Religion and etnicity. Often both are confused with each other, however can the distinction be as clear as the difference in skin colour? We can also often stereotype people on how religious we presume they will be, so are there really any distinct patterns between ethnicity and religious beliefs and how important they are to people in a modern society?
Thank you to Matthew and Sandeep for writing this post. Following feedback on your research and information on the display board you now need to comment on the relationship between ethnicity and religious practice and belief.
6 comments:
we presume a white or a african caribbean person is a christian. a non white is either, muslim, hindu or sikh.
Statistically speakin Muslims (74%), Hindus (43%) and Black Christians(81%) are more likely than White Angelicans (11%)and White Catholics (32%) to see religion as being very important in their lives. They are also more likely to attend weekly worships.
Modood et al- decline in importance of religion for all ethnic groups, especially among 2nd generation
Bird- religion among ethnic minorites can be a basis for community solidarity, (functionlist- a means of preserving cutltue, language and a way of coping with the oppression in a racist socitey. (Marx- opium of the masses and Weber-Calvinism) When ethnic minorities came to the UK, they were more open to racism so they held onto their culture and religion. Likelwise many Black Afro-caribbean Christains were not actively welcome in white churches, so they started goong to chruches led by the Black community. So to our grandparents ethnicity is likely to be more important than religion, but they are also more likely to be more religious than us.
in todays society, the young generation is less likely to identify themselves with countries of orgin so a geater importance is given to their relious identity.
using durkheims functional perspective, ethnic minorities may use religion to allow them to keep there social identities after they have left there ethnic origins, social solidarity through religion also helps to protect against racism
james
religion can be used as a source of comfort for immigrant population in an otherwise racsit society.
This may be a reason as to why ethnicities appear to be more religious, however it is important that we do not presume on the bases of skin colour as to how religous a person may be. Many 2nd and 3rd generation have lost interest in relion and have become more used to a western society.
By Mathhew Parryu 13Sd
It may be that within immigrant communities, being religious is more of a valued social characteristic than in white/assimilated communities. This means people from within these communities may genuinely be more religious than the white population, but it may also be that they simply see it as more desirable to be strongly religious when they actually
It is reasonable to predict that over the next few generations, immigrants from the former commonwealth countries will become less religious. This was seen with earlier immigrants from before and during the wars e.g. Polish and Italian communities gradually became less religious. However, this prediction ignores the reality of racism and involuntary social exclusion.
There are many stereotypes held by people in society, such as presuming people with brown coloured skin will belong to religions such as Islam and Sikhism, and that people white coloured skin will belong to religions such as Christianity.
However, a lot of research clearly shows that this isn't always the case. For example, a large majority of Christian people can actually descend from black African or Caribbean origin.
In terms of religious worship and belief, there are clear trends which show that Muslims, Hindus and black Christians are much more likely than white Christians to see religion as important.
The sociologist Modood et al also found that despite this pattern, there has actually been some decline over time in the importance of religion for all ethnic groups, espcially among the second generations and third generations. These generations, our parents and us, are less likely to be interested in religion in comparison to our elders.
With how diverse the world is now there are so many different colours and so many religions that it is too difficult to presume that a certain colour of skin means a certain religion, and how dedicated they are to religion i.e. the third generation usually are less religious due to different socialisation.
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