Ethnicity is a sense of historical, cultural, and sometimes ancestral connection to a group of people who are imagined to be distinct from those outside the group. Ethnic boundary markers are practices or beliefs, such as food, clothing, language, shared name, or religion, used to signify who is in a group and who is not. Examples of these markers include the plain clothing and lifestyles of the Amish and the curly sideburns of male, Orthodox Jews. Nationalism is built off of ethnicity. It is when there is a desire of an ethnic community to create and/or maintain a nation-state, a political entity, located within a geographic territory with enforced borders, where the population shares a sense of culture, ancestry, and destiny as a people. (Guest, 242, 254-255)

6. One of the most studied cultural practices is the ‘Potlach’ ceremony conducted by the Kwaikiutl of the Pacific Northwest. What is this ceremony? and why is it important to Anthropologists and to the study of class and social stratification? (6 pts) …show more content…
In this ceremony, the chief would establish and reestablish claims to prestige and status by holding an elaborate feast and gift all of his personal possessions in which the more elaborate the gift giving, the more status and rank the chief gains within the community. The ceremony serves to distribute key community resources of food and clothing broadly among the group members. Because of this practice, social status within the Kwakiutl and other ranked societies is based not on wealth or power, but by the prestige and eared via one’s capacity for generosity. This is important to anthropologists and the study of class and social stratification because with the extreme social stratification and gap between classes, practices of redistribution and potlatch have become more and more rare within societies in recent history. (Guest,