Etnisiteit en Kleurlingskap

ABSTRACT

In South Africa there often exists a notion that the population categories defined by the Population Registration Act, no. 30 of 1950 represent ethnic groups. The basic argument presented in this paper is that neither the so‐called “objective” nor the “subjective” definitions of ethnicity justify such a conclusion. To grasp the full complexity of the nature of the South African population structure it has to be accepted that individual ethnic identification as well as collective ethnic group formation are variable phenomena. When applying the typology presented by McKay and Lewins (1978) to the “Coloured” population group, in the South African context, the interrelationship between individual identification with, and the social interaction based upon these ethnic criteria can be illustrated.