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Hill's typology of comparative family research is a challenging attempt to classify international, e.g., cross-cultural, research. This paper intends to criticize some details of this classification, particularly concerning methodological issues. The main point stressed here is the problem of the reconceptualization of the research problem for each different country in which the research has to be carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study concerning intermarriage between religious groups namely, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews in the U.S. The findings are based to test the validity of the triple-melting- pot hypothesis in Catholics and assimilation between the three groups. The study found variations in rates of intermarriage from one section of the country and the principal. The factors determining the difference include the relative percentage of Catholics in the total population, the presence of cohesive ethnic sub-groups in the community, and the socio-economic class of the Catholic population. A much higher mixed marriage rate for Catholics was found than the formulators of the triple-melting-pot hypothesis believed.

This study of Indians married to Western nationals suggests that cross-national marriages are an extension of an already established international life style rather than the initiator of involvement with other cultures. Prior to meeting their partners, 70 per cent of the subjects had been involved in international networks on more than a superficial basis. Forty per cent identified with more than one culture before meeting their partners. Rebellion and rejection of culture of origin do not appear to be important factors encouraging cross-national marriages. Data are from interviews with 113 Indian-Western couples living in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author discusses advertising in developing countries and their potential as markets. The author presents an examination of the behavior of consumers in these markets and discusses the challenges that advertisers face in reaching them. He notes that advertising messages need to be tailored to their social and cultural differences and that great attention needs to be given to packaging. He notes that in order to carry out this type of strategy advertisers need to conduct in-depth market research. The author also discusses the importance of creating primary demands for basic products that will improve the consumer's life. He notes that this is the job of the mass-communicator.

Literature on American advertising suggests that the values promulgated by advertising may help ethnic groups achieve middle-class orientations in the American society. Hence, advertising may function as an accultural variable if positively perceived by ethnic members. This study specifically refers to a comparative analysis between the American Whites and Negroes (as control groups} and Japanese Americans (as experimental group} on value perceptions of advertising as an institution. The results, however, have clearly shown largely negative attitudes toward advertising on the part of Japanese Americans. The conceptual differences observed across the ethnic lines can be traced both theoretically and empirically based on communications literature. Of most notable finding here is the working of strong psychological defense mechanisms on the part of Japanese Americans to selectively perceive outside values, supported by a Buddhist virtue of uppekha (or internal equanimity through non-attachment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of South Africa offers the marketer a special challenge in its clear- cut stratification in multiple cultures, modulated by stronger cross-cultural currents than most outsiders perceive. Homogenization versus heterogenization as a deliberate strategy frequently becomes a critical choice. The white minority of the population enjoys a standard of living comparable to most West European countries. The vast majority is represented by Bantu, economically better off than Negroes elsewhere in Africa. Consumer-oriented marketing management holds a key to continued rapid improvement — and self-improvement — of Bantu life. Indeed, by effective action in this regard business may importantly contribute to the bridging of the gaps between the races, a likely condition of long-term survival of the Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on a survey of management problems among groups of businessmen from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and Michigan. The author presents a comparison of the problems perceived by the two sets of managers and offers solutions to each set based on cultural aspects particular to each group. A discussion is presented about the differences in the business climate and situations that exist between Brazil and Michigan. An overview of cultural differences affecting international business is presented.

A theory is proposed to account for cross-cultural variation in the customary birth practices of women and men. We suggest that tile restriction of women during childbirth and the husband's ritual involvement in birth are both strategies for asserting or defending paternity rights. When paternity rights are established by agreements based on property transfers and enforced by organized kin groups, women will be restricted to insure that nothing upsets the agreements. When such agreements cannot be made and enforced, paternity claims will be asserted by the husband's ritual involvement in the birth. These hypotheses were tested in a sample of 114 societies based on Murdock and White's Standard Cross-cultural Sample. The data confirm the hypotheses for the birth practices of' both sexes. We suggest that birth practices represent a special case of bargaining mechanisms iii societies without centralized authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model for cross-cultural measurement was studied. The analysis was based on data on the level of living of 1,654 families in Puerto Rico and 549 families in Broome County, New York. The first problem is encountered in obtaining a sufficient number of items for study in both cultures. It may be assumed that this problem will become more acute as other cultures are added to the sample. There may be "clusters" of nations for which a sufficient number of items can be found. Additional problems are encountered in testing the validity of items. The need to control culture in these tests is demonstrated. The range of level of living is great from one culture to another. Therefore, cutting points for "possession" of an item cannot always be the same for every culture. It is tentatively suggested that items go through the same "stages" in each culture, and that several cutting points may be drawn for these stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-cultural variation in type of marriage appears to be largely explicable in terms of specified patterns of socioeconomic organization. A study of preferred type of marriage for some 500 societies shows that whether a society is characterized by a cultural value of monogamy or one of polygyny is related to such structural traits as subsistence economy, social stratification, political integration, settlement pattern, and community size; but only indirectly related to such normative traits as religion and sex taboos. In general, monogamy is found to be favored by societies with more complex attributes of socioeconomic structure, while polygynous societies are more prevalent at the intermediate or simple range of a societal complexity scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt to test the hypothesis which the economist, Gunnar Myrdal termed "the Negro rank order of discriminations." He states that his observations led him to believe that whites in the U.S. insisted on the retention of discriminatory practices against Negroes in a specific order according to the type of discrimination. He asserted that they insisted most on retaining the barriers against Negro men having access to white women for sexual intercourse or marriage. Myrdal further hypothesized that the Negro's rank order of discriminations is parallel but inverse to the white man's rank. The Negro, according to Myrdal, resents and resists economic discriminations most and discriminations in sex relations and intermarriage least. It was found that generally Negroes in Columbus, Ohio resent all discriminations moderately or very much. A second general finding is that the sensitivity of Negroes to discrimination can be quantified. On a basis of the findings of this study there are no significant differences between the sensitivity of male and female Negroes to discrimination.

Using national sample data the family composition, living arrangments, and family contacts of persons aged 65 and over in the United States are compared with those of the elderly in Denmark, Britain, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Israel. In every country the right of older people to live separately from adult children is recognized. Nonetheless, a majority of the American elderly with children live either with a child or within ten minutes' distance from him. Old people in the United States are seen frequently by their children, their siblings, and their relatives. In the United States, as in other countries, the elderly find their primary supports in the family and kin network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study that makes a cross-cultural comparison of managerial behavior in England and France. A successful manager is a very efficient learning system. He uses the values that he inherits from his culture to forge conditions sufficiently strong for the execution of business. Very often the desired goal, or sub-goal. is not achieved, and this may cause the manager to modify his beliefs--within the limits of his culturally determined value system--and thus his future behavior. According to the model used in the article, the notion of profit is an intellectual abstraction for the French, whereas for the English manager it is more the result of a personal effort. In the French model, if the organization is efficient then profit ensues automatically; if there is no profit, it is due to malformation of some part of the system. In England, personality is brought into play. Lack of profit implies personal failure, which is traceable to managerial weakness, or perversity, an excessive preoccupation with boundary defense perhaps, or lack of cooperation. The Frenchman will react to defeat with detachment or resignation, the Englishman with aggression and defiance. In neither case is such a reaction necessarily logical. The logic of the reaction depends upon a careful a priori evaluation of the value of goal achievement.