ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a very preliminary attempt to elucidate the process of ethnic change. The reactive theory of ethnic change suggests that ethnicity arises from the salience of cultural distinctions in the system of stratification. The resurgence of ethnic political conflict in the most highly differentiated societies appears to challenge the generality of the functionalist theory. The functionalist theory emphasizes structural differentiation as the principal cause of declining ethnic solidarity. If status-group solidarity is, in reality, the manifestation of a group's primordial sentiments, then these data are apparently paradoxical. An attempt is made to evaluate two theories of ethnic solidarity and change, one functionalist, the other reactive, in the light of quantitative evidence concerning England and the Celtic fringe from 1885 to 1966. Hence, the tendency to conflate culture and ethnicity should be resisted. Ethnic status per se rather than traditional religious values would therefore be responsible for Celtic economic backwardness.
