Unlike mere stereotyping, essentialism includes the intuition that a group's stereotypical traits are somehow rooted in a deep, unchanging "essence": a "national spirit," "mana," the effects of geography and climate on the national character (Perkins, 2016), or DNA (Fleising, 2001;Nelkin & Lindee, 1995). ...
an educational theory that ideas and skills basic to a culture should be taught to all alike by time-tested methods — compare progressivism. 2 : a philosophical theory ascribing ultimate reality to essence embodied in a thing perceptible to the senses — compare nominalism.
