Search

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.

This article outlines a conceptual approach which used in studying the phenomenon of ethnicity in Canada. The conceptual approach is based on the literature on ethnicity in Tanzania and India. The author asserts that ethnicity in Tanzania, India and Canada is fundamentally the same phenomenon and therefore deserves analysis in the same language using the same concepts. It discusses the categorical analysis and structural analysis in studying ethnicity in Canada. It explores the implications of coming to view ethnic networks are political phenomena.

This article focuses on the official adoption by the Canadian federal government of the policy of multiculturalism. This official adoption was made by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau on October 8, 1971. The author compares and contract the cultural pluralism model adopted by Canada with that of the melting pot model heralded in the U.S. as an ideal. It discusses the beginning of multicultural policy in Canada. It details the actions taken by the Canadian government in implementing the policy of multiculturalism.

Looks at the standing of the educational system in a diverse society in the U.S. Socialization and cognitive function of schools; Principal nature of the school's reordering; Tools that give individualized instruction constructive promise.

Four hundred and fifty-six students were constituted into 114 four-person cross-cultural teams in which the three man majority in each group were American White Males. An American White Female, American Black Male or Foreign Male was the single minority member. After 13 weeks of joint tasks, data on roles claimed for self and attributed to others were collected by questionnaire and essay. Interviews supplemented the questionnaire. The American White Male majority claimed task leadership for themselves or attributed it to other AWM's. They perceived all minorities as generally following and contributing relatively little. In turn, most minority members did not claim leadership. Those few that did strive for leadership were usually rejected. American White Females tended to respond with complementary stereotypic behavior: they were relatively passive, claimed non-leadership, adhered to group norms and were cooperative. In contrast, American Black, European and Latin American Males tended to violate group norms and frequently to withdraw from the team. Japanese males remained active in their groups and tried to conform but were sometimes excluded by the majority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variations in interethnic marriage rates in Singapore demonstrate that the influence of ethnicity and religion on family organization is far stronger than the influence of class or education. In particular the striking variations in the proportions of men and women marrying out of each of the major ethnic groups in the Republic appear to result from the continuing operation of traditional ideals of family and local-group organization in a contemporary situation that is otherwise rapidly changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the challenges faced by educational institutions and ethnic communities on developing multicultural education in the U.S. The cultural preservation is in direct proportion to the presence of an environment including the basic components of the culture sufficient to sustain that culture. To present courses in the ethnic culture at educational institutions has the effect of using one of the major means employed by the majority culture as an instrument whereby the ethnic culture can center on its own life.

The article presents a list of articles related to multiculturalism published in various journals. They include "Domestic Pacification," by George D. Corey and Richard A. Cohen, "Cultural Pluralism in the Southeastern United States: Toward an Understanding of Historical Conflict," by Raymond Gavins, "Interethnic Conflict," by Nathan Glazer, "The Transmission of Cultural Heritages: The Case of the Irish and the Italians," by Andrew M. Greeley and William McCready, and "Protesting Voices: A Way of Hearing," by J. Merrell Hansen.

The article examines the No One Model American policy in education in the U.S. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education has adopted the policy as a guide for addressing the issues in the American school system: The rejection of the melting pot theory, to be replaced by active encouragement and perpetuation of cultural pluralism in the American society. The four areas in the institutional life of Livingston College that are in conflict with the principles stated in the No One Model American are: college image and philosophy as evidenced in institutional documents; population: ethnic-racial mix of student, faculty, administration and staff; curriculum and specific policies and practices.

The article comments on the role of cultural pluralism in the society in the U.S. Any hope for cultural pluralism involves politics and economic power. The most immediate danger of cultural pluralism is its handy convenience in ignoring problematic conditions that confront socially disenfranchised groups and in failing to address pressing educational problems of ethnical minorities in schools. There is a danger that the Mexican American studies and particular courses could add to reinforce the already catalog of myths and stereotypes about Mexicans and Americans.

The article comments on the developments in the implementation of multicultural education in the U.S. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education has acquired the policy statement No One Model American, which accredited the culturally pluralistic nature of an American society. Synergistic education is a conceptual framework that can provide diversity of choice at the individual level, which would constitute a large step toward multicultural education at the system level. Synergistic education as an educational model stresses a process releasing human potential rather than controlling it.

