Conrad Kottak

On Being Different: Diversity and Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream (Revised) Conrad Kottak

Brief Description: "On Being Different provides an up-to-date, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary account of diversity and multiculturalism in the United States and Canada. Kottak (recent inductee to The National Academ of Scineces) and Kozaitis clarify essential issues, themes, and topics in the study of diversity, including ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. The book also presents an original theory of multiculturalism, showing how human agency and culture work to organize and change society. The authors use rich and varied ethnographic examples, from North America and abroad, to help students apply the material to their own lives, and thus gain a better understanding of diversity and multiculturalism"--Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; On Being Different provides an up-to-date, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary account of diversity and multiculturalism in the United States and Canada. Kottak (recent inductee to The National Academ of Scineces) and Kozaitis clarify essential issues, themes, and topics in the study of diversity, including ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. The book also presents an original theory of multiculturalism, showing how human agency and culture work to organize and change society. The authors use rich and varied ethnographic examples, from North America and abroad, to help students apply the material to their own lives, and thus gain a better understanding of diversity and multiculturalism--; Provided by publisher. Table of Contents: "Reflections""Preface""About the Authors"1. Introduction2. Culture3. Globalization and Identity4. The Multicultural Society5. Ethnicity6. Religion7. Race: Its Biological Dimensions8. Race: Its Social Construction9. Gender10. Sexual Orientation11. Age and Cohort12. Bodies, Fitness, and Health13. Class14. Places and Spaces15. Linguistic Diversity16. Families17. Conclusion "Glossary""Bibliography""Photo Credits""Index"Publisher Marketing: Understanding of cultural diversity is essential to a healthy multicultural society. Fundamental to this book's approach is the belief that a comparative, cross-cultural view of human differences and similarities enhances understanding of diversity and multiculturalism within contemporary North America. "On Being Different" provides an up-to-date, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary account of diversity and multiculturalism in the United States and Canada. Conrad Kottak and Kathryn Kozaitis clarify essential issues, themes, and topics in the study of diversity, including ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. The book also presents an original theory of multiculturalism, showing how human agency and culture work to organize and change society.

Contributor Bio:  Kottak, Conrad Conrad Phillip Kottak (A. B. Columbia, 1963; Ph. D. Columbia, 1966) is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where he has taught since 1968. In 1991 he was honored for his teaching by the University and the state of Michigan. In 1992 he received an excellence in teaching award from the College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts of the University of Michigan. Professor Kottak has done fieldwork in cultural anthropology in Brazil (since 1962), Madagascar (since 1966), and the United States. The third edition of Kottak's case study Assault on Paradise: Social Change in a Brazilian Village, based on his field work in Arembepe, Bahia, Brazil from 1962 through 1997, was published by McGraw-Hill in 1998. Kottak's other books include Prime-Time Society: An Anthropological Analysis of Television and Culture (1990) (Wadsworth), The Past in the Present: History, Ecology and Cultural Variation in Highland Madagascar (1980), Researching American Culture: A Guide for Student Anthropologists (1982) (both University of Michigan Press) and Madagascar: Society and History (1986) (Carolina Academic Press). The ninth edition of Kottak's texts Cultural Anthropology (2002) and the ninth edition of Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity (2002) were published by McGraw-Hill. Conrad Kottak's articles have appeared in academic journals including American Anthropologist, Journal of Anthropological Research, American Ethnologist, Ethnology, Human Organization, and Luso-Brazilian Review. He has also written for more popular journals, including Transaction/SOCIETY, Natural History, Psychology Today, and General Anthropology. In current research projects, Kottak and his colleagues have investigated the emergence of ecological awareness in Brazil, the social context of deforestation in Madagascar, and popular participation in economic development planning in northeastern Brazil. Contributor Bio:  Kozaitis, Kathryn Kathryn A. Kozaitis is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Georgia State University, and holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of Anthropology at Emory University. She received her Ph. D. in Social Work and Anthropology at the University of Michigan in 1993. Her key interests are in the relationship between global transformations and local adaptations, particularly in the processes by which economically, politically, and socially subordinated collectivities in a postcolonial world use culture to construct community, identity, and meaning. Professor Kozaitis has conducted ethnographic research on sociocultural change and adaptation among Gypsies in Athens, Greece, and on ethnicity and aging among Greek immigrants in Chicago, Illinois.