Looks like eBay is badly in need of somebody who knows the difference between race and ethnicity, nationality and geogrpahic location, etc. etc. When listing some jewelry, I just posted one that is a so-called Siam Niello style old vintage butterfly brooch. When looking at the pre-filled information, eBay automatically offered suggestions for item specifics, most of which were helpful, but not the one they added as Ethnicity: Asian. For starters: Ethnicity has a lot more to do with culture than with race, or geographic location.
To provide an example: a person who was born in the Land of Enchantment (NM), could be of White, Black, Asian Pacific Islander, Green race (if a space Alien, think Rosewell) and anything in-between, as in mixed racial background. That is just a race as in physical attributes. However, when it comes to ETHNICITY and select one racial group, for example, White Causasian, we are talking abut German, British, Irish, or select Native Americans, Zuni Indian, Navajo, Pueblo Indian, or pick any Native American tribe or another approximately 2,000 different ethnicities around the world. All of those people who settled in this state at one time or their ancestors brought with them their specific ethnic heritage (think: cooking, baking, religious rituals, jewelry making style, linguistic specifics, etc.) My above example is even inaccurate, because German is not necessarily a homogenous ethnicity, as there are people among Germans (born in the same city, if you wish) who could be of Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Croatian, Serbian or why not, even British background. Within each of those countries, at any given time, there could be hundreds of different ethnicities, and just because somebody happens to be from Asia (which is a continent) this does not mean they all share the same cultural (ethnic) background. Same for our U.S.A. - the number of different ethnicities here within our country possibly surpasses 1,500 or more. And while they are all referred to as Americans, or New Mexicans, their ETHNIC background could not be more different!
With an other example: Togo, Zambia, Ethiopia, Morocco and Zimbabwe are all on the African continent - but this does not mean they share an ETHNIC (= cultural) background, nor does it mean they are ethnically homogenous countries, as there are various cultural groups in each and every African country (and depending on colonialism, those cultures could have been strongly influence by either French, Postugese, B ritish, German or Dutch culture, think South Africa. So, technically, there is no such thing as "South African" ethnicity. But there are a gazillion of ethnic groups - within S. Africa.
So, what would be the correct reference to the Ethnicty among item specifics, you may wonder? Well, it would be Siamese (a name earlier used for some parts of Thailand). It is a totally different ETHNIC heritage than say, Vietnamese or Taiwanese. Though all of these countries are - in Asia. Alas, you cannot select Siam as a country of origin on eBay - it has to be Thailand which encompasses, yes, you are right: many different ethnic groups. This particular style of jewelry, however, was only made by Siamese jewelry makers.
Rant over - off to watching a movie. Happy whatever to whomever!
PW
penguins_dont_fly is a Volunteer Community Mentor
