Essay on the A. Maceo Smith's Neighborhood Cultural Diversity

Read pages 95, 98 & 100 - 102

1. Is your neighborhood culturaly diverse? Use the chart of Cultural Universals to help think of cultural traits that your neighborhood has. For each of these traits, does everyone in your neighborhood do them the same (same pronunciation of language, same symbols that they identify with, same family structures and issues, same traditions and beleifs, etc.), or are there groups of people that do these things differently? If there are groups of people who are different, what social characteristics characteristics do they share (are they of another race, gender, age or religion?


2. Is your neighborhood ethnocentric? That is, are they convinced of their superiority and therefore are intolerant of outsiders?


3. If people of different cultures move into your neighborhood, what could the neighborhood do to ease cultural tensions?