Race | Definition, Ideologies, Constructions, & Facts

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border-right-sm border-left-sm open"> <div class="drawer d-flex flex-column open"> <div class="left-rail-section-content"> <div class="topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center"> <div class="tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left"> <em class="material-icons text-gray-400 d-lg-none" data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/race-human">race</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/topic/race-human">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref234655"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human#ref234655">The many meanings of “race”</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref234656"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Race-as-a-mechanism-of-social-division">“Race” as a mechanism of social division</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234657"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Race-as-a-mechanism-of-social-division#ref234657">North America</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234658"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Race-as-a-mechanism-of-social-division#ref234658">South Africa</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref234663"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Race-as-a-mechanism-of-social-division#ref234663">The difference between racism and ethnocentrism</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref234664"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/The-history-of-the-idea-of-race">The history of the idea of race</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234665"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/The-history-of-the-idea-of-race#ref234665">The problem of labour in the New World</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234666"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/The-history-of-the-idea-of-race#ref234666">The enslavement and racialization of Africans</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234667"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/The-history-of-the-idea-of-race#ref234667">Human rights versus property rights</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234668"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Building-the-myth-of-Black-inferiority">Building the myth of Black inferiority</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234669"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Building-the-myth-of-Black-inferiority#ref234669">Immigration and the racial worldview</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234670"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Building-the-myth-of-Black-inferiority#ref234670">Legitimating the racial worldview</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref279652"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Building-the-myth-of-Black-inferiority#ref279652">Enlightenment philosophers and systematists</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref279653"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Scientific-classifications-of-race">Scientific classifications of race</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref279654"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Scientific-classifications-of-race#ref279654">The institutionalizing of race</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref279655"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Scientific-classifications-of-race#ref279655">Transforming “race” into “species”</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref279656"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Scientific-classifications-of-race#ref279656">The false assumptions of anthropometry</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234676"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/The-decline-of-race-in-science">The decline of “race” in science</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref279657"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/The-decline-of-race-in-science#ref279657">The influence of Franz Boas</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref279658"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/The-decline-of-race-in-science#ref279658">Mendelian heredity and the development of blood group systems</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref279659"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/The-decline-of-race-in-science#ref279659">“Race” and intelligence</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref234680"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Hereditarian-ideology-and-European-constructions-of-race">Hereditarian ideology and European constructions of race</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234681"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Hereditarian-ideology-and-European-constructions-of-race#ref234681">Hereditary statuses versus the rise of individualism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234682"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Hereditarian-ideology-and-European-constructions-of-race#ref234682">The Germanic myth and English constructions of an Anglo-Saxon past</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234683"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Gobineaus-Essay-on-the-Inequality-of-Human-Races">Gobineau’s <em>Essay on the Inequality of Human Races</em></a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234684"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Gobineaus-Essay-on-the-Inequality-of-Human-Races#ref234684">Galton and Spencer: The rise of social Darwinism</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref234685"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Gobineaus-Essay-on-the-Inequality-of-Human-Races#ref234685">“Race” ideologies in Asia, Australia, Africa, and Latin America</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234686"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Gobineaus-Essay-on-the-Inequality-of-Human-Races#ref234686">European conquest and the classification of the conquered</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234687"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Indias-caste-system">India’s caste system</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234688"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Indias-caste-system#ref234688">Japan’s minority peoples</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234662"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Indias-caste-system#ref234662">Race in Asia</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref234659"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Latin-America">Latin America</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref234660"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Latin-America#ref234660">The colonial period</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref234661"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Latin-America#ref234661">Postcolonial society</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref234689"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Race-and-the-reality-of-human-physical-variation">“Race” and the reality of human physical variation</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref234690"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/Modern-scientific-explanations-of-human-biological-variation">Modern scientific explanations of human biological variation</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref234691"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/race-human/The-scientific-debate-over-race">The scientific debate over “race”</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/race-human/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link 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Takezawa</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black">Associate Professor, Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, Japan. Author of <i>Breaking the Silence: Redress and Japanese American Ethnicity.</i></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Yasuko I. Takezawa</span>, <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor" href="/contributor/Audrey-Smedley/4474" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">Audrey Smedley</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black">Professor of Anthropology, Virginia Commonwealth University. Author of <i>Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview</i>.