Active and enthusiastic engagement in this project by Yukagir of all ages means that the work of safeguarding their culture will continue through formal and informal education, preserving diversity and fostering pride in the Yukagir ethnic identity.

UNESCO: CULTURE

But the backlash is more intense in Greece, where the Orthodox clerics portray themselves as guardians of both the nation's ethnic identity and the heartland of the world's more than 200 million Orthodox faithful.

CNN: Pope moves to heal ancient rift

The problem is that the sense of meaningful ethnic identity is evaporating, along with the passion that used to fuel Irish-American pilgrimages to the homeland, and so North American visits to Ireland are falling, falling.

FORBES: 70 Million Irish Please Come Home (Briefly): But Don't Mind Our In-Fighting

Instead, the results demonstrate a growing maturity among voters, especially in urban areas and among young first-time voters who regardless of ethnic identity flocked to the Internet to voice their demands for change.

WSJ: Michael Vatikiotis: Seeds of Change in Kuala Lumpur

For others, it is a classic second-generation phenomenon, in which ethnic identity is more marked in the children of immigrants than among their parents who first stepped off the boat.

ECONOMIST: Islam in France

Mr Gilbert said residents could describe themselves as Cornish on sections of the form including country of birth, ethnic group and national identity.

BBC: Census forms

The process failed over whether Nepal should be divided into federal states that would also have an ethnic identity.

ECONOMIST: Gridlock over a new constitution leaves a power vacuum