boundary maintenance

is the mechanism through which ethnic groups defines themselves in relation to others by setting up and maintaining boundaries.

Barth advocates a relational and processual approach to ethnicity. The ethnic group is defined through its relationship to others, highlighted through the boundary, and the boundary itself is a social product which may have variable importance and which may change through time. The group's culture as well as forms of social organization may change without removing the ethnic boundary. In some cases, groups may actually become culturally more similar at the same time that boundaries are strengthened' 'Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives By Thomas Hylland Eriksen' p.38)

boundary maintenance, n.Definitions

boundary maintenance