Sociology

According to Marx, what determines social class?

• Social class depends on a single factor: people's relationship to the means of production→ The tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth

What is intersexuality? Despite evidence of natural variation in human physiology, why are people so insistent that there are only two sexes?

• When a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.

The Medicalization of Deviance

•The medicalization of deviance is to make deviance a medical matter, a symptom of some underlying illness that needs to be treated by physicians •Thomas Szasz, a renegade in his profession of psychiatry, argues that mental illnesses are neither mental nor illnesses. They are simply problem behaviors. e.g. A.D.D •Some people fail to cope with life's challenges, and being overwhelmed become depressed, uncooperative, or hostile. •Szasz asserts that mental illness is a myth foisted on a naïve public

Neocolonialism:

•The ongoing dominance of the LDC's(Least Developed Countries) by the MDC's(Most Developed Countries)

According to Eglitis, what are the eleven functions of global poverty?

(1) Ensures the wealth of affordable goods (2) Benefits western companies/shareholders (increased profit margins) (3) Fosters access to resources in poor states (4) Supports western medical advances (5) Advances western societies with human capital (6) Contributes to the pacification of western proletariat (7) Poor countries are optimal dumping grounds (8) Provides jobs for specialists who observe the world's poor (9) Allows western countries to feel good about charity (10) Contributes to massive flow of resources westward (11) Poor countries are useful scapegoats

Eugene Hartley

The Far Reaching Nature of Prejudice Psychologist, Eugene Hartley (1946) asked people how they felt about several racial/ethnic groups Besides African Americans, Jews, etc, he also included Wallonians, Pirneans, and Danireans—names he made up. Most people who expressed dislikes for Jews and Blacks also expressed dislike for these 3 fictitious groups

Race:

• refers to a group of people with inherited physical characteristics that distinguish it from another group

Segregation

• the separation of racial or ethnic groups.

Democratic Façade:

•that conceals the real source of power in the United States.

Ashley Doane

asserts that if your group is relatively small, has little power, and looks different from most people in society, and is an object of discrimination, you are more likely to have a heightened sense of ethnic identity.

The six-class model:

capitalist class, the upper middle class, lower middle class, working class, working-poor class, and under class. The capitalist would be investors and top executives, the upper middle class would be professionals and upper managers, the middle class would be lower managers, foremen, the working class would be factory workers, low paid retail sales, craftspeople, the working poor would be laborers, low paid sales people, and finally the underclass would be unemployed, part-time, welfare

Patriarchy:

male dominance, appears to be universal. Besides work, male dominance is seen in education, politics, and everyday life.

Discrimination:

an act of unfair treatment directed against an individual or a group, while prejudice is an attitude or prejudging or an individual or group, usually, in a negative way

Racism:

• systematic enforcement of prejudice and discrimination on the basis of race.

Class Mobility:

• the movement of Americans from one social class or economic level to another,

What are some examples of social stratification systems?

• The three major ones are class, slavery and caste • 1)Slavery, 2)the class system, 3)India provides the best example of a caste system(Priest and teachers, rulers and soldiers, merchants and traders etc), 4)Apartheid in Africa(Everyone was classified by law into one of four groups: Europeans (whites), Africans (blacks), Coloureds (mixed races), and Asians, 5) The race class system: From the moment of birth race marked everyone for life. All whites, even if they were poor and uneducated considered themselves to have a higher status than all African Americans( this happened after slavery was over)

The Veil:

• The veil refers to the literal darker skin of Blacks, which is a physical demarcation of difference from whiteness. • The veil suggests white people's lack of clarity to see Blacks as "true" Americans. • The veil refers to Blacks' lack of clarity to see themselves outside of what white America describes and prescribes for them. • African Americans can only see themselves through the other world. Used to described the social distance between people.

What are the characteristics of each of the three waves of feminism?

