Final answer:
Several factors contribute to ethnic group identity differentiation, including religion, language, geography, and social race. Geographical isolation can help preserve ethnic identities, but migration and changing demographics can alter them. While ethnicity is often conflated with race, the two are distinct with ethnicity being about shared culture and race about physical traits.
Step-by-step explanation:
Factors that might lead an ethnic group to define themselves as different include aspects like religion, language, geography, social race, and shared traditions. Religion, for instance, often serves as a primary marker of identity in places where other distinguishing features, such as race or language, are less pronounced. For example, ongoing conflicts in India between Hindus and Muslims, or in Iraq between Sunni and Shia Muslims illustrate how religion can divide an otherwise homogeneous population.
Geography plays a significant role in both maintaining and changing ethnic identities. A group may preserve its culture and identity through geographical isolation, but changes in populace or emigration can alter or dilute these identities over time, as seen in the shift of Cajun and Creole identities in Louisiana.
Nations often use elements such as language and a sense of shared origin or religion to build a national identity. Ethnic majorities might not see their ethnicity as influencing their worldview, whereas minorities might understand their ethnicity as shaping how they interact with government and society.
Moreover, ethnicity is distinct from race, though the two terms are often confused. Ethnicity is based on cultural practices, norms, values, and beliefs, while race is a concept concerned with biological and physical characteristics. The American context sees race, language, and national ancestry as frameworks to categorize ethnic identities, even as these categories evolve with time and location.