[Xmca-l] Re: Activity Setting

[Cliff O'Donnell]

> What I am left wondering about is your observation in the context of  
> the intervention in the American Indigenous community that "the  
> groups (adults on one hand and youth on the other) formed different  
> cultural communities." Is the "cultural" qualification to  
> "communities" the operative word in this surprising claim? I.e.,  
> they belong to the same community, but not the same "cultural  
> community"?

	They belong to, i.e. live in, the same town, but not the same  
cultural communities. They participate in mostly different activity  
settings and have developed different shared meanings. Even when they  
are participating in the same general activity, say a birthday party,  
they still group with their own youth/adults and often have a  
different shared meaning of the event (as when female youth see adult  
men becoming intoxicated at the party and expect sexual abuse to  
follow).

> It is quite the norm, isn't it, for such chisms to exist within  
> communities.

	Yes, it is common for different groups to vary, sometimes  
dramatically, in the activity settings in which they participate. This  
phenomena can then be useful as an indicator of different cultural  
communities within the same town, high school, etc.

	Cliff

Clifford R. O'Donnell, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Past-President, Society for Community Research and Action (APA  
Division 27)

University of Hawai‘i
Department of Psychology
2530 Dole Street
Honolulu, HI 96822