• This first wave of the women's movement had a radical branch that wanted to reform all the institutions of society and a conservative branch whose goal was to win the vote for women. • The result was a second wave of protest against gender inequalities, roughly from the 1960s to the 1980s. About 1990, the second wave gradually merged into a third wave. • The third wave: This current wave has many divisions, but three main aspects are apparent: (1) A greater focus on the problems of women in the Least Industrialized Nations Women there are fighting battles against conditions long since overcome by women in the Most Industrialized Nations. (2) A criticism of the values that dominate work and society. Some feminists argue that competition, toughness, calloused emotions, and independence represent "male" qualities and need to be replaced with cooperation, connection, openness, and interdependence. (3) An emphasis on women's sexual pleasure.

Kathleen Blee

Sociologist Kathleen Blee (2005) interviewed women who were members of the KKK . a. Her first finding was that most women were recruited by someone who already belonged to the group b. Some, however, women learned to be racists after joining

Pluralism:

• A policy of multiculturalism, also called pluralism, permits or even encourages racial-ethnic variation. • The minority groups are able to maintain their separate identities, yet participate freely in the country's social institutions, from education to politics, e.g. Switzerland

What are the causes and conditions of slavery around the world?

• Causes of slavery, contrary to popular belief, does not stem from racism but rather from debt, crime, and war • Conditions of slavery differ around the world - In some places slavery was temporary - Slavery was not necessarily inheritable - Slaves were not necessarily powerless and poor • Slavery in the new world: Bonded labor/indentured service. -When there were no longer enough indentured servants to meet growing labor needs, colonists attempted to enslave Native Americans, which failed, and then turned to Africans

According to sociologists, how can race be seen as a constructed myth?

• In two senses, however, race is a myth • The first fabrication of the human mind is that any one race is superior to another (e.g. Adolf Hitler believed in a superior Aryan race), which can leads to devastating acts of genocide, the systematic annihilation of people because of their presumed race or ethnicity • The second fabrication is that there is a "pure" race exists • The mapping of the human genome system reveals that humans are strikingly homogenous, so-called racial groups only differ from another only once in a thousand subunits of the genome

Recidivism Rates:

• Recidivism rate is the proportion of released convicts who are rearrested • As seen, if the goal of prisons is to deter individuals from committing crimes, then they are colossal failures because a huge percent are rearrested.

Global Stratification:

• Refers to the hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups in societies around the world. Differences in income levels and poverty. Social stratification on a global scale. Inequalities between entire countries. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd worlds, which coined during the cold war. • Consists of three worlds: 1) The Most Industrialized Nations: The wealth in these nations is so enormous that even their poor live better and longer lives than do the average citizens of the Least Industrialized Nations. 2)The Industrializing Nations: Most people who live in the Industrializing Nations have much lower incomes and standards of living than do those who live in the Most Industrialized Nations, but are better off than least industrialized nations 3)The Least Industrialized Nations: Most people live on small farms or in villages, have large families, and barely survive. *This layering represents relative property, power, and prestige. The oil-rich nations are an exception.

Sex:

• Sex is the biological characteristics that distinguish males and females. • Primary sex characteristics consist of a vagina or a penis and other organs related to reproduction. •Secondary sex characteristics are the physical distinctions between males and females that are not directly connected with reproduction.

Ethnicity:

• refers to cultural characteristics • Ethnicity refers to people who identify with one another on the basis of common ancestry or cultural heritage • Their sense of belonging may center on their nation or region of origin, distinctive foods, clothing, language, music, religion or family names and relationships (e.g. Jews are an ethnic group rather than a racial group)

Genocide:

• the systematic annihilation of people because of their presumed race or ethnicity

Wealth Disparity:

•Just 10 percent of the nation's families own 75 percent of the nation's wealth. •Since 1970, the richest 20 percent of U.S. families have grown richer, while the poorest 20 percent have grown poorer. •Despite numerous government antipoverty programs, the poorest 20 percent of Americans receive less of the nation's income today than they did decades ago. •The richest 20 percent, in contrast, are receiving more, about as much as they did in 1935.

Gender:

•While sex refers to inherited biological differences, gender refers to the behaviors and attitudes that a society considers proper for its male and female members of society; masculinity or femininity or masculinities and femininities •You inherit your sex, but you learn your gender which sorts us on the basis of sex and is sociological significant because it is a devise by which society controls and organizes its members

Gender Stratification:

•refers to unequal access to property, power, and prestige on the basis of sex. •Each society establishes a structure that, on the basis of sex and gender, opens and closes doors to its privileges

Colonialism:

•stresses that the countries that industrialized first got the jump on the rest of the world. •The purpose of colonialism was to establish economic colonies—to exploit the nation's people and resources for the benefit of the "mother" country.

Functionalist Perspective

In the functionalist perspective, societies are thought to function like organisms, with various social institutions working together like organs to maintain and reproduce societies. According to functionalist theories, institutions come about and persist because they play a function in society, promoting stability and integration. The functionalist perspective, also called functionalism, is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It has its origins in the works of Emile Durkheim, who was especially interested in how social order is possible or how society remains relatively stable. -Functionalism interprets each part of society in terms of how it contributes to the stability of the whole society. Society is more than the sum of its parts; rather, each part of society is functional for the stability of the whole society. -The different parts are primarily the institutions of society, each of which is organized to fill different needs and each of which has particular consequences for the form and shape of society. The parts all depend on each other. -For example, the government, or state, provides education for the children of the family, which in turn pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running. The family is dependent upon the school to help children grow up to have good jobs so that they can raise and support their own families. In the process, the children become law-abiding, taxpaying citizens, who in turn support the state.

Social Stratification(Macro):

-Social stratification is a system in which groups of people are divided into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige (this does not refer to individuals). 1)It is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences 2)Persists over generations 3)Is universal, it happens everywhere, takes different forms depending on the place 4)Involves not only inequality but beliefs as well *social stratification mainly happens because of structural functionalism(inequality plays a vital role to the smooth operations of a society, for example we must pay more those to do the harder jobs because not everyone can do those job unlike cleaning toilets), social conflict(social stratification benefits some at the expense of others i.e Marx, and Weber) Marx came up with the Bourgeoisie(owner) and then the proleteriats(workers) The owners give the workers just enough to survive, and symbolic interaction. Weber agreed that social social stratification causes social conflict

Conflict Perspective:

-Unlike the structural functional theory, which views society as a peaceful unit, conflict theory interprets society as a struggle for power between groups engaging in conflict for limited resources. Karl Marx is the founder of conflict theory. -Conflict perspective is one of the major theoretical approaches to sociological thought. It originated with Karl Marx and his critique of capitalism and has since developed along a number of lines. In general, the conflict perspective assumes that social life is shaped by groups and individuals who struggle or compete with one another over various resources and rewards, resulting in particular distributions of power, wealth, and prestige in societies and social systems. -These shape the patterns of everyday life as well as things such as racial, ethnic, and class inequality and relations among nations and regions of the world.

Diana Eglitus

Eglitis stipulates that most industrialized countries benefit from the consequences of global stratification.

What are the sociological theories of prejudice? How do these theories differ from psychological theories?

Psychological theories of prejudice stress the authoritarian personality and frustration displaced toward scapegoats • People often unfairly blame their troubles on a scapegoat—often a racial-ethnic or religious minority. • People who are unable to strike out at the real source of their frustration (such as unemployment) look for someone to blame. This person or group becomes a target on which they vent their frustrations. Sociological theories focus on how different social environments increase or decrease prejudice. • Functionalists stress the benefits and costs that come from discrimination, e.g. Anti-Semitism's function in Germany post WW1 • Conflict theorists look at how the groups in power exploit racial-ethnic divisions in order to control workers and maintain power. • Symbolic interactionists stress how labels create selective perception and self-fulfilling prophecies. Symbolic interactionists stress that the labels we learn affect the ways we perceive people. • Labels create selective perception; that is, they lead us to see certain things while they blind us to others.

How is social stratification maintained?

Soft Control versus Force o Controlling People's Ideas o Controlling Information o Stifling Criticism(Criticism that will make them feel oppressed) o Big Brother Technology

Georg Simmel

Stated that the value of something is determined by the distance from its actor. In "The Stranger", Simmel discusses how if a person is too close to the actor they are not considered a stranger, but if they are too far they would no longer be a part of a group. The particular distance from a group allows a person to have objective relationships with different group members.

Why is social stratification universal according to conflict and functionalist theorists? How does Lenski's synthesis shed light on the issue of social stratification?

The functionalist view of social stratification, developed by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, concludes that stratification is inevitable because society must make certain that its positions are filled; ensure that the most qualified people fill the most important positions; and finally, to motivate the most qualified individuals to fill the most important positions, society must offer them the greatest reward to fill the most important positions. Conflict theorists contend that conflict, not function, is the basis of social stratification. Italian sociologist Gaetano Mosca argued that in every society groups compete for power. The groups that gain power use that power to manipulate, control, and exploit the groups "beneath them." Members of the ruling elite in every society develop ideologies that justify their society's social stratification system. By dominating their society's major social institutions and, thereby, controlling information and ideas, members of the ruling elite are able to socialize other group members into accepting their "proper places" in the social order. Marx believed the elite maintained their position at the top of the stratification system by seducing the oppressed into believing their welfare depended on keeping society stable. Gerhard Lenski suggested the key to understanding stratification is based on the accumulation of surplus.

WEB Du Bois

o Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk in 1903. His book offers an assessment of the progress of the African-American race, the obstacles to progress, and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the 20th century. It is considered a groundbreaking work in African-American literature. Some consider it to be an American classic. o In his book, Du Bois proposes that the problem with the 20th century was the 'color-line.' The phrase 'color line' was a reference to the racial segregation that existed in the United States after the abolition of slavery. Some consider Du Bois' concepts of life behind the cover of race and 'double-consciousness' to be the norm for African Americans in America. Double consciousness is considered a person caught between the self-conception of being 'American' as well as a person of African descent, making it difficult to have a unified identity.

Double Consciousness:

• Seeing oneself through the eyes of the dominate group in addition to one's own vision of the self, yet the two visions contradict each other. • this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others. The feeling of two-ness. An American and a Negro. This sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. *The colored line: the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in asia and Africa

Slavery:

• Slavery is a form of social stratification in which some people own other people Causes of slavery, contrary to popular belief, does not stem from racism but rather from debt, crime, and war Conditions of slavery differ around the world - In some places slavery was temporary - Slavery was not necessarily inheritable - Slaves were not necessarily powerless and poor Slavery in the new world: Bonded labor/indentured service. When there were no longer enough indentured servants to meet growing labor needs, colonists attempted to enslave Native Americans, which failed, and then turned to Africans

Lenski's Synthesis:

• Surplus is the key • Lenski said that functionalists are right when it comes to groups that do not accumulate a surplus, such as hunting and gathering societies. • These societies give a greater share of their resources to those who take on important tasks, such as warriors who risk their lives in battle. • It is a different story, said Lenski, with societies that accumulate surpluses. • In them, groups fight over the surplus, and the group that wins becomes an elite.

The Horatio Alger Myth:

• The "Horatio Alger myth" is the "classic" American success story and character arc, the trajectory from "rags to riches". • The Horatio Alger myth is the belief that due to limitless possibilities, anyone can get ahead if he or she tries hard enough.

The Prison Industrial Complex:

• The U.S. has more prisons than any other nations in the world • We are not able to build prisons fast enough to hold all incoming prisoners • The states and federal government have hired private companies to operate additional prisons • 120,000 prisoners are held in these for profit prisons

What is the six-class model developed by Kahl and Gilbert based on Weber's definition of social class? What are the characteristics of each class?

• The three main factors that Gilbert used to propose his model were income, education, and occupation. • The six social classes that provide the basis for the Gilbert model are determined based on the assumption of how class structure develops out of the economic system

How is global stratification maintained?

• There are two basic explanations for why the world's countries remain stratified. (1) Neocolonialism: The ongoing dominance of the LDC's by the MDC's (2) The influence of multinational corporations: The new technology gives further advantage to the Most Industrialized Nations and fosters global domination

The Global Superclass:

• a small group of highly interconnected individuals in which wealth and power are so concentrated that they make the world's major decisions • The growing interconnections among the world's wealthiest people have produced a global superclass, one in which wealth and power are more concentrated than ever before. • The richest 1,000 of this superclass have more wealth than the 2 1/2 billion poorest people on this planet.

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective:

-The symbolic interaction perspective, also called symbolic interactionism, is a major framework of sociological theory. This perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that PEOPLE DEVELOP AND RELY UPON THE PROCESS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION. Although symbolic interactionism traces its origins to Max Weber's assertion that individuals act according to their interpretation of the meaning of their world, the American philosopher George Herbert Mead introduced this perspective to American sociology in the 1920s. -Symbolic interaction theory ANALYZES SOCIETY BY ADDRESSING THE SUBJECTIVE MEANINGS THAT PEOPLE IMPOSE ON OBJECTS, EVENTS, AND BEHAVIORS. Subjective meanings are given primacy because it is believed that people behave based on what they believe and not just on what is objectively true( smoking because it you think it makes you look cool rather than not smoking when you know it is bad for you). Thus, society is thought to be socially constructed through human interpretation. People interpret one another's behavior and it is these interpretations that form the social bond. These interpretations are called the "definition of the situation." For example, why would young people smoke cigarettes even when all objective medical evidence points to the dangers of doing so? -We also interpret people's actions and sayings based on race and gender because it is a socially constructed idea that they are different from Whites or males.

What are the three elements of social class commonly used and defined by Weber?

1)Property (or wealth): ownership is not the only significant aspect of property; some powerful people, such as managers of corporations, control the means of production even though they do not own them. 2)Power, the second element of social class, is the ability to control others, even over their objections. 3)Prestige, the third element in Weber's analysis, is often derived from property and power, since people tend to admire the wealthy and powerful.

How can we relate Cooley's assertions about the development of the self-idea to double consciousness?

A self-idea has three principle elements according to Cooley: (1) The imagination of our appearance: You imagine how you appear to the others (2) The imagination of his/her judgment of that appearance: Imagine the judgment of the other people (3) Some sort of self-feeling: You feel some sense of pride, happiness, guilt or shame *Double consciousness: African Americans present two faces, one to their own social circle and then another to the dominant society. • Seeing oneself through the eyes of the dominate group in addition to one's own vision of the self, yet the two visions contradict each other. • this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others. The feeling of two-ness. An American and a Negro. This sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. *Double consciousness and self-idea relate because in both terms an individual is basing off what they think of themselves on others. In the self-idea, the person is thinking about how they will look to the other people and therefore the person may change they way they feel about themselves depending on how others think about him or her. In double consciousness the A.A sees themselves through how they are viewed in society. See that the way they see themselves and the way the others look at them contradict. *in imagination we perceive in another's mind some thought of our appearance, manners, aims, deeds, character, friends, and so on, and are variously affected by it (Cooley, 1964: 184)." This is useful in understanding the role played by shame in double consciousness; the shame that results from "measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity."

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and spokeswoman for the feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 70s. What if men could menstruate?

Institutional Discrimination:

Institutional discrimination is negative treatment that is built into social institutions. Institutional discrimination can occur without the awareness of either those who do the discriminating or those who are discriminated against. Ex) health care discrepancies and home mortgages (minorities are more likely to be turned down for home mortgages, whether their incomes are below or above the median income of their community)

Max Weber

Max Weber: Property, Power, and Prestige Property (or wealth): ownership is not the only significant aspect of property; some powerful people, such as managers of corporations, control the means of production even though they do not own them. Power, the second element of social class, is the ability to control others, even over their objections. Prestige, the third element in Weber's analysis, is often derived from property and power, since people tend to admire the wealthy and powerful.

What are some of the consequences of social class?

Some consequences of social class are • Physical health: the poor have ore stressors in their life and therefore tend to have poorer health since their immune system is weakened. People in the lower class are more likely to smoke, be over weight, abuse drugs and practice unsafe sex • Education: Public Education vs. Private education • Politics: People of the lower class tend to be less politically active • Crime and criminal justice: People of the lower class are more likely to be in prison, on probation, or parole. The lower class are also more likely to be robbed or murdered since most lower class criminals tend to steal and kill in their own neighborhoods

Class System:

The class system is much more open, since it is based primarily on money or material possessions, which can be acquired. • This system, too, is in place at birth, when children are ascribed the status of their parents. Unlike the other systems, however, individuals can change their social class by what they achieve (or fail to achieve) in life. • A major characteristic of the class system, then, is its relatively fluid boundaries. A class system allows social mobility, movement up or down the class ladder.

