On Being Different : Diversity and Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream

by Kottak, Conrad Phillip; Kozaitis, Kathryn A.

• ISBN13: 9780072417166
• ISBN10: 0072417161
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-18
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

On Being Different provides an up-to-date, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary account of diversity and multiculturalism in the United States and Canada. Kottak and Kozaitis clarify essential issues, themes, and topics in the study of diversity, including ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. The book also presents an original theory of multiculturalism, showing how human agency and culture work to organize and change society. The authors use rich and varied ethnographic examples, from North America and abroad, to help students apply the material to their own lives, and thus gain a better understanding of diversity and multiculturalism.

Table of Contents

List of Boxes	xiii
About the Authors	xiv
Preface	xvii
Introduction	1	(10)
American Culture and Cultures	6	(1)
The Anthropological Perspective	7	(4)
Science, Humanities, and Mirror for Humanity	9	(2)
Culture	11	(19)
Culture and Its Aspects	14	(8)
Unifying Factors in Contemporary American Culture	22	(3)
Football	25	(1)
Anthropology and American Pop Culture	26	(1)
Mechanisms of Cultural Change	27	(1)
The Uses of Culture	28	(2)
Globalization, Identity, and Affinity	30	(14)
Identity Politics and Globalization	33	(3)
The Decline Of Government	33	(1)
Trade and Globalization	34	(1)
Antiglobalization	35	(1)
Multilocality and Media	36	(2)
NGOs and Rights Movements	38	(3)
Diasporas and Postmodernity	41	(1)
Agency	42	(2)
The Multicultural Society	44	(19)
The Power of Culture	46	(1)
Conceptualizing Cultural Diversity	47	(4)
Assimilation	48	(1)
Pluralism	49	(1)
Multiculturalism	50	(1)
Theory of Multiculturalism	51	(8)
Sociocultural Transformation	52	(1)
Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream	53	(3)
The Center of Cultural Production	56	(1)
Agency and Resistance	57	(2)
Multiculturalism: The Master Movement	59	(4)
Ethnicity	63	(21)
Ethnicity and Social Statuses	66	(3)
Status Shifting	67	(2)
Ethnic Groups, Nations, and Nationalities	69	(2)
Nationalities and Imagined Communities	70	(1)
Ethnic Tolerance and Accommodation	71	(6)
Cultural Assimilation	71	(1)
The Plural Society	71	(1)
Multiculturalism and Ethnic Identity	72	(5)
Roots of Ethnic Conflict	77	(7)
Prejudice and Discrimination	77	(2)
Chips in the Mosaic	79	(2)
Aftermaths of Oppression	81	(3)
Race: Its Social Construction	84	(20)
Race and Racism	87	(4)
Race, Ethnicity, and Culture	91	(1)
The Cultural Construction of Race	92	(12)
Hypodescent: Race in the United States	92	(3)
Changes in North American Racial Classification	95	(2)
Not Us: Race in Japan	97	(3)
Phenotype and Fluidity: Race in Brazil	100	(4)
Race: Its Biological Dimensions	104	(17)
Racial Classification	106	(3)
Explanatory Approaches to Human Biological Diversity	109	(2)
Explaining Skin Color	109	(2)
Lactose Intolerance	111	(1)
The Case for Cultural versus Biological Determination of Physical Attractiveness and Sports Abilities	111	(3)
The Case for Cultural versus Biological Determination of Intelligence	114	(7)
Testing and Affirmative Action	118	(3)
Religion	121	(21)
Church and State	123	(2)
Politics and Religion	125	(1)
Religion and Solidarity	125	(4)
Ritualized Changes in Status and Identity	126	(3)
Religious Diversity	129	(7)
The World's Major Religions	131	(2)
Protestant Values	133	(2)
Social Control	135	(1)
Religion and Change	136	(6)
New and Alternative Religious Movements	137	(3)
Secular Religion	140	(2)
Gender	142	(18)
Nature, Nurture, and Gender	144	(2)
Gender Roles, Stratification, and the Economy	146	(7)
Gender among Foragers (Hunter-Gatherers)	147	(2)
Gender among Horticulturists	149	(1)
Reduced Gender Stratification---Matrilineal, Matrilocal Societies	149	(1)
Reduced Gender Stratification---Matrifocal Societies	150	(1)
Increased Gender Stratification---Patrilineal-Patrilocal Societies	151	(1)
Homosexual Behavior among the Etoro	152	(1)
Patriarchy and Violence	153	(1)
Gender and Industrialism	153	(5)
The Feminization of Poverty	156	(2)
What Determines Variation in Gender Issues?	158	(2)
The Impact of the Mass Media on Sex-Gender Roles	158	(2)
Sexual Orientation	160	(18)
The Nature and Culture of Sexual Orientation	162	(4)
Changing Patterns and Views of Sexual Orientation	166	(2)
Varieties of Human Sexuality	168	(2)
The Social Construction of Sexual Orientation	170	(3)
The Political Organization of Sexual Orientation	173	(5)
Age and Generation	178	(18)
Ages and Cohorts	181	(4)
The Generation Gap	185	(2)
An Aging Population	187	(3)
The Aging Process	190	(2)
Intergenerational Conflict	192	(1)
The Social Construction of Childhood	193	(3)
Bodies, Fitness, and Health	196	(16)
Culture and the Body	199	(5)
Well and Sick Bodies	204	(3)
People with Disabilities	207	(2)
Mental Health	209	(1)
Health and Healing in Cyberspace	210	(2)
Class	212	(19)
Class in America	214	(1)
Forms of Socioeconomic Stratification	215	(5)
Industrial Stratification	216	(1)
Poverty and Homelessness	217	(3)
Closed Class Systems	220	(1)
Domination, Hegemony, and Resistance	220	(3)
Class and Values across Cultures	223	(5)
Portrayals of Class in the Mainstream Media	225	(3)
Diversity within Social Categories	228	(3)
Where We Live	231	(19)
Regional Diversity	234	(1)
Geographic Mobility	235	(6)
Cities and Urbanites	241	(2)
Region and the Income Gap	243	(2)
Urban Ethnic Groups, Poverty, and Crime	245	(2)
The American Periphery	247	(3)
Speech	250	(15)
Linguistic Relativism	252	(1)
Sociolinguistics: The Study of Linguistic Diversity	253	(9)
Gender Speech Contrasts	254	(2)
Stratification and Symbolic Domination	256	(3)
Black English Vernacular (BEV), a.k.a. Ebonics	259	(3)
Education and Linguistic Diversity	262	(3)
Family Background	265	(18)
Changing North American Families	268	(1)
All Sorts of Families	269	(5)
Family and Work	274	(1)
Media and the Family	275	(2)
The Cult of Childhood ``Success''	277	(3)
Kinship and Class	280	(2)
Family Diversity	282	(1)
Conclusion	283
Using Culture to Build Humanity	285
From Civil Rights to Human Rights	288
Human Agency as a Prime Mover of Social Reform	290
Glossary	G-1
Bibliography	B
Photo Credits	P-1
Index	I-1