The effects of husband'spotential andrelative incomes on completed fertility, as well as their effects on certain parity progression probabilities, are examined within samples of Anglos, Blacks and Mexican Americans. Relationships are estimated using data from the one-percent 1960 and 1970 U.S. Public Use Samples. The results reveal different patterns of relationship by ethnicity between the measures of income and the measures of fertility. The effects on completed fertility of the income measures are positive for Anglos and negative for Blacks, while in the case of Mexican Americans the effect ofpotential income is negative and that ofrelative income is positive. Income effects on the parity progression probabilities are similar in pattern to those from the analyses using completed fertility, although somewhat different patterns tend to appear at different birth orders, especially among Anglos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information regarding folk treatments for opium addiction in Laos. Herbal medication as a popular method of treatment was known to all addicts and their families, regardless of residence or ethnicity. Herbal medicines often contained some opium or alcohol, presumably to moderate the discomfort of withdrawal. An expectation of automatic, pain!free withdrawal attended this treatment modality. Addicts trying this method use it in isolation from other addicts, rather than in a group setting. A Lao man, previously a Buddhist monk, supported himself by operating a sanatorium in his home. Among various chronic ailments of psyche and soma, he also treated opium addiction. Addicts ate, slept, attended religious ceremonies.

The article presents some Aspects of Internal Malay Migration in West Malaysia. The question of rural-urban migration in a country in whose population the dimensions of residence, occupation and political power are strongly congruent with ethnicity, both offers the researcher a rich corpus of material for analysis and the development policy-maker a severe challenge. Rural-urban migration in the Federation of Malaysia inevitably calls particular attention to the disparities between two major segments of the population, viz., the predominantly urban, commercially-oriented and economically modernized Chinese, and the heavily rural, agriculturally based Malays in whose hands, however, is concentrated much of the political power. This represents a division of labor imbalance, which it is the avowed aim of the government to modify. Much of this article is devoted to current trends of migration among the Malays, and to the nature and role of government politics explicitly designed to modify the "natural" migration and urbanization process in the interests of more equitable development.

The article presents the author's views on ethnicity and ethnic groups. According to the author, an evaluation of existing studies in an area such as ethnicity, even if limited to the American society, is bound to be a frustrating experience. The lack of theoretical approaches to ethnicity has been observed by many writers in this field. Parsons states that although the subject of ethnicity deserves very serious attention in social analysis, there have been few attempts so far to treat it in really general terms. Most of the studies on American ethnicity focus on psychological and socio-psychological aspects such as prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, social distance and intergroup conflict, thus on problematic and dysfunctional aspects of ethnicity, with almost total neglect of its functional aspects in society. Ethnicity refers mainly to the relating of the human individual to his group through the socialization process. Commitment to the cultural group, loyalty, solidarity, social responsibility are the main concern of ethnicity as the cultural bond. Transmission of these values to oncoming generations through the socialization process in family and community is the main function of ethnicity.

The article focuses on the impact of ethnic background upon attitudes and behavior. With few exceptions, social scientists generally have treated ethnicity and religiosity as demographic, am not social-psychological, variables. More recently however, Andrew Greeley of the National Opinion Research Center has made an impressive case for the need for more detailed investigations of how ethnic-religious background functions as salient agent in the expressed attitudes and behaviors of individuals. Data reported in this article support the view that ethnic-religious variables are somehow an integral part of the socialization process. Data reported in this article are taken from a survey of work-and life style- related attitudes and expectations conducted among 1860 graduating college seniors in 1972. The sample consists of approximately equal numbers of males and females enrolled in five Pennsylvania schools. The political attitudes of students also show significant differences when there is control for ethnic-religious affiliation. Both sex and socio-economic status are associated with variations in political attitudes.

Examines the relationship between the ties to cultural identity and the emergence of economic class divisions in the complex situations of multicultural societies that undergo economic development. Definition of the boundaries of polity; Impact of economic class divisions on political life and political behavior.

