Theory of Co-culture and Co-cultural Groups:

Abstract

Increasing presence of Islam all over the world is an undeniable truth, and not only Muslims, but also other people endorse this truth. In the USA, like other countries, a Muslim minority has appeared which is in interaction, or even in confrontation, with the hegemonic majority. Among the intercultural communication’s theorists, Mark Orbe and Regina Spellers study this interaction or confrontation in their theory of co-culture. Thus, applying phenomenology and theory of “the silent group” and theory of “point of view”, one can study Muslim agents’ behavior as a co-cultural group confronting the hegemonic group which is hierarchically in the high level of identity. In such a condition, American Muslims have applied a special communication strategy, both in relation with each other and with the dominant structure. This may occurred either as complete conformity with the dominant condition, or as insulation, or as cambium interaction; all depending on the historical experiments and deep interactions.

Keywords

• co-cultural group
• islam
• muslims
• the usa
• theory of co-culture