey..always troubled with a *class-grievance (probably Christmas). 1851 T. G. MASSEY in Friend of People 26 Apr. 177/3, I shall be accused of sowing *class-hatred. 1908 Daily Chron. 29 June 4/4 From top to bottom of the social or economic scale of class-consciousness or class-hatreds. 1937 J. M. MURRY Necessity of Pacifism i. 10 Marx is vulgarly but generally reputed to be a propagator of the duty of class-hatred. 1828 J. S. MILL in Westm. Rev. IX. 255 Party interests, and *class interests..appear to influence the train of events. 1879 ESCOTT England I. 92 The inexpediency of allowing magistrates to adjudicate in special cases in which they have a class interest. 1920 D. H. LAWRENCE Lost Girl i. 8 Let *class-jealousy be what it may, a woman hates to see another woman left stalely on the shelf. 1888 Pall Mall G. 4 May 11/2 The *class journals..classify and concentrate all the news that affects a particular trade for the benefit of those engaged therein. 1856 EMERSON Eng. Traits, Race, Bitter *class-legislation. 1899 W. JAMES Talks to Teachers 289 *Class-loyalty was undoubtedly an ideal with many. 1938 ‘G. ORWELL’ Homage to Catalonia iii. 34 In a workers' army discipline..is based on class-loyalty. 1899 KEANE Man Past & Present 153 Here it is necessary to distinguish carefully between *class-marriages and the so-called ‘communal’ or ‘group’ marriages; the former having for their sole object, not, as is commonly supposed, the prevention of close consanguineous unions but the proper disposal of the stock of available food. 1833 J. S. MILL in Monthly Repos. VII. 577 That blighting curse of our country,the selfishness of *class morality. 1951 R. FIRTH Elem. Soc. Organization vi. 211 Class morality is apt not to be a direct reflection of current structural alignments. 1850 C. KINGSLEY Alton Locke I. xi. 172 All my *class prejudices against ‘game-preserving aristocrats’. 1925 JESPERSEN Mankind, Nation & Individual iv. 81 The difference in language begets a mutual disdain and class-prejudice. 1864 tr. Marx in Founding of First International (1939) 39 The struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a struggle for *class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of all class rule. 1956 J. WILSON Language & Pursuit of Truth ii. 57 Men make..protests against particular types of privilege..for instance, against class-privilege. 1856 R. VAUGHAN Mystics (1860) II. 256 It knows nothing of *class-religion. 1934 DYLAN THOMAS Let. 20 July (1966) 138 All society ceases to be *class-ridden when treated purely as a primary body of consumers. 1941 ‘G. ORWELL’ Lion & Unicorn I. i. 33 England is the most class-ridden country under the sun. 1864 *Class rule [see class privilege]. 1959 Universities & Left Rev. Spring 1/1 A socialist commitment, a conscious rejection of all that springs from class rule. 1930 L. L. LORWIN in Seligman & Johnson Encycl. Soc. Sci. III. 540/2 In any *class society the process of production is simultaneously a process of economic exploitation. 1949 W. S. ADAMS Edwardian Heritage xxii. 183 How easy for..a class society to hold that rule over subject races was in the order of things. 1907 Q. Jrnl. Econ. XXI. 307 *Class solidarity will arise on the basis of this class interest. 1840 J. S. MILL in Edin. Rev. Oct. 39 That absence of classes and *class-spirit. 1886 B. WEBB Let. in My Apprenticeship (1926) iii. 166 Class spirit hardly exists because there is no capitalist class. 1930 P. MOMBERT in Seligman & Johnson Encycl. Soc. Sci. III. 535/2 The present day *class structure of society has been attacked from two directions. 1958 P. SHORE in N. Mackenzie Conviction 51 In spite of war-socialism and the Attlee Government..the class structure seems as strong as it ever was. 1959 G. D. MITCHELL Sociology vii. 110 Marx perceived Europe as divided into *class-structured societies. 1850 H. MACFARLANE tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party in Red Republican 16 Nov. 171/2 As the settlement of the *class struggle draws near, the process of dissolution goes on..within the ruling-class. 1939 ‘G. ORWELL’ Crit. Essays (1951) 11 From the ‘revolutionary’ point of view the class-struggle is the main source of progress. 1959 E. BURGESS Divided we Fall xi. 128 All this union business ties up with..politics, the class struggle. 1859 J. S. MILL Liberty i. 16 Wherever there is an ascendant class, a large portion of the morality of the country emanates from its class interests, and its feelings of *class superiority. 1948 F. R. LEAVIS Great Tradition v. 246 His languid assurance of class-superiority. 1875 STUBBS Const. Hist. III. xix. 326 If their *class-sympathies were with the clergy. 1877 L. H. MORGAN Anc. Society III. iii. 425 The significance of the Australian *class system presents itself anew in this connection. 1958 P. JOHNSON in N. Mackenzie Conviction 213 The essence of a class system is that property, birth and upbringing, rather than virtue or ability, determine status, power and income. 1886 tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party iii. 28 In proportion as the *class-war [1850 tr. class-battle] is evolved and assumes a definite form, so does this imaginary elevation over it..lose all practical worth. 1892 G. B. SHAW Fabian Soc. (Fabian Tract 41) 5 The Social-Democratic Federation..said..that its policy is founded on a recognition of the existence of a Class War. 1919 J. BUCHAN Mr. Standfast I. iii. 60 Their blessed class war, which cuts across nationalities. 1961 L. MUMFORD City in History ix. 257 Hostile expropriation on one side, with seething revolt and counter-challenge on the other: in short, the class war, in which no quarter was expected or given. 1892 G. B. SHAW Fabian Soc. (Fabian Tract 41) 25 (heading) Scientific *class warfare. 1927 A. HUXLEY Proper Stud. 86 Those who would interpret all social phenomena in terms of class warfare.