The article examines the ways in which ethnicity has entered into the pattern of human relations, sometimes thwarting them, sometimes facilitating them, but always conditioning them. "Nationality" refers to membership in a national group. However, a very large percentage- perhaps close to a third of the human species has not yet arrived at the stage of nationhood. Many of these people still live in tribal or small locality-groups, recognized as separate or distinct from other groups. "Race" is still a controversial concept, comprehensive, vague, and overlapping; indeed, some writers in recent years have felt that it should be dispensed with as a scientific tool. Yet it is an old and very powerful concept. Ethnicity "means" something for human relations only when the interactional situation receives ethnic definition-that is, when relations are ethnically described and prescribed. However distinctive may be the ethnic qualities as socio-biological traits, their influence in the contacts of people is a function of symbols. Ethnic relations are the human activities and experiences that result from the fact of, and the feeling about, ethnicity.

The article presents information on the classification of farms in the Southwest. The Southwest, for the purposes of this study, is comprised of: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Despite marked physical and cultural diversity in the Southwest, its farms may be classified according to shape and size, falling into six broad categories. Physiographic diversity characterizes the Southwestern States. Comparison of its four physical divisions-Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, Colorado Plateaus, Basin and Range-reveals large scale features and sharp relief, and also monotonously level plains, plateaus, and peneplain surfaces. Elongated rectangular formation of farms, i.e. with the length considerably greater than the width, largely was brought about where surface irrigation is practiced. Extending from its origin above the San Luis Valley in Colorado to its mouth, the Rio Grande is bordered by tiny communities, which are in favorable situations where irrigation is feasible from underground and surface sources. Farms, in and about the small rural agglomerations of the river valley, are elongated-rectangular or irregular in shape, although some of them are composed of non-contiguous plots.

The article focuses on the pros and cons of Hebrew Christian movement and Zionism and how they are related to one another. In fact, Hebrew Christianity makes the assertion that the true tradition has been destroyed or obscured by a fraudulent development, and that modern Judaism is, as it were, living a lie. Zionism is a movement, which stands in contrast to the Hebrew Christian movement as it reestablishes the Jewish national state. The parallel emergence of Hebrew Christianity and Zionism pointed to a joint destiny of the two. As if all other developments, trends, disputes, and forces within Jewish life did not exist, it could with perfect faith and equanimity be asserted that the Jews are electing a congress for their political end. It is forming an alliance for their spiritual awakening. During the nineteenth century, however, an additional factor was adduced suggesting that the basic cause for the failure of the missionary enterprise among the Jews was to be found in the peculiar nature of Judaism itself in which a bifurcation of faith and ethnicity, religion and people hood, such as is suggested in the very nature of Christianity, was foreign and totally unpalatable.

This article discusses the book "Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City," by Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. It is the thesis of Glazer and Moynihan that the doctrine of the Melting Pot--the notion that the ethnic and racial mixture would soon blend in a new homogeneous product--has outlived both its usefulness and its credibility. They hold that the main ethnic groups of the City have demonstrated great tenacity in "maintaining a distinct identity, albeit a changing one, from one generation to the next," and they expect this "merchant metropolis" to maintain its diversity for the foreseeable future, partly because "ethnicity and class and religion are inevitably tied to each other." The central theme of the continuing reality of ethnic differences is effectively demonstrated over and over again. In the case of the Italian-Americans, the retained cultural emphases have included localism, familism, collective loyalties, and particularistic values. There is, still, a tight network of friendships and kinship relations that resists invasion of outsiders. The village- mindedness and family-orientation of the Southern Italian immigrants have persisted and militated against group-wide institutions.

The article focuses on the ethnography of an elite patient in a hospital for the mentally retarded. The elite are a real group that interact almost exclusively with one another and rarely condescend to associate with non-members. They share patterns of dress, behavior, valuation and speech which are distinct from those of other patients.

The article discusses the cultural aspects of criminal responsibility. The classical theory of jurisprudence that criminal responsibility is a matter of knowing right from wrong had its origin in a simpler society in which it was possible for an individual to be. The position taken in this article is that modem man lives in a complex multicultural society whose values are determined largely by the functional needs of interest groups. In such societies, large segments of criminal behavior represent some of the means taken by groups to ensure their survival, even though these means are in conflict with larger values of the culture. The etiology of crime must always take into cognizance the social roles that contributed to the behavior and that made it appear functionally suitable within its context. Diagnosis and treatment must be likewise within the cultural context of the offender, in terms of subjective motives, social roles of the individual, and the configurations and values within which those roles functioned. White collar crime may be defined as crime committed by persons of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupations. Offenders in these groups have no self-image of themselves as law-breakers. White collar crimes tend to be dealt with, increasingly, in terms of a legal fiction which separates the personal conduct of the offender, triable under criminal law, from his corporate conduct, triable under administrative law. For the principle of personal responsibility there has been substituted that of corporate responsibility or even of industry-wide responsibility.

