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This is a preliminary report from a study of occupational mobility in the United States. Objectives of the study are to describe patterns of social mobility in some detail, to estimate the influence of various factors on occupational life chances and to ascertain a few consequences of socio-economic status and mobility, such as their implications for fertility. The present paper reports selected findings pertaining to factors affecting occupational achievement and chances to move away from one's social origins. In particular, researchers examine the significance for occupational attainment of education, ethnic background, community size, migration and parental family. In addition to presenting preliminary substantive findings from this research, this paper also provides an opportunity for illustrating the analytical procedures that have been used. The analysis relies to a large extent on the regression approach. Two major advantages of this approach which prompted this decision to adopt it are that it is a very efficient method of large scale data reduction and that it permits, consequently, the simultaneous examination of interrelations of fairly large numbers of variables, especially if computers are used. Contingency tables containing half a dozen or more variables and many hundreds of cells are too complex to be analyzed by inspection, whereas the regression method permits the analysis of these interrelations.

This paper analyzes the manner in which ethnicity has affected the course of American and Canadian party politics. Specifically, the paper tries to demonstrate that although the social processes involved in the migration of large numbers of ethnics have been relatively similar in both societies, the manner in which the social reality of ethnicity has affected the political structures therein has been quite different. Thus, although successive immigrant groups became the chief political resource of the great American urban party machines, they were able to use the existing political structures for their own purposes. Ethnic groups have derived psychological and more tangible benefits, such as public and party office positions, and have strongly affected the foreign and domestic policy positions of the two major parties. In contrast, Canadian party leaden historically have been able to exploit ethnic cleavages, but rarely have had to play the game of ethnic politics in the maimer of their American counterparts. In fact, ethnicity continues to strongly affect American political structures even as it moves into the realm of an index of more important social facts, while Canadian political structures have remained relatively impervious to ethnic groups despite the fact that ethnicity continues to be a factor of major importance in Canadian social organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the extent to which students in a large American high school choose associates for four different types of social relationships from their own ethnic group and from other ethnic groups, the relative popularity of the different ethnic groups as reflected in the choices of members of each group and the association of certain factors like sex, school class, age, membership in organizations, and socio-economic status with the number and kind of choices made. All minority groups were least ethnocentric in choosing leaders, but became progressively ethnocentric in choosing work partners, dates, and friends. On the other hand, the non-Jewish White majority were least ethnocentric in choosing friends, and showed an increased but equal degree of ethnocentrism in choosing leaders and work partners, and showed their highest degree of ethnocentrism in choosing dates. One possible explanation of this difference between the majority and the minorities in this respect might be that the majority, feeling secure in its status, can afford the luxury of uninhibited choice of friends, regardless of the minority status of these friends. The minorities, however, do not reciprocate by corresponding freedom in choosing friends from the white majority or from other outgroups.

Discusses the ethnic groupings of the Northern Athapaskans in central Alaska at the time of first white contact. Nature and intensity of the contact; Aboriginal economies, settlement patterns and territorial boundaries of hunting, fishing and foraging bands of Athapaskan Indians.

The article comments on the enduring pluralism in the American society. Despite its mistakes, the American experimentation in pluralism has been largely a success compared to the ethnic and racial conflicts in India, Palestine, Yugoslavia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Iraq, Ceylon, and Burma. Notwithstanding its large land mass and population, the U.S. was marked by only one civil war. The durability of the social fabric may be attributed to the spirit of tolerance and liberalism which has characterized the American society.

Canada and United States exhibit many similarities in their institutions and cultural patterns. On the global basis, there have been more similarities than differences in the institutions and cultural patterns of the two countries. Among their important institutions, for example, the two nations have shared a Jewish-Christian religious tradition, a liberal democratic political ideal and a capitalistic economy. Contributing to similar cultural patterns, there has been a common language and a related geography. In addition, the two countries have shared a British legacy, frontier areas, immigrants of comparable origin from the same historic epoch, and comparable ecological conditions. The comparative hypotheses have been that Americans are greater risk- takers and are more individualistic than Canadians. In contrast, Canadians have been said to be more conservative and more collectively oriented than Americans. Before describing how we have tested these hypotheses, we must indicate how we have expanded upon the modal personality concept.

This article seeks to investigate sources of influence on the Junior College Board vote for the Junior College Board of Trustees in Los Angeles, California in April 1969. Multiple regression analysis was used so that the independent impact of a number of potential factors can be estimated. Important cues for the voters in the election seem to have been endorsement by the area's largest newspaper, the persuasions of a conservative campaign group, the appeal of a familiar name and, at least for Mexican-Americans, ethnic identification. It must be stressed that one important cue, incumbency, was entirely missing in the election and that another, party identification, could play only a very minor and indirect role, if any. In elections in which these factors are involved and also in those in which campaigning by the candidates become more visible, it is to be expected that the effects of order, name and ethnic identification and newspaper endorsement would diminish greatly. The results of the study suggest that the outcome is likely to be determined by authoritative endorsement, the activities of small organized groups, various semi-relevant cues associated with the names of candidates and the order in which their names appear on the ballot.

The influence of examiner ethnicity and language on the bar pressing behavior of 40 poor bilingual Mexican-American first graders was studied. An Anglo and a Mexican-American female examiner individually worked with two groups of children praising them in Spanish and then in English or the reverse language order during two experimental phases. The ethnicity main effect and order by language interaction attained significance. Ss praised by the Mexican-American examiner exhibited higher response levels than those praised by the Anglo examiner. While effectiveness of Spanish praise was not affected by order, that of English increased when dispensed after Spanish. Limitations of the study and implications for bilingual education were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the ethnohistorical concept in anthropology in the United States. Definition of ethnohistory; Ethnic identity in the framework of anthropological techniques; Conditions by which a culture can be considered as intact; Cultural boundary or limit in terms of cultures of neighboring peoples; Discussion on the Pawnee Indians of Oklahoma as a distinguished American Indian tribe; Emergence of Pawnee Indians from a Caddoan cultural mix with a complex and well-developed pattern of life.

The article presents the author's efforts to discover and isolate smaller units of social sciences by logical extension of the concept of culture. Till now social scientists have been content to stop the concept of culture at national boundaries, and engage in intra-national analyses in terms of the discrete units of factors such as ethnic background, social class, regional residence and religious affiliation. But according to the author, more could be learned by extensive use of the concept of the sub-culture that refers to the subdivision of a national culture. According to the author, a wider use of the concept of the sub-culture would prevent the researchers from making too broad groupings. The author says that there should be a clear distinction between separate sub-cultures and separate units of the same sub-culture. A comprehensive application of the sub-cultural concept in the United States would lead to the delineation of a fairly large number of sub-cultures of varying degrees of cohesiveness and with varying patterns of interaction with each other.