Karl Marx

o In the 19th century, a German philosopher named Karl Marx began exploring the relationship between economy and the workers within that system. Over his lifetime, Marx developed a theory that human societies progress though a struggle between two distinct social classes. The proletariat, the workers, are the lower class. They perform the labor, but the upper class managers, bosses, and rulers, called the bourgeoisie, get the profits. In this system, which became known as Marxism, governments existed to protect the wealthy, not the common good. o Marx's theories formed a sociological perspective called conflict theory, which stated that capitalist societies were built on conflicts between the workers and the rulers. In this theory, society relies on class conflict in order to keep the wealthy in power and the poor as subjects to the government. Conflict theory has been used to examine several aspects of society that are built upon class conflict, which Marx argued were designed to protect the wealthy, not society as a whole. o Class consciousness: The workers did not know that they were being exploited

George Murdock

o Murdock did a very comprehensive study in which he examined over 200 pre-industrial societies from all over the world. He found that they had many things in common, including typical gender roles for men and women. Murdock saw that even though these societies did have some differences, such as culture or common types of food, general social roles for men and women were similar for almost every society he studied. o Murdock noted that men generally were expected to complete tasks related to hunting and warfare. These tasks required being physically strong and tough and living in rough conditions away from home, sometimes for weeks or months at a time. In contrast, women were generally expected to complete tasks related to cooking and childcare. These tasks were considered better for women because of their nurturing, more delicate nature. Again, the important thing about Murdock's study is that these general expectations were true across hundreds of different studies. o Murdock concluded that the reason for these cultural similarities was men and women's physical natures. Men are generally taller and physically stronger, so it makes sense that many societies would give them tasks related to physical strength. Women are often softer and give birth to children, so again, it makes sense that societies would assign roles to them related to taking care of those children. Note that Murdock did notice some similarities across different cultures where there was more equality between men and women. For example, Murdock said that men and women were almost equally represented as farmers in the communities he studied, and men and women were equally likely to have body art like tattoos. o **Murdock agreed with the functionalist approach, and in particular, how it explains socially-constructed gender roles. o After completing his cross-cultural studies, he found that the sexual division of labor -- that is, women typically in the home and men working outside the home -- exists in all cultures (though, like cultural universals, the roles of each gender may be different.) It should be noted that Murdock didn't see this division as a biological device, but rather as a logical outcome of the gender differences in societies.

What is the problem of the 20th century according to Dubois? Explain the veil and double consciousness.

• "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line, the question as to how far differences of race...will hereafter be made the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization." • The Veil, How does it feel to be the problem? o The veil refers to the literal darker skin of Blacks, which is a physical demarcation of difference from whiteness. o The veil suggests white people's lack of clarity to see Blacks as "true" Americans. o The veil refers to Blacks' lack of clarity to see themselves outside of what white America describes and prescribes for them. • "The Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with a second sight in this American world—a world which yields him no self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world..."

According to World Systems Theory, how is the globe stratified? How has this stratification led to a culture of poverty in semi-peripheral, peripheral, and external nations?

• According to world system theory, industrialization led to four groups of nations. (1) The core nations, the countries that industrialized first, which grew rich and powerful (e.g. Britain, France, Holland and later Germany) (2) The semiperiphery, the economies of these nations stagnated because they grew dependent on trade with the core nations (e.g. Mediterranean countries) (3) The periphery, or fringe nations, developed even less (e.g. Eastern European countries) (4) The fourth group of nations or external area, was left out of the development of capitalism (e.g. Africa & Asia) • The globalization of capitalism—the adoption of capitalism around the world—has created extensive ties among the world's nations.

Assimilation

• Assimilation is the process by which a minority group is absorbed into the mainstream culture. • There are two types. (1) Forced assimilation, the dominant group refuses to allow the minority to practice its religion, to speak its language, or to follow its customs. (2) Permissible assimilation, in contrast, allows the minority to adopt the dominant group's patterns in its own way and at its own speed.