As nation ideologies evolve ever increasing proportions of their populations in national processes, the proportions of these populations which become bilingual grows accordingly. This article explores the extent of bilingualism in the modern world. Bilingualism has been found to be so widespread and diversified in Europe. In Latin America, Asia and Africa, there are numerous instances of bilingualism based on ethnic differentiations within the body politic. There is also another type of bilingualism which characterizes many of the new and developing nations, thereby marking them by such extreme market diversification.

This article deals with ethnic or racial conflicts within plural societies. Race or caste pluralism is quite different from ethnic pluralism. Ethnicity determines the ability or inability to communicate with others and thus constitutes a basic aspect of human conditions. Another basic difference between ethnicity and race or caste is that ethnic groups typically have a home territory, while racial groups have only ghettos. Ethnicity is compatible with a benign quota policy because the ultimate aim is to eliminate inequality, not ethnicity. In the case of race or caste, the benign quota system is self-defeating because while it is tackling the problem of inequality it is reinforcing the very basis of that inequality. A separate but equal system is quite possible in a multinational state because each ethnic group can maintain a large degree of autonomy under the larger political umbrella. A separate but equal system is a contradiction in terms in a caste or multiracial society because the very basis of the interaction between the groups is the differential relationship to the means of production and to the means of power. However, ethnic groups are much more autonomous than castes or races, that is, groups that are differentiated by status rather than by culture.

This article examines the nature and sources of antipathy of ethnically dissimilar people for each other in terms of the status and roles these people have typically occupied in historically diverse but structurally similar social situations. This unifying concept of structurally similar situations, identified as the status gap, is defined as the discontinuity, the yawning social void which occurs when superior and subordinate portions of a society are not bridged by continuous, intermediate degrees of status. Despite the diversity of stratification systems to be found, we may abstract out and compare them one with another in terms of the following formal characteristics:(a) the flexibility-rigidity of the strata boundaries, i.e., the ease or difficulty with which individuals may pass from one stratum to another; and (b) the continuity-discontinuity of the ordered arrangement of strata. The status gap is economically dysfunctional in terms of maximum economic rationality. It impedes the flow of goods and services by imposing an arbitrary barrier of social distance between segments of the same society.

The article discusses bilingual, bicultural education, with its focus on the linguistic and cultural needs of multicultural population of the U.S. Many psychological theories provide the basic rationale for developing and instituting bilingual programs. Psychological literature reveals that positive or regression effects can occur as a result of cognitive activity or inactivity in the environment. The practice of postponing exposure to cognitive learning processes until some predetermined age level is being challenged. The affective aspects in early childhood growth and development also can be given attention. If this is an objective, a different type of bilingual/bicultural model must be envisioned. There is another significant factor in selecting a type of bilingual model. The type of bilingual program, the instructional strategies in the instructional scheme, and the types of materials to use must be relevant to the level of Spanish or English comprehension and usage. It is conceivable that thinking, reasoning, recalling, and other cognitive processes can be developed through the media of one or both languages. The specific objective of training the children to become bilingual so they will be able to cope with their environment in Spanish as well as English has been a prime concern in curriculum planning. A multisensory approach to language learning is stressed to develop every channel of communication available to the child.

The article presents a study which focuses on ethnicity and acquaintance as variables in risk-taking. There were two different populations directly involved in this study and two other groups which served as a comparison. The populations tested here included families in which both parents and at least one child were present. The basic design was to compare individual predecisions with decisions made by different groups on four experimental items constructed to counter the normative pressures toward increased risk-taking in groups. The more specific hypotheses supported by this study suggest that (a) groups composed of members of the same family will tend to be least influenced by group discussion when compared to Catholics and students; (b) that families will be more conservative on items that previously were shown to have produced a risky shift; (c) that Catholics will tend to be risky on these same commitment items and that; (d) all groups become conservative on the normative conflict items.