[wilpuri]

I hold Ethnicity to be a fetish. An unimportant concept that is more harmful than helpful.

Ethnicity is hardly a fetish, it is a fact of human existance. One's approach towards ethnicity, however, can be a fetish-tic.

Culture on the other hand is the true defining characteristic of a group -- its behaviors and modes of interaction.

Culture is integral to ethnicity.

Culture is not racially bound.

Proof? I see it like this: climate and geography, environment, etc, shapes/has shaped human populations in the physical sense. It is through evolution and adapting to local environments that human taxonomic groups or races have come into existence in their present form. The same factors also influence culture. So the concepts are interwined and it is unnatural to treat them in complete separation from one another.

Social Class is the one factor of human interaction that seems to be supra-ethnic/racial and supra-cultural. As G. W. Bush said, "My people are the haves and have mores."

So Class seems to be a factor beyond both Ethnicity and Culture -- the heart of the matter as it were.

Class is certainly singifincant, more important in some societies, less in others. Every ethnic group is unique and has its own social systems. But this proves ethnicity is a fetish, how?

What role and importance do you assign to Ethnicity, Culture and Class and how do you differentiate between the three?

Well first we need to define the terms.

An ethnos, a people, a nation, a folk, is the result of a long process. The concept is quite varying in nation: each ethnos is different, and thus it can be difficult to determine any 'requirements', but I personally see it as a natural product of human interaction. Language, shared ancestry, shared identity and shared culture consitute a nation, in my opinion. Culture is also rather tricky and multilayered as a concept, and culture is not necessarily tied to ethncity, but ethnicity is always tied to culture.

The concept of "Ethnic" is a binding of race and culture as an inseparable entity, which is why I think it is useless.

Finland's ethnogenesis started shortly after the retreat of the ice sheets. People migrated there and formed human communities, with their own customs, and traditions, language and values: in short, culture. Over the period of millenia, this process ground on, and it is still going. Finnish culture is the result of the Finnish ethnogenesis, a result of the environment, geography and culture of Finland so that it is very natural to Finland, and Finland alone. This is why ethnicity is tied to culture.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

I will give a more thorough answer latter. But in the interim.

If what you say is true . . .

When are you leaving Australia and going home?

___________

[wilpuri]

I will give a more thorough answer latter. But in the interim.

If what you say is true . . .

When are you leaving Australia and going home?

___________

Leaving Australia?

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

Leaving Australia?

Or Canada or where-ever -- you can't preach Blut und Boden, when you're living on someone else's ground (which we all are anyway -- but I'll get to that later.)

