The latter meaning has transmogrified into the modern usage of 'ethnic' as 'characteristic of or belonging to a non-Western tradition'. It's one thing to be a 19th-century Victorian British imperialist who could be forgiven for his lumping of everything non-Western in one old curiosity shop. But it's quite different - and, indeed, strange - when 'ethnic' is used by non-Western cultures, societies and economies to describe non-Western items. In other words, themselves.