Cultural Diversity

When we speak of “the culture” to which an individual belongs, our reference is generally to the system of understandings (values, prescriptions, proscriptions, beliefs, and other constructs) characteristic of that individual’s society or to some subgroup within his society—that is, ethnic minorities, social classes, countercultures, generations, sexes, and occupational groups. This is the traditional notion of culture employed by functionalist anthropologists in their analyses of the behavioral patterns and normative customs of groups (Garcia, 2003).

The culture concept, with its technical anthropological meaning, was first defined by Edward Tylor in 1871 as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1963, p. 81). Over time, various perspectives ...