March 2008 (UTC)

I think you are both right. An ethnic group is a group of people with a subjective belief in a common descent (or if you like the perception of a common descent). To be an ethnic group a group does not have to have an actual common descent, only the belief in a common descent. There's also the meaning of descent, in anthropology descent does not by necessity have have to have a biological reality, some ethnic groups claim a common descent from gods, or totems. So I think that the English certainly are an ethnic group/nation because they have a perceived common ancestry.   09:25, 16