Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies

by Richard A., Shweder (Editor), Martha Minow (Editor), Hazel Rose Markus (Editor)

Overview

Liberal democracies are based on principles of inclusion and tolerance. But how does the principle of tolerance work in practice in countries such as Germany, France, India, South Africa, and the United States, where an increasingly wide range of cultural groups holds often contradictory beliefs about appropriate social and family life practices? As these democracies expand to include peoples of vastly different cultural backgrounds, the limits of tolerance are being tested as never before. Engaging Cultural Differences explores how liberal democracies respond socially and legally to differences in the cultural and religious practices of their minority groups. Building on such examples, the contributors examine the role of tolerance in practical encounters between state officials and immigrants, and between members of longstanding majority groups and increasing numbers of minority groups. The volume also considers the theoretical implications of expanding the realm of tolerance. Some contributors are reluctant to broaden the scope of tolerance, while others insist that the notion of "tolerance" is itself potentially confining and demeaning and that modern nations should aspire to celebrate cultural differences. Coming to terms with ethnic diversity and cultural differences has become a major public policy concern in contemporary liberal democracies, as they struggle to adjust to burgeoning immigrant populations. Engaging Cultural Differences provides a compelling examination of the challenges of multiculturalism and reveals a deep understanding of the challenges democracies face as they seek to accommodate their citizens' diverse beliefs and practices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871547958
Publisher:	Russell Sage Foundation
Publication date:	12/02/2004
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	499
Product dimensions:	6.62(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

RICHARD A. SHWEDER, an anthropologist, is professor of human development at the University of Chicago. MARTHA MINOW is professor of law at Harvard University. HAZEL R. MARKUS is professor of psychology at Stanford University. CONTRIBUTORS: Richard A. Shweder, Martha Minow, Hazel Rose Markus, Caroline Bledsoe, David L. Chambers, Jane Maslow Cohen, Joanna Davidson, Arthur N. Eisenberg, Karen Engle, Katherine Pratt Ewing, Heejung S. Kim, Corinne A. Kratz, Maivân Clech Lâm, Usha Menon, Victoria C. Plaut, Alison Dundes Renteln, Lloyd I. Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, Lawrence G. Sager, Austin Sarat, Claude M. Steele, Dorothy M. Steele, Nomi Stolzenberg, Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, and Unni Wikan.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xi
	Contributors	xiii
	Introduction: Engaging Cultural Differences	1
Part I	One Nation, Many Cultures: Contested Practices and Group Status in Liberal Democracies	17
Chapter 1	Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Assimilation But Were Afraid to Ask	19
Chapter 2	Living with Multiculturalism: Universalism and Particularism in an Indian Historical Context	43
Chapter 3	Legislating Religious Freedom: Muslim Challenges to the Relationship Between Church and State in Germany and France	63
Chapter 4	Civilizing the Natives: Customary Marriage in Post-Apartheid South Africa	81
Chapter 5	Immigrants, Agency, and Allegiance: Some Notes from Anthropology and from Law	99
Chapter 6	Citizenship on Trial: Nadia's Case	128
Part II	Cultural Accommodation and its Limits	145
Chapter 7	Accommodation and Coherence: in Search of a General Theory for Adjudicating Claims of Faith, Conscience, and Culture	147
Chapter 8	The Free Exercise of Culture: Some Doubts and Distinctions	165
Chapter 9	The Culture of Property	177
Chapter 10	In Defense of Culture in the Courtroom	194
Chapter 11	"What About Female Genital Mutilation?" and Why Understanding Culture Matters in the First Place	216
Chapter 12	About Women, About Culture: About Them, About Us	252
Part III	The Universal Human Rights Debate: Mobilization and Resistance	269
Chapter 13	Between Nationalism and Feminism: Indigenous Women, Community, and State	271
Chapter 14	Neither Victim Nor Rebel: Feminism and the Morality of Gender and Family Life in a Hindu Temple Town	288
Chapter 15	Circumcision Debates and Asylum Cases: Intersecting Arenas, Contested Values, and Tangled Webs	309
Chapter 16	From Skepticism to Embrace: Human Rights and the American Anthropological Association from 1947 to 1999	344
Part IV	Conceptions of Difference and the Differences They Make	363
Chapter 17	Cultural Models of Diversity in America: The Psychology of Difference and Inclusion	365
Chapter 18	The Micropolitics of Identity-Difference: Recognition and Accommodation in Everyday Life	396
Chapter 19	Plural Society and Interethnic Relations in Guinea-Bissau	417
Chapter 20	Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Silence: An Analysis of Talking as a Cultural Practice	432
Chapter 21	Color Blindness as a Barrier to Inclusion: Assimilation and Nonimmigrant Minorities	453
	Index	473

Editorial Reviews

A fresh attempt by scholars to tackle a central question of Western democracy: How should liberal societies respond to the cultural and religious practices of minority groups? In examining this challenge, the essays underscore the dilemmas inherent in efforts to balance commitments to liberty and equal rights with the goals of security, national identity, and community. Some chapters look at how immigrant groups import practices that challenge the limits of diversity and tolerance. Examples include the struggles over group rights in India, challenges by Muslims to traditions of church and state in France and Germany, and attempts by whites to "civilize" marriage customs in postapartheid South Africa. Other chapters ask how different traditions of law and culture can shape the accommodation of outside groups, suggesting that minorities are more easily accommodated in liberal democracies where cultural and religious differences can reside in a private sphere sharply separated from the public realm. These essays reveal complexities, dilemmas, and varied national experiences — quite an accomplishment in itself.

Foreign Affairs

What does mean and how does it work in practice, in such countries as the U.S., Germany, France, India, Norway, and South Africa? Twenty-five scholars<-->all but one from the U.S.<-->from the fields of law, anthropology, psychology, and political theory explore how liberal democracies do and should respond legally to differences in cultural and religious practices of minority group residents. The 21 essays explore the processes that create diversity, forms of cultural accommodation other than group status or rights, ways in which minority groups position themselves in relation to universal human rights claims, and the contrasting conceptions of group differences as they affect institutional and legal practices. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews