American Cultural Pluralism and Law

Jill Norgren, Serena Nanda

This new edition of Norgren and Nanda's classic updates their examination of the intersection of American cultural pluralism and law. They document and analyze legal challenges to the existing social order raised by many cultural groups, among them, Native Americans and Native Hawaiians, homeless persons, immigrants, disabled persons, and Rastafarians. In addition, they examine such current controversies as the culture wars in American schools and the impact of post-9/11 security measures on Arab and Muslim individuals and communities. The book also discusses more traditional challenges to the American legal system by women, homosexuals, African Americans, Latinos, Japanese Americans, and the Mormons and the Amish.The new chapters and updated analyses in this Third Edition reflect recent, relevant court cases dealing with culture, race, gender, religion, and personal status. Drawing on court materials, state and federal legislation, and legal ethnographies, the text analyzes the ongoing tension between, on the one hand, the need of different groups for cultural autonomy and equal rights, and on the other, the necessity of national unity and security. The text integrates the authors' commentary with case descriptions set in historical, cultural, political, and economic context. While the authors' thesis is that law is an instrument of social policy that has generally furthered an assimilationist agenda in American society, they also point out how in different periods, under different circumstances, and with regard to different groups, law has also some opportunity for cultural autonomy.

Explores the tension between individual rights and cultural autonomy promised in American law, on the one hand, and the country's need to build unity and national identity through institutions and by promoting certain values.

PrefaceIntroduction: E Pluribus Unum?Race and EthnicityNative Americans, Land, and LawTrouble in Paradise: Native Hawaiian and Puerto Rican SovereigntyAfrican Americans: The Fight for Justice and EqualityImmigration: Latinos and LawReligionReligious Belief and Practice: The MormonsReligious Belief and Practice: The AmishThe Culture Wars in American SchoolsReligion and the Use of Illicit Drugs: The Rastafari and the Native American ChurchGenderWomen's Nature, Women's Lives, Women's RightsFamily Values: Gays and MarriageCommunity and CitizenshipFighting Prejudice: Persons with Disabilities and Homeless Persons100 Percent American: Who Qualifies in a National Emergency? Japanese Americans and the LawCultural Pluralism and the Rule of Law Post-9/11Selected BibliographyIndex