Cultural Diversity in the United States : A Critical Reader

by Susser, Ida; Patterson, Thomas C.

• ISBN13: 9780631222132
• ISBN10: 0631222138
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-05
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Cultural Diversity in the United States: A Critical Reader is an unprecedented collection of contemporary writings on the central issues of cultural diversity in the United States by some of anthropology's most notable scholars. Comprised of over 20 newly commissioned chapters and other pieces, and sponsored by the American Anthropological Association, this volume offers a wide range of perspectives from anthropologists as a means of understanding how the discipline can provide critical contexts for the exploration of cultural diversity in the United States. Moreover, the breadth of anthropological inquiry collected here represents a remarkable opportunity for those studying or teaching this vital issue. The contributors to this landmark reader rethink diversity, identity politics, and multiculturalism, and provide tools for the analysis of critical political issues in the United States today. Important areas of discussion include: re-examining U.S. social and political history; establishing a framework for the understanding of inequality; and confronting simplistic images of diversity in an effort to enrich and deepen understanding of difference.

Author Biography

Ida Susser is Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and was the founding President of the Society for the Anthropology of North America. Her books include AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean (edited with George Bond, Joan Vincent, and John Kreniske, 1997), Medical Anthropology and the World System (co-authored with Merrill Singer and Hans Baer, 1997), and Norman Street: Poverty and Politics in an Urban Community (1982).

Thomas C. Patterson is Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Riverside. His books include Change and Development in the Twentieth Century (1999), Inventing Western Civilization (1997), Making Alternative Histories (edited with Peter R. Schmidt, 1995), and Race, Racism, and the History of U.S. Anthropology (edited with Lee Baker, 1994).

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Yolanda T. Moses
Preface	xi
Ida Susser
Acknowledgments	xii
Notes on Contributors	xiii
Part I Introduction
Cultural Diversity in the United States	3	(13)
Ida Susser
Class and Historical Process in the United States	16	(13)
Thomas C. Patterson
Part II The Biology of Difference?
Biological Diversity and Cultural Diversity: From Race to Radical Bioculturalism	29	(17)
Alan H. Goodman
The Peoplings of the Americas: Anglo Stereotypes and Native American Realities	46	(11)
C. Loring Brace
A. Russell Nelson
Diversity in the Context of Health and Illness	57	(19)
Cheryl Mwaria
Health, Disease, and Social Inequality	76	(27)
Merrill Singer
Part III Historical Development of Contemporary Diversity
The Color-Blind Bind	103	(17)
Lee D. Baker
Racialized Identities and the Law	120	(20)
Sally Engle Merry
Diversity and Archaeology	140	(15)
Thomas C. Patterson
The Roots of U.S. Inequality	155	(20)
Elizabeth M. Scott
Part IV Diversity: Where Are We Now?
Contemporary Native American Struggles	175	(15)
Thomas Biolsi
The Complex Diversity of Language in the United States	190	(16)
Bonnie Urciuoli
Labor Struggles: Gender, Ethnicity, and the New Migration	206	(23)
June Nash
Poverty and Homelessness in U.S. Cities	229	(21)
Ida Susser
Ethnic Enclaves and Cultural Diversity	250	(17)
Kenneth J. Guest
Peter Kwong
Perspectives on U.S. Kinship	267	(14)
A. Lynn Bolles
Ethnicity and Psychocultural Models	281	(21)
Michael Winkelman
Aging in the United States: Diversity as a Late-Life Concern	302	(20)
Maria D. Vesperi
Sexual Minorities and the New Urban Poverty	322	(21)
Jeff Maskovsky
Part V Theorizing Diversity
Studying U.S. Cultural Diversity: Some Non-Essentializing Perspectives	343	(22)
Douglas Foley
Kirby Moss
Diversity in Anthropological Theory	365	(26)
Karen Brodkin
Part VI Teaching Diversity
Building Bridges and Empowerment: Anthropological Contributions to Diversity and Educational Practices	391	(14)
Steven F. Arvizu
Teaching Ethnicity and Place in the United States	405	(9)
J. Diego Vigil
Curtis C. Roseman
An Archaeological Approach to Teaching U.S. Cultural Diversity	414	(20)
Ruben G. Mendoza
Against Culturalist Essentialism	434	(23)
Judith Goode
Afterword: Understanding U.S. Diversity - Where Do We Go From Here?	457	(8)
Louise Lamphere
Index	465