“族群”:一个被误解和误用的概念

“Ethnic Group”: A Concept Being Misinterpreted and Misused

西方族群概念介绍到国内之后,引起学界广泛关注。讨论主要集中于"族群"定义及其与"民族"的关系,以及是否用"族群"取代"少数民族"。作者以美国族群社会为例,通过阐述其族群社会的形成过程,考察其族群研究的时代背景、研究趋向和理论局限,比较中美民族特点,从而说明族群就是以相同种族为基础形成的,带有某种文化特点的人群。西方多种族民族国家的"族群"不适用于同种族民族国家的中国社会。

Since it was introduced to China,the Western concept o“ethnic group^has attracted wide at-tention fro the academic circles.The discussions focus on the definition of ethnic groups and its relation-ship with minorities,as well as whether ethnic groups can substitute for minority groups.Taking Ameri-can society as an example,the author illustrates the forming of ethnic societies,investigates the background,trends and theoretical shortcomings of some Western ethnic studies,and compares the American national traits to the Chinese ones.By doing so,the author argues that ethnic groups are human groups based on diverse races with certain cultural traits,and explains why ethnic groups in Western multi-racial society does not apply to the Chinese common-racial society.