This article investigated the color and form preference of Moslem Hausa children in Zaria, Nigeria, West Africa. In the common Koranic educational milieu of Zaria, reading, writing, and arithmetic skills are not emphasized. The major task of the child, who does not speak Arabic, is to memorize the shape and sound of, hut not the meaning of, the Arabic symbol from the Koran. The purpose of this investigation is to determine if the age relationship between color and form preference typical of Euro-American societies is also found in a non-Euro-American population undergoing different educational experiences. The color-form preference test is based on a test which consists of eight practice and 20 test cards. Each card contains three stimulus figures, each of which can vary in color, form, and size values. The values in color are red and blue, in form are circle and rectangle, in size are small and large. The first sort was usually for either color or form and was scored as the preferred choice.

Data derived from a panel study of American Jewish students in Israel were analyzed within several conceptual contexts. The problems of learning and adjustment of the student in a foreign country were looked at as those of a person in a new psychological situation, as those of a stranger in the host society, and as those of a person in overlapping situations. Attention was given to the effect of the orientation of the student on the cross-cultural experience. Change in the cross-cultural situation was viewed as a particular instance of reeducation. At the same time attention was directed to the special perspective provided by the study of cross-cultural education on these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demonstrates the originality of the Lebanese experiment on cultural pluralism, equality of treatment and equality of opportunity. Problems encountered in trying to secure equal economic and social rights in a pluralist's society; Acknowledgement of equality of opportunity before the law and equal status for all cultures; Information on the program of action of Lebanon aimed at regional and social development.

Analysis of 1957 national sample data indicates several religious differences in occupational achievement: (1) Protestants are more likely than Catholics of the same occupational origin to enter high-status nonmanual occupations; (2) Catholics are more likely than Protestants of the same origin to enter low-status nonmanual occupations; (3) Protestants are more often sharply up-mobile, and Catholics are more often sharply down-mobile. These differences are small but are not diminished by controls for ethnicity, region in which reared, age, generation, and size of community in which reared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Social Area Analysis hypothesis that at least three separate dimensions -- social rank, familism and ethnicity -- are required to account for observed variations in census tract populations in American cities has often been substantiated by factor analytic tests. Relatively uninvestigated is the corollary that in societies of smaller "scale" intra-urban differentiation is less complex. An indirect test of this hypothesis was afforded by a factorial analysis of the ecology of Cairo, Egypt. To study the structure of that city, principal axes factor analysis was used to extract orthogonal factors from replicated 13 × 13 matrices of census variables reflecting the socio-economic status, familial and ethnic characteristics of populations in 206 subdivisions of Cairo in 1947 and 1960. In each data year, half of the total matrix variance was accounted for by a single "life-style" vector on which loaded heavily not only variables of social rank but of family life as well. The coalescence of these two dimensions was more extreme but in a direction consistent with previous investigations of Rome, some African and a few southern U.S. cities. Theoretical propositions that explain these "deviant findings" are resented and a further test suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Sociological Review is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

By definition suicide presupposes the existence of a self. Because the self has its being in the social process, suicide rates will vary with the character of society. While some psychologists doubt the validity of all statistics on the subject, there is fairly convincing evidence that suicide is not randomly distributed throughout the population. Numerous investigations have shown an ecological component in suicide. Rural rates are usually lower than urban rates. Within the city itself the central business district and the zone of transition the skid-row region have abnormally high rates. When stable residential areas of the city are compared, however, the wealthier sections appear to have more suicide than the low-income neighborhoods. Although in the United States, religious affiliation does not seem to be a decisive factor, there is a rate differential by age, sex, ethnicity and socio-economic level. The central thesis of the sociological approach to the study of suicide can be stated as follows: the nature and incidence of suicide varies with social status. Status is defined here not as rank but as any position in any social system; role is the function or behavior called forth by the rights and obligations of status.

At least two different approaches for studying the environmental influences on businesses in developing countries are currently in use. One group of writers develops the interaction of variables that affect a foreign-owned business firm. Of this group some feel that the entire environment in which the foreign-owned business operates can be used to predict the firm's effectiveness. The main purpose of the author of this article is similar to that of the later group of writers, namely, to describe business operations in a specific country, Trinidad. However, in contrast to most studies of the sort it will concentrate primarily on one variable culture in order to view its impact on business on that Caribbean island. Trinidad is a multicultural, multiracial society. Its one million inhabitants are descendants of people who came from Africa, Europe, India and the Orient. Some of these emigrants went to Trinidad to conquer, some to settle, some were brought as slaves. Others were persuaded that they would find a better life there. Still others were in flight from the law.