Renewed awareness in ethnic groups as well identified, persisting and active participants in the political and social life of American society imposes a new task on the social scientists to define better and more cogently measure the implications of pluralism and integration. This article by Russo—presenting the findings of his doctoral dissertation: The Religious Acculturation of the Italians in New York City—evidences the fast disappearance of the cultural identity of an immigrant group in relation to their rural religious tradition and behavior. At the same time, it notes the survival of social identity. In the light of this evidence, we can ask ourselves if ethnic religious institutions might have led the immigrants to religious forms more in keeping with their new environment and how the acculturation described should be evaluated. Above all, we are forced to search for those variables which maintain the ethnic groups’ identity even in the third generation. In this way, the process of the inclusion into American society of different ethnic and religious groups may reveal some clues for the more complex test of inclusion of different racial groups.
American society of zoologists. Annual meeting; New York city, New York, December 28 through 30, 1960. Officers Proceedings, Program and List of Titles, Abstracts of Papers