[wilpuri]

Or Canada or where-ever -- you can't preach Blut und Boden, when you're living on someone else's ground (which we all are anyway -- but I'll get to that later.)

??? Dude, I live in Finland.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

??? Dude, I live in Finland.

Did you see that new Chinese-Finnish Film adaptation of the Kalevala?

If you live in Finland then you live in a culture, in which "ethnicity" is already Multi-racial and there for proving that ethnicity is self is a useless concept.

I want to go to Finland.

[Turnus]

When are you leaving Australia and going home?

How is this relevant at all?

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

How is this relevant at all?

Because he's saying that race, ethnicity and culture are somehow tied to the land. I mean good lord people -- this thread isn't even on page long yet.

No, because its . Finnish movies in general are . Olden Goldies aside.


Speak sense, foreigner.

I have and 'tis nothing new to this foreigner to have to teach the natives their own history.

In any case:

natural product of human interaction. Language, shared ancestry, shared identity and shared culture consitute a nation, in my opinion.

this is the point -- none of those things are racial. Babies learn them and a non-Finnish baby could learn all of that just as well as a Finnish one -- so your definition of ethnos departs from the traditional one, in that it doesn't have a clearly racial component --

your definition of ethnic identity is identical to most definitions of culture

but still you fetishize "ethnicity"

That's why Ethnicity is a fetish.

____________

[wilpuri]

Because he's saying that race, ethnicity and culture are somehow tied to the land. I mean good lord people -- this thread isn't even on page long yet.

Uhm, I don't think I've said this is axiomatically so, but this how it has been, and how I would like to continue to be. It is an ideal, for me.

I have and 'tis nothing new to this foreigner to have to teach the natives their own history.

Shoot. I'm really interested to hear this one.

this is the point -- none of those things are racial. Babies learn them and a non-Finnish baby could learn all of that just as well as a Finnish one -- so your definition of ethnos departs from the traditional one, in that it doesn't have a clearly racial component --

I have maintained that the genepool is relevant. My definition of ethnicity is a very traditional one.

your definition of ethnic identity is identical to most definitions of culture

but still you fetishize "ethnicity"

That's why Ethnicity is a fetish.

____________

You don't fetishize ethnicity, ergo ethnicity is not a fetish.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

Uhm, I don't think I've said this is axiomatically so, but this how it has been, and how I would like to continue to be. It is an ideal, for me.


Shoot. I'm really interested to hear this one.

There two finish races in Finland. Start there.

I have maintained that the genepool is relevant. My definition of ethnicity is a very traditional one.

But your actual definition of ethnos -- had nothing about genes in it == thus proving my point.

There two finish races in Finland. Start there.

You don't fetishize ethnicity, ergo ethnicity is not a fetish.

Yes I do. I make it wear leather and I spank it. Seriously, what I mean by fetish here is that your definition of ethnos contains nothing necessarily racial and yet you hang onto race in this state of irrelevance.

_________________________________________


better question == in what way does race play a role in ethnicity?

[Manco]

I have maintained that the genepool is relevant. My definition of ethnicity is a very traditional one.

Why and how is it relevant? And don't come with emotional or irrational arguments. Also don't say that the different human 'races' haven been fully adapted to their environment because those adaptations are superficial and can easily be overcome.

[Turnus]

Because he's saying that race, ethnicity and culture are somehow tied to the land.

You obviously misintepreted him somewhat, but in any case, how does the connection between ethnicity, culture etc. and land not hold in regard to Australia? Let me tell you something: the current culture of Australia has been there for longer than anyone can remember.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

You obviously misintepreted him somewhat, but in any case, how does the connection between ethnicity, culture etc. and land not hold in regard to Australia? Let me tell you something: the current culture of Australia has been there for longer than anyone can remember.

Explain please --

Uhm, What?





This thread is starting to spiral out of control.

No I saw your idea that people are like grapes (environment/race/ethnos) -- but then when you went to describe the wine (ethnos/culture)-- you didn't describe anything that any grape in the world couldn't make.

___________

[Ummon]

Why can't be all exactly the same, in other words?

Because, that is, we aren't.

