Suchergebnisse

THE COMMUNITY PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF IDENTITY AND CHARACTER, AND THE CHARACTERS THAT ARE MOLDED WILL DETERMINE THE FUTURE EXISTENCE OF THE COMMUNITY. TRADITIONALLY, RITES OF PASSAGE HAVE BEEN EMPLOYED TO INSURE THAT THE INDIVIDUAL WILL BECOME A LOYAL, RESPONSIBLE, AND PRODUCTIVE CITIZEN. HOWEVER, IN TODAY'S SECULAR DEMOCRACIES, WHERE VALUES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE RELATIVIZED, MANY INDIVIDUALS ARE RAISED WITHOUT AN EQUIVALENT PASSAGE INTO RESPONSIBLE ADULTHOOD. TODAY'S SOCIETIES MUST LEARN WAYS TO ACCOMPLISH THE FUNCTION THAT RITES OF PASSAGE IN PREVIOUS SOCIETIES HAVE SERVED.

For more than century, race was a major interest in anthropology. Buildingon Johan Blumenbach's 1795 color classificaiton dividing humanity into white, black, brown, yellow and red, anthropologists further subdivided the people of the world into finer taxonomic categories. Hair form, shape of the nose, pigmentation of the eyes and the hair, stature, and the shaps of the head were among the many characteristics race classifiers added to skin color to enable them to fit populations into the typologies they designed. By the end of the 19th century, numerous races and subraces had been described, laying the groundwork for the direction the discipline would follow until the mid-20th century. It was expected that the development and refinement of a racial typology would lead to a framework for tracing lines of human evolution and routes of human migration.

SOCIETAL CLEAVAGES BASED ON CULTURAL, ETHNIC, OR TRIBAL DIVISIONS ARE, IT CAN BE ARGUED, QUALITATIVELY DIFFERENT FROM THOSE BASED ON OTHER FACTORS (E.G., ECONOMIC IDEOLOGY). IN THIS CONTEXT, "ETHNICITY" CAN BE CONCEPTUALIZED AS A SET OF ASCRIBED AND ACQUIRED CHARACTERISTICS WHICH DERIVE PRINCIPALLY FROM AN INDIVIDUAL'S BIRTH AND UPBRINGING. ETHNICITY IS COMPOSED PRIMARILY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ELEMENTS WHICH CAN NOT BE SHED OR SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGED, EVEN IF AN INDIVIDUAL WISHES TO DO SO, AS EASILY AS CAN PURELY ACQUIRED CHARACTERISTICS SUCH AS ECONOMIC IDEOLOGY (E.G., CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM, COMMUNISM). IN THOSE SOCIETIES WITH POLITICALLY RELEVANT ETHNIC DIVISIONS, THE SWITCHING OF POLITICAL IDENTITIES IS A VERY RARE OCCURRENCE. IN THIS ARTICLE, THE PRINCIPAL PSYCHOLOGICAL ELEMENTS RELATED TO THE POLITICAL CLEAVAGE BETWEEN NORTHERN IRISH PROTESTANTS AND CATHOLICS ARE BRIEFLY REVIEWED. SECOND, THE MAIN POLITICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF THIS CLEAVAGE SINCE THE 1960S ARE SUMMARIZED, ESPECIALLY THE BEHAVIOR OF POLITICIANS AND VOTERS IN THE OCTOBER 1982 NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY ELECTION.

Globalization and dynamic transnational migrations are bringing remarkable demographic differences to Europe and the United States. Transnational immigration flows from Eastern Europe, Africa and elsewhere are creating economical and educational inequities that are forcing EU nation- states to reflect on these differences and imagine solutions. Immigrants bring cultural practices, forms of art, and perspectives on all aspects of human experience that transform and enrich the cultures of host countries. Dichotomies between natives and newcomers emerge, as well as new forms of identities and distinctions between "them" and "us". In addition, schools are not prepared to educate diverse children with varied educational backgrounds and languages. Societal inequities cannot be understood in isolation but rather need to be understood from a global perspective. This book gathers researchers from across the globe to examine paradigms, policies, and practices for developing an inclusive intercultural and transnational framework to reduce inequities. This is necessary to positively integrate culturally-diverse families, children and adolescents into schools and societies.