an the Eastern immigrant because of the continuity of our tradition.
Still it is almost as difficult for us to comprehend _Elsie Dinsmore_ or
the _Westminster Catechism_ as the Koran or the Talmud.

It is apparent, therefore, that in the wide extension and vast
complexity of modern life, in which peoples of different races and
cultures are now coming into intimate contact, the divergences in the
meanings and values which individuals and groups attach to objects and
forms of behavior are deeper than anything expressed by differences in
language.

Actually common participation in common activities implies a common
"definition of the situation." In fact, every single act, and eventually
all moral life, is dependent upon the definition of the situation. A
definition of the situation precedes and limits any possible action, and
a redefinition of the situation changes the character of the action. An
abusive person, for example, provokes anger and possibly violence, but
if we realize that the man is insane this redefinition of the situation
results in totally different behavior.

Every social group develops systematic and unsystematic means of
defining the situation for its members. Among these means are the
"don'ts" of the mother, the gossip of the community, epithets ("liar,"
"traitor," "scab"), the sneer, the shrug, the newspaper, the theater,
the school, libraries, the law, and the gospel. Education in the widest
sense--intellectual, moral, aesthetic--is the process of defining the
situation. It is the process by which the definitions of an older
generation are transmitted to a younger. In the case of the immigrant it
is the process by which the definitions of one cultural group are
transmitted to another.

Differences in meanings and values, referred to above in terms of the
"apperception mass," grow out of the fact that different individuals and
different peoples have defined the situation in different ways. When we
speak of the different "heritages" or "traditions" which our different
immigrant groups bring, it means that, owing to different historical
circumstances, they have defined the situation differently. Certain
prominent personalities, schools of thought, bodies of doctrine,
historical events, have contributed in defining the situation and
determining the attitudes and values of our various immigrant groups in
characteristic ways in their home countries. To the Sicilian, for
example, marital infidelity means