Multiculturalismo e convivência. Uma introdução

What is the usual way of interpreting the relationship and exchanges beteen cultures? Despite the widespread "backlash", multiculturalism is the model that still prevails in one of its two main versions: (1) the "assimilationist" version, which tends to eliminate al cultural differences, reducing them to the colonial domain of the Occidental culture, and (2) the so called "differentialist" version, a current trend (taking into account the identity crises of the West), according to which cultures are like "museum pieces", fixed and immutable "cognitive islands", to be left on their own. This paper examines the defects of this multicultural perspective, especially in the differentialist version.