Cultural diversity in unequal societies sustained through cross-cultural competence and identity valuation

Bibliographic Data

ID22236124
AuthorsJohn A Bunce (0000-0003-4092-485X, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume8
Issue1
Publication date2021-10-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHumanities and Social Sciences Communications (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2662-9992 • E-ISSN: 2662-9992
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/s41599-021-00916-5
OpenAlexW3205326726
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited51

In much contemporary political discourse, valued cultural characteristics are threatened by interaction with culturally distinct others, such as immigrants or a hegemonic majority. Such interaction often fosters cross-cultural competence (CCC), the ability to interact successfully across cultural boundaries. However, most theories of cultural dynamics ignore CCC, making cultural diversity incompatible with mutually beneficial inter-group interaction, and contributing to fears of cultural loss. Here, interview-based field methods at an Amazonian ethnic boundary demonstrate the prevalence of CCC. These data motivate a new theoretical mathematical model, incorporating competing developmental paths to CCC and group identity valuation, that illuminates how a common strategy of disempowered minorities can counter-intuitively sustain cultural diversity within a single generation: Given strong group identity, minorities in a structurally unequal, integrative society can maintain their distinctive cultural norms by learning those of the majority. Furthermore, rather than a rejection of, or threat to, majority culture, the valuation of a distinctive minority identity can characterize CCC individuals committed to extensive, mutually beneficial engagement with the majority as members of an integrative, multi-cultural society

Collective identity · Cultural diversity · Cultural group selection · Cultural hegemony · Cultural identity · Economics · Environmental ethics · Ethnic group · Hegemony · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Cultural Differences and Values · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology