An ethnographic group or ethnocultural group is a group that has cultural traits that make it stand out from the larger ethnic group it is a part of. In other words, members of an ethnographic group will also consider themselves to be members of a larger ethnic group, both sharing a collective consciousness with it, and possessing their own distinct one. Ethnographic groups are presumed to be significantly assimilated with the larger ethnic group they are part of, though they retain distinctive, differentiating characteristics related to cultural values such as speech, religion, costume, or other cultural aspects.
The concept of an ethnographic group is rarely found in Western works, and has been attributed to late 20th-century ethnographic studies in the countries of the former Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc. This term has been used for example in works of Bulgarian, Georgian, Hungarian and Polish ethnographers.
