The same process happened later in France and in Italy, and then in Germany. For example, well before the political unification of Italy as a state, the various regional cultures and dialects were unified first by the language of Italian, spoken by Dante, and then culturally around the time of the Renaissance. Today, Italians share a common culture and language, even though the various regions still retain their own dialects and ethnic identities as Sicilians, Toscani, Pugliesi, and so forth. Often this identity constrains an ethnic group to be circumspect around its membership. Anthropologists thus speak of ethnic groups as having boundaries because the group is defined who they are by their cultural identity but also in defining who they are not .
Ethnicity arises in the exercise of power.
However, only the politically and culturally subordinate community is recognized as consisting of ethnic qualities . The dominant group is never recognized as an ethnic group. Dominant groups, after all, are in control of political processes and political and cultural definitions.