Structural Basis of Ethnic Identity and its Evolutionary Dynamics: Evidence from Taiwan and China

Melissa Brown - Stanford University

Abstract: Despite ideological rhetoric that ethnic identity derives from culture and ancestry, ethnographic and historical evidence from Taiwan and China suggests a structural basis to ethnic identity. Community-wide shifts in ethnic identity there have strongly correlated with intermarriage, migration and -- proximately most important -- regime change. Moreover, the correlations span almost 400 years, distinct political systems, and vast cultural differences in the ruling elite. At population levels, such changes may appear transformational, the result of periodic external shocks that shift the system from one thing to another. But how does that shift occur at the level of individuals? More detailed ethnographic evidence indicates how broader changes in ethnic identity resulted from variation in actions which individuals socially negotiated, a dynamic which I argue is evolutionary.