Ethnic nepotism

In sociology, the term ethnic nepotism describes a human tendency for in-group bias or in-group favouritism applied by nepotism for people with the same ethnicity within a multi-ethnic society.
The term was coined in the 1960s in the context of the ethnic (tribal) tensions and rivalry in the then-recently independent states in Sub-Saharan Africa such as Nigeria.
Sociobiological theory
The theory views ethnocentrism and racism as nepotism toward extended kin and an extension of kin selection. In other words, ethnic nepotism points toward a biological basis for the phenomenon of people preferring others of the same ethnicity or race; it explains the tendency of humans to favor members of their own racial group by postulating that all animals evolve toward being more altruistic toward kin in order to propagate more copies of their common genes.
"The myth of common descent", proposed by many social scientists as a prominent ethnic marker, is in his view often not a myth at all. "Ethnicity is defined by common descent and maintained by endogamy".
To guard one's genetic interests, Frank Salter notes altruism toward one's co-ethnics:
Regarding how this translates into politics and why homogeneous societies are more altruistic, Frank Salter writes:
J. Philippe Rushton has complemented kin selection and ethnic nepotism by his genetic similarity theory which proposes that "genetically similar people tend to seek one another out and to provide mutually supportive environments such as marriage, friendship, and social groups. This may represent a biological factor underlying ethnocentrism and group selection".

In Rushton's interpretation it is not clear whether the proposed genetic likeness that supports ethnic nepotism is limited to external appearance, or it also includes other loci. If that is the case, it would be difficult to deduct how similar blood types or creatine levels, or others, among the multitude of invisible phenotype traits, contribute to determine the bonding behavior towards people carrying the alleged similar alleles. Also, there is no clue offered as to which of these specific alleles are the most important for expression of ethnic nepotism. Hamiltonian kin selection (in itself very controversial) refers exclusively to defined sets of discrete behaviors that are innate, not learned and increase the reproductive fitness among very close kin, whereas ethnic nepotism would appear to depend heavily on social interactions and on morphology, or physical characteristics.
According to research by Van der Dennen, "ethnocentrism-cum-xenophobia" seems universally present in preindustrial societies (and in many primate and social carnivore species).<ref name=Dennen2000/>
Tatu Vanhanen in his 1999 book Ethnic Conflicts Explained by Ethnic Nepotism empirically examined the relationships between the degree of ethnic homogeneity, the degree of ethnic conflicts, and the degree of democratization in the nations of the world. He found that more ethnically heterogeneous nations had more ethnic conflicts. The degree of democratization explained very little of the degree of ethnic conflicts except that very authoritarian states such as the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia could suppress ethnic conflicts. Ethnic conflicts were only slightly less common in more economically developed countries. They appeared within all racial groups, cultures, and geographical regions. In Vanhanen's view, people have a genetic tendency to easily learn ethnic attitudes and psychological mechanisms leading to prejudice, scapegoating, and discrimination.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu