ABSTRACT
Propelled toward the megasociety and the civilization, the clannish brain has had to repeatedly redefine the ancestral and cultural boundaries of the clan. This chapter aims to argue the hypothesis that ethnicity, ethnocentrism, and ethnic conflict hark back to prehistoric, perhaps even prehuman times. Facts of ethnicity reflect many ancient features of kinship and nepotistic favoritism. The sociological literature on ethnic conflict is rich and nuanced. New ethnicity portraits vary in detail and emphasis, but all tend to focus on the fact that ethnic sentiments and ethnic conflicts have escalated in frequency and intensity in the latter half of the twentieth century. The sociological literature on ethnicity remains unsettled in its theoretical core. Theory must come to grips with the roots, persistence, and universality of ethnicity if the people are to gain an adequate grasp of the role it plays in human society.
