Ethnoreligious

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The term Ethnoreligious (or ethno-religious) refers to a group or groups of people unified by a common religious culture but who display the distinct characteristics of an ethnic group. Ethnoreligious communities define their identity neither exclusively by ancestral heritage nor simply religious affiliation but often through a combination of both.

The Jews are today perhaps the largest and most familiar ethnoreligious community. Membership within the Jewish people, that is, determining Who is a Jew?, contains both a traditional religious component along with an ethnic one when considering who is or who is not Jewish.

Other, smaller or lesser known ethnoreligious communities which combine ethnic identity with religious belonging include the Samaritans, the Parsis, the Assyrians, the Nasranis, the Yazidi (more often considered a religious minority within the religiously-diverse Kurdish ethnicity), and the Mandaeans, among others.