[Manco]

The concept of Ethnicity, if you remove all notions of culture surrounding it, is meaningless. It has no basis in science nor in reality, only population clines exist and these differ vastly from ethnicities.
For example I'm supposed to be an ethnic Fleming, but were I adopted by any European family save for a Flemish one, no one would ever know nor see I'm in fact ethnically Flemish.
Of course people these days take larger ethnic groups, such as North-African, European, African, South-EAst-Asian,... because they are easily identifiable by some exterior characteristics. They forget that genetically all these people are, for all practical matters, the same. These groups are in fact not even seperated, If one were to draw a line from Germany to China, and at every km take a person representative of that region and put him on that line you would hardly see the difference between every next person. Which shows that these groups can hardly be defined because if the continuous nature of appearances. It's only when you compare the first one with the 2000th one that you see a difference.
What then with a black boy raised by a white family in a predominantly white society? People will still see him as different and claim he's not part of that culture. Well, then I say if he's raised as someone of that culture by people of that culture, then he is part of that culture. His skin color is genetically just as relevant as haircolor. If people are too dumb to seperate culture from irrelevant genetic traits, that should be their problem, but that shouldn't influence debate nor politics.

[razor-]

If you live in Finland then you live in a culture, in which "ethnicity" is already Multi-racial and there for proving that ethnicity is self is a useless concept.

Finland is one of the most racially homogenous countries in the world, 99% are white, and mostly part of the finnic race.

[Каие]

Wait till Scarface gets here.

[Strattios]

Ethnicity- This is the connection to to a persons ancestral geography. Not only the environment effecting one's physical appearance (i.e. lots of sunlight increases melanin and vice versa which is a skin pigment). There is also the rarely mentioned geographical isolation. This is why people of a certain region (historically) tend to have similar physical features (eye shape, height, etc.). These feature aren't always connected to the environment, but rather to the society in which a person lives. These to variables are responsible for ethnicity as ethnicity is merely a way to categorize one's physical appearance in relation to their ancestral homeland. These traits are now primarily relegated to a persons physical traits be it merely appearance or actual traits associated with an adapted ability that has developed over long periods of time.

Culture- Originally connected to an ancestral homeland. With the ever increasing ability to spread ideas the idea of regional culture is being stretched. now it is most often used in correlation to a persons personal ideology, habit, likes/dislikes, and various other personality related traits. Some times these traits can be traced ancestrally, sometimes not (meaning of your personal ancestral culture). Often these personal ideas mix with those of other cultures (i.e. music, sports, food, etc. that originated in a culture that one has no ancestral connection to). The idea of culture is often connected to the original region (i.e. being able to buy Chinese food in America). The traditional homelands of a particular culture were established by that regions people who generally were of a specific race. However, in the modern era the idea of culture is usually associated in terms of geographical origin and not correlating to an ethnicity unless it is a trait that remains popular amongst the ethnicity that developed it (generally things that are referred to as "regional" meaning that it is popular with people of that region and they will still have a particular fondness for it despite moving). In short, culture is connected more to a region than any particular ethnicity, though an ethnicity may develop a connection with that particular item, belief, custom, etc. (Such as Americans generally like Football while Europeans tend to prefer Futbol).

Class- A rather general term for a persons social standing. This varies from region to region though is often correlated with the culture. Sometimes there are ethnic connections to this that people will keep despite leaving the original region that practiced that method of dividing social status (i.e. parents not wanting their children to marry a person with a job deemed "beneath" their class). The method of separation is different based on region. Some areas may have classes determined by birth in which it is extremely difficult to change one's personal position. Other regions base class on a persons profession (i.e. Blue Collar, White Collar, etc. in America). Then there is the class that is a stereotype of behavioral of physical traits or actions. This is usually used in describing a person or people (i.e. poor manners referred to as "low class", wearing designer clothing referred to as dressing wealthy). The latter usage of class is often either personality or appearance traits associated in the stereotype of a class. and not actual standing in the social hierarchy.

In the end, every humans is a blend of these three variations. However, that is far from saying that their are no variations, mixes, or irregularities.

[razor-]

You have the Finns (Germanic and Slavs but above all Europeans) and the Sami

Finns are neither germanic nor slavic, they are a totally distinct race which closest relatives are the estonians.

Secondly the Sami have a, from what i know, very different culture from the finns and do not consider themselves part of finnish ethnicity.