Suggests that Margaret Mead's distinctions among three kinds of culture--here referred to as "traditional,""transitional," and "learning"--are useful in understanding the current controversy over how much the Western tradition should be emphasized in the curriculum. (EVL)

Discusses the culture of Caribbean immigrants to the United States and its effect on their adaptation to the American health system. Proposes that health policy direct additional funding to areas where Caribbeans are concentrated, and that Americans develop understanding of the cultural differences between Caribbeans and U.S. native, non-White…

This paper reviews literature on ethnicity and acculturation, presents a theoretical framework whose master variable is the nature of an ethnic group's organization, and applies the theory to the Greek colony of Tarpon Springs, Florida. It is shown that when the key features of cultural continuity (church, language schools, voluntary associations)…

Demographic patterns of immigration to the United States from Ireland are examined, and a scenario is projected for Irish immigration in the twenty-first century. It is argued that the wave of Irish immigration of the 1980s will prove to be a last gasp of a 200-year-old tradition. (SLD)

The attribution of low literacy levels among Gypsy children to difficulties of access to schools neglects underlying sociocultural explanations. There has been little analysis in reports/studies of Gypsy attitudes toward literacy, nor of outcomes of acquisition. Informed by new literacy theory and by the discourse of previous ethnographic studies,…

Proposes an examination of the motives in having biochemistry students perform practical laboratory exercises. Suggests that a typical course should be viewed as a progression of skills development culminating in a final year, open-ended research project that demands that the skills be used competently and efficiently. (DDR)

Criticizes Brown's (TESOL Quarterly, 1980) optimal distance model of target language acquisition for having neglected the issue of possibly harmful effects of sociocultural factors upon learners. A distinction is made between second and foreign language learners' motivations. Pedagogic implications are drawn. (Author/AMH)

Examines the extent to which sociocultural features influence the emergence of a standard Nigerian English. (Author/AM)

This paper examines the socio-cultural problems affecting new immigrants. The first part presents a person-centered ecological theoretical framework with two points of departure: the individual in his/her biological cognitive and socio-cultural sphere, and the person's communicative behavior. The data is drawn largely from a 1967-1979 project in…

Reviews recent demographic changes in the United States and projections for the future. Suggests that the response to the new diversity can emphasize either assimilation or cultural pluralism and cultural transformation. Introduces eight articles in which anthropologists take a strong position in favor of the latter course. (EVL)

It is argued that the term "propriospect" is needed to define the private and subjective view of the world and its contents that each person develops through personal experience. The term can serve anthropologists for the constellation of cultural competencies a person achieves. (SLD)

Research findings have confirmed the view that if mental health practice is to be relevant and responsive to minorities, it must consciously and deliberately take into account their ethnic heritage and culture. The world views of ethnic minorities, or the ways in which they perceive their relationship to nature, institutions, other people, and…

American expatriates, particularly those in business who are assigned abroad, often learn very little of the language and culture of the countries to which they are assigned. Some explanations of this phenomenon are offered based on observation of two U.S. communities in Tripoli, Libya, and Medan (Sumatra) from 1965 to 1973. First, the needs for…

The Omaha have kept themselves together as a people throughout the century when they were expected to have vanished. They are strong today precisely because they have remained emotionally bound to an Indian identity, taking elements of white culture that are of benefit while retaining the traditional cultural spirit. (JHZ)

Pueblo author Simon Ortiz discusses Indigenous authors' use of their native language as a form of self-assertion, pointing out how African literature drives the decolonizing impulse in literature today. Use of the dominant language would reach a larger audience but would also make transmission of colonizers' cultural assumptions unavoidable while…