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Audrey Smedley</span><span class="text-gray-700 mx-5">•</span><a class="see-all border-gray-700 gtm-byline" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/race-human/additional-info#contributors">All</a> </div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-10-30T00:00:00CDT" >Oct 30, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/race-human/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/Franz-Boas" topicid="70705">Franz Boas</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Edward-Burnett-Tylor" topicid="611503">Sir Edward Burnett Tylor</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Kwame-Anthony-Appiah" topicid="973115">Kwame Anthony Appiah</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Roland-B-Dixon" topicid="166840">Roland B. Dixon</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Ashley-Montagu" topicid="390433">Ashley Montagu</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/racism" topicid="488187">racism</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/mulatto-people" topicid="396720">mulatto</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/brown-babies" topicid="1970916">brown babies</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/pardo" topicid="443406">pardo</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/mestizo" topicid="377246">mestizo</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/race-human"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref807648"></span>race</strong>, the idea that the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-being" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">human</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/species-taxon" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">species</a> is divided into distinct groups on the basis of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="inherited" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/inherited" data-type="EB">inherited</a> physical and behavioral differences. Genetic studies in the late 20th century refuted the existence of biogenetically distinct races, and scholars now argue that “races” are cultural interventions reflecting specific attitudes and beliefs that were imposed on different populations in the wake of western <span id="ref810811"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Europe" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">European</a> conquests beginning in the 15th century.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref234655"> <h2 class="h1">The many meanings of “race”</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The modern meaning of the term <em>race</em> with reference to humans began to emerge in the 17th century. Since then it has had a variety of meanings in the languages of the Western world. What most definitions have in common is an attempt to categorize peoples primarily by their physical differences. In the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">United States</a>, for example, the term <em>race</em> generally refers to a group of people who have in common some visible physical traits, such as skin colour, hair texture, facial features, and eye formation. Such distinctive features are associated with large, geographically separated populations, and these continental <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="aggregates" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aggregates" data-type="MW">aggregates</a> are also designated as races, as the “African race,” the “European race,” and the “Asian race.” Many people think of race as reflective of any visible physical (phenotypic) variations among human groups, regardless of the cultural <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="context" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context" data-type="MW">context</a> and even in the absence of fixed racial categories.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The term <em>race</em> has also been applied to <span id="ref810514"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/linguistics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">linguistic groups</a> (the “Arab race” or the “Latin race”), to <span id="ref810516"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">religious groups</a> (the “Jewish race”), and even to political, national, or <span id="ref810517"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethnic-group" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ethnic groups</a> with few or no physical traits that distinguish them from their neighbours (the “Irish race,” the “French race,” the “Spanish race,” the “Slavic race,” the “Chinese race”, etc.).</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">For much of the 20th century, scientists in the Western world attempted to identify, describe, and classify human races and to document their differences and the relationships between them. Some scientists used the term <em>race</em> for <span id="ref810519"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/subspecies" class="md-crosslink ">subspecies</a>, subdivisions of the human species which were presumed sufficiently different biologically that they might later evolve into separate species.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">At no point, from the first <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="rudimentary" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rudimentary" data-type="MW">rudimentary</a> attempts at classifying human populations in the 17th and 18th centuries to the present day, have scientists agreed on the number of races of humankind, the features to be used in the identification of races, or the meaning of <em>race</em> itself. Experts have suggested a range of different races varying from 3 to more than 60, based on what they have considered distinctive differences in physical characteristics alone (these include hair type, head shape, skin colour, height, and so on). The lack of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="concurrence" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/concurrence" data-type="MW">concurrence</a> on the meaning and identification of races continued into the 21st century, and contemporary scientists are no closer to agreement than their forebears. Thus, <em>race</em> has never in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/history" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">history</a> of its use had a precise meaning.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Although most people continue to think of races as physically distinct populations, scientific advances in the 20th century demonstrated that human physical variations do not fit a “racial” model. Instead, human physical variations tend to overlap. There are no genes that can identify distinct groups that accord with the conventional race categories. In fact, <span id="ref810521"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/DNA" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">DNA</a> analyses have proved that all humans have much more in common, genetically, than they have differences. The genetic difference between any two humans is less than 1 percent. Moreover, geographically widely separated populations vary from one another in only about 6 to 8 percent of their genes. Because of the overlapping of traits that bear no relationship to one another (such as skin colour and hair texture) and the inability of scientists to cluster peoples into discrete racial packages, modern researchers have concluded that the concept of race has no biological validity.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Many scholars in other <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="disciplines" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disciplines" data-type="MW">disciplines</a> now accept this relatively new scientific understanding of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/biodiversity" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">biological diversity</a> in the human species. Moreover, they have long understood that the concept of race as relating solely to phenotypic traits <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="encompasses" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/encompasses" data-type="MW">encompasses</a> neither the <span id="ref810522"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/society" class="md-crosslink ">social reality</a> of race nor the phenomenon of “<span id="ref810545"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/racism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">racism</a>.” Prompted by advances in other fields, particularly <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/anthropology" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">anthropology</a> and history, scholars began to examine race as a social and cultural, rather than biological, phenomenon and have determined that race is a social invention of relatively recent origin. It derives its most <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="salient" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salient" data-type="MW">salient</a> characteristics from the social consequences of its classificatory use. The idea of “race” began to evolve in the late 17th century, after the beginning of <span id="ref810525"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/European-exploration" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">European exploration</a> and <span id="ref810809"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-colonialism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">colonization</a>, as a folk <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/ideology-society" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">ideology</a> about human differences associated with the different populations—Europeans, Amerindians, and Africans—brought together in the New World. In the 19th century, after the abolition of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/slavery-sociology" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">slavery</a>, the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ideology" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ideology" data-type="MW">ideology</a> fully emerged as a new mechanism of social division and stratification.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> </section> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":13,"pageId":488030,"pageLength":801,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"A","adLeg":"A","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Race | Definition, Ideologies, Constructions, & Facts | Britannica