INTERCULTURAL UNDERSTANDING

Abstract

Through mankind's great capacity for adaptation and specialization, each society has developed its own preferred behavioral patterns. Scientific advancement, especially in communication and space-age travel, has brought these varied societies into ever closer contact. While the diversity among societies is a credit to human flexibility and ingenuity, it has also presented the problem of living with a variety of value systems. It has produced, as Spradley and McCurdy state, a crisis in values. Increasingly, one of the most pervasive characteristics of today's world is the tension, and even open conflict, among socio-cultural groups. In the future it seems that these problems may become even more pronounced and there is no reason to believe that Canadian society will be immune from this global trend.