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This article is an introduction to the entire issue. The seven papers which follow are brought together within the categories of psychocultural orientation, kin-oriented social organization, segmentary sociopolitical organization host culture environment, and foreign born generation. The social organization of overseas Chinese communities must be adaptive to the cultural environment of their host nations. Yet the resulting minority institutions have segmentary and kinship oriented patterns that bear similarities from country to country and retain an affinity with Chinese tradition. The alien host culture also may determine the course of assimilation or separation of overseas Chinese. The bicultural conflicts facing young overseas Chinese, as well as the social organization of their communities, show a psychological core of Chinese ethnicity, consisting of the attributes of continuity, inclusiveness, authority, and asexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joseph G. Jorgensen and Marcello Truzzi, eds. Anthropology and American Life. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1974. xi + 522 pp. Tables and bibliography. $6.95 (paper). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on issues related to Christianity and anthropologists. Many scholars including anthropologists speak about "primitive" religion as a matter of course in contrast to some other kind of religion, which must by defined, be advanced or civilized. When sociologists seek a logical or consistent basis for such a dichotomy, they find it lacking. Most scholars of comparative religion analyze religions only in terms of philosophical-theological ramifications or formal aspects such as size and organization. They usually conclude with noble sentiments on how different religious paths are different struggles of man with his inevitable destiny, or are too readily given to the tendency of demonstrating that different religions are really identical in their basic teachings. The phenomena of religious differentiation and schism in the West and in the non-Western world have never been seriously examined in a truly comparative sense. The fact is that the extent of religious denominationalism is far less in the Asian and African worlds than in the Western world. Protestant Christianity has about 260 denominations in the United States, but in spite of its long history in China, Buddhism has not more than two score of sects. Moreover, and this is by far the more important point, religious differentiation is very different from religious schism. Asian sects and denominations, even where existent, tend to be non-separatist and non-exclusive.

"Self-interest" in the broadest sense, including the interests of one's family, friends or other group, is the motivation of labor in all societies. In Euro-American urban societies this self-interest operates largely through money acquisition and exchange. In pre-literate societies and also in rural, non-industrialized communities on all cultural levels, self-interest operates largely through conforming to community values, following prescribed rituals or magical beliefs, and maintaining valued personal relationships and esteem. Self-interest is differently defined by different cultures, in terms of goals; and by different castes and classes, in partly quantitative terms--"ceilings" and "floors" of aspiration. [Ed.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]