The term multiracial people refers to people who are of two or more races, while the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicity. A variety of terms are or have been used for multiracial or multi-ethnic people in a variety of contexts, including multiethnic, polyethnic, bi-ethnic (occasion), biracial, mixed-race, and more specific terms. A number of older terms are now considered slurs, such as “half-breed” and “half-caste”, in addition to those that were initially coined for pejorative use.
Individuals of multiracial backgrounds make up a significant portion of the population in many parts of the world. In North America, studies have found that the multiracial population is continuing to grow. In many countries of Central and South America, people of mixed European and Native heritage make up the majority of the population (Panama, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia...). In the Caribbean, multiracial people officially make up the majority of the population in the Dominican Republic (73%) and Aruba (68%).
Definitions While defining race is controversial, race remains a commonly used term for classification, often related to visible physical characteristics or known community. Insofar as race is defined differently in different cultures, perceptions of mixed race are subjective. citing
Related terms The terms "multi-ethnic people" or "ethnically mixed people" refer to people who are of more than one ethnicity. In the English language, the terms miscegenation and amalgamation were used for unions between white people, Black people, and other ethnic groups. The term 'miscegenation' initially replaced 'amalgamation' due to the latter's association with slavery in the 1800s, while 'miscegenation' is today often considered offensive and controversial. The terms mixed-race, biracial or multiracial are becoming generally accepted. In other languages, terms for miscegenation are not necessarily considered offensive.
In the English-speaking world, many terms for mixed-race people exist, some of which are pejorative or are no longer used. “Half-breed” is a historic term for people of partial Native American ancestry, now considered a slur. Mestee, once widely used, is now used mostly for members of historically mixed-race groups, such as Louisiana Creoles, Melungeons, Redbones, Brass Ankles and Chestnut Ridge people. Africa In East Africa, specifically Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania (including portions of the East African Community), people of mixed race are called half-castes (in English) or chotara (singular, in Swahili), wachotara (plural in Swahili).
In South Africa and much of English-speaking southern Africa, the term Coloured was used to describe both mixed-race persons of African and European descent, and those Asians not of African descent. Latin America In the Spanish and Portuguese Americas, populations became triracial after the introduction of African slavery. A panoply of terms developed during the Spanish and Portuguese colonial periods, including terms such as zambo for persons of Native American and native African descent. Charts and diagrams intended to explain the classifications were common. The well-known Casta paintings in Mexico and, to some extent, Peru, were illustrations of the different classifications. Mulatto, zambo and mestizo are used in Spanish; mulato, caboclo, cafuzo, ainoko (from Japanese) and mestiço in Portuguese; and mulâtre and métis in French. Terms such as mulatto for people of partially African descent and mestizo for people of partially Native American descent are still used by English-speaking people of the Western Hemisphere but mostly to refer to the past or to the demography of Hispanophone America and its diasporic population.
At one time, Hispanophone American census categories have used such classifications. In Brazilian censuses since Imperial times, for example, most persons of mixed heritage, except Asian Brazilians with some European descent (or any other to the extent it is not clearly perceptible) and vice versa, tend to be thrown into the single category of "pardo". But racial boundaries in Brazil are related less to ancestry than to phenotype. A westernized Amerindian with copper-colored skin may also be classified as a "pardo", a caboclo in this case, despite not being mixed race. A European-looking person, even with one or more native African or Indigenous ancestors, is not classified as "pardo" but as "branco", a white Brazilian. The same applies to "negros", Afro-Brazilians whose European or Native American ancestors are not visible in their appearance. According to genetic research, most Brazilians of all racial groups (except Asian-Brazilians and natives) are, to some extent, mixed-race. North America According to American sociologist Troy Duster and ethicist Pilar Ossorio:
In the United States:
In the United States and Canada, the term mixed-blood has historically been described as people of multiracial backgrounds, in particular mixed European and Native American ancestry. Today, the term is often seen as pejorative. Some of the most prominent multi-racial people in 19th-century America were "mixed-blood" or mixed-race descendants of fur traders and Native American women along the northern frontier. The fur traders tended to be men of social standing and they often married or had relationships with daughters of Native American chiefs, consolidating social standing on both sides. They held high economic status of what was for years in the 18th and 19th centuries a two-tier society at settlements at trading posts, with other Europeans, American Indians, and mixed-blood workers below them.Robert E. Bieder, "Sault Ste. Marie and the War of 1812:A World Turned Upside Down in the Old Northwest", Indiana Magazine of History, XCV (Mar 1999), accessed 13 Dec 2008
In the Southeast Woodlands, tribes began having inter-generational marriage and sexual relationships with the Europeans in the early 1700s. Many Cherokee bands and families were quick to see the economic benefits of having trade, land and business dealings with Europeans, strengthened through marriages. Prominent Cherokee and Creek leaders of the 19th century were of mixed-descent but, born to Indian mothers in matrilineal kinship societies, they identified fully and were accepted as Indian and grew up in those cultures.David A. Sicko, Review: "Mixed Blood" Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South by Theda Perdue, The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 83, No. 2 (Fall, 2004)
In Canada, the Métis are a recognized ethnic group of mixed European and Indigenous American descent, who have status in the law similar to that of First Nations. Mixed-blood is also used occasionally in Canadian accounts to refer to the 19th century Anglo-Métis population rather than Métis, which referred to a specific cultural group of people of First Nations and French descent, with their own language, Michif.
Africa Madagascar
Madagascar was settled between the first and ninth centuries AD by two groups: Austronesian peoples who arrived on outrigger canoes from across the Indian Ocean, and Bantu peoples who crossed the Mozambique Channel from mainland Africa. These two groups intermixed, forming the modern Malagasy people; later migrants from Arabia, Somalia, and India added to the genetic mixture.
Virtually all Malagasy people are of some degree of mixed descent; however, the amount of mixture varies greatly between regions of Madagascar, despite all Malagasy people sharing a common language and similar cultural elements. The Malagasy of the central highlands of Madagascar have predominantly Austronesian ancestry, the Malagasy of the west coast and the south of the island have predominantly Bantu ancestry, and Malagasy of the island's east coast are of roughly equal degrees Bantu and Austronesian ancestry. The average Malagasy person's genetic makeup includes a roughly equal blend of Southeast Asian and of East African genes.
North Africa
North Africa has numerous mixed-race communities, reflecting a history of both extensive Mediterranean trade around the region and later colonization and migration by African groups. Among these are the Haratin, oasis-dwellers of Saharan southern Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania. They are believed to be an ethnicity composed of Sub-Saharan African and Berber ancestry. They constitute a socially and ethnically distinct group within the Maghreb.Bridget Anderson, World Directory of Minorities (Minority Rights Group International: 1997), p. 435.
For centuries, Arab slave traders sold sub-Saharan Africans as slaves in cumulatively large numbers throughout the Persian Gulf, Anatolia, Central Asia and the Arab world. Communities descended from these slaves and local peoples can be found throughout these regions.Gwyn Campbell, The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, 1 edition, (Routledge: 2003), p.ix
South Africa
In South Africa, the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 prohibited marriage between white Europeans (people of European descent) and non-Whites (being classified as Black, Asian and Coloured). This followed centuries of interaction and unions resulting in mixed-race children. This law was repealed in 1985.
Mixed-race South Africans are commonly referred to as Coloureds. According to the 2016 South African Census, they are the second-largest ethnic group (8.8%), behind Native Africans, or Native African Bantu peoples, who constitute (80.8%) of the current population. European South Africans make up 8.1%.
Asia China
The Uyghurs are often cited as an example of a population with mixed East Asian and West Eurasian ancestry. Genetic studies have found that modern Uyghurs derive substantial ancestry from both East Asian and West Eurasian populations, reflecting centuries of admixture along the Silk Road. Analyses of maternal and paternal lineages have suggested that this admixture may have been sex-biased, with East Asian ancestry being more common in maternal lineages and West Eurasian ancestry more common in paternal lineages.
India
The people of the Indian subcontinent have a diverse genetic pool, being composed of South Asian hunter-gatherers, Neolithic Iranians, and Western Steppe Herders. This makes up the genome of modern-day Indians and varies from caste and region.
Prior to colonization, the peoples of India had a long history of trade and other interaction with other peoples. More recently a Eurasian mix developed during the Colonial period, beginning with the French, Dutch, Portuguese and other European traders and merchants, including British. Such interaction continued during the British Rule in India, although it lessened as British families settled in the country. The estimated population of Anglo-Indians, the term for these Eurasians, is 600,000 worldwide, with the majority living in India and the UK.
Article 366(2) of the Indian Constitution defines Anglo-Indian as: (2) an Anglo-Indian means a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors in the male line is or was of European descent but who is domiciled within the territory of India and is or was born within such territory of parents habitually resident therein and not established there for temporary purposes only;
Myanmar Myanmar (formerly Burma) was a British colony from 1826 until 1948. Other European nationals were active in the country before the British arrived. Intermarriage and relationships took place among such settlers and merchants with the local Burmese population, and subsequently between British colonists and the Burmese. The local Eurasian population is known as the Anglo-Burmese. This group dominated colonial society and through the early years of independence. After Burma gained independence in 1948, many Anglo-Burmese left the country; the diaspora resides primarily in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. An estimated 52,000 Anglo-Burmese live in Burma.