Reference no: EM133732709

Case: The introduction to Chapter 3 briefly describes the various strategies that individuals and cultures use to negotiate cultural differences. The central question for this project is, "What happens when different groups meet and regard each other as alien, as other?"

The editors explore several strategies for groups to negotiate their differences:

"Communication through fear and withdrawal" (P. 247.)
"Persuasion and appeals to shared values ( P. 248.)
"The construction of sympathy or mutual self-interests;"
Contact zones and middle grounds - social spaces where two cultures come together, clash, and ultimately blend to form a new hybrid culture.
Some of the questions that the reading in this project provoke are:

Are there universal human values that we can appeal to, or do cultures have very different cultural frameworks of understanding?
When cultures negotiate differences, does it always occur within the context of asymmetrical power relations, meaning the two groups confronting each other are often unequal?

A contact zone occurs when the minority or subaltern culture finds ways of accommodating the dominant culture. An example of a contact zone occurred in Mexico with the conquest. Even though the Spanish conquered Mexico, indigenous cultures found ways of maintaining their traditions while incorporating the dominant Spanish Catholic culture. This cultural fusion can be seen in the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which combines elements of indigenous Nahua (Aztec) culture and Spanish Catholicism.