Cultural Changes between Pluralism, Innovation and Conservatism

Every form of relationship fluctuates between exchange of information and symbolic action on the other individual, thus embodying some ambiguity, and gender and culture are highly discriminating factors. They are part of a juxtaposition that oscillates between innovation and conservatism, as shown in the section “Contemporary challenges related to Gender and Ethnic Identity”. These are not only identity dimensions through which we can analyse what today, at the collective imagination level, is presented as a clash of civilizations – western vs. eastern – but they are also dimensions through which we can study aspects of the social and cultural integration processes in some specific geographical areas, such as the Kerala region in India. The various theoretical and methodological challenges call for a perspective that takes into account the interconnection between gender, sexuality and culture.