Postville Changes Colors
By Akshay Durvasula and Teja Kommera
Residential Segregation-The degree to which two or more groups live separately from one another.
Cultural Barriers - a prevailing attitude rendering certain ideas or practices unacceptable or unadoptable
Ethnocentrism - the practice of judging another culture based the standards of one's own culture
Commodification - An object that was previously not able to be bought or sold becomes something that can be bought or sold
Jews are prohibited by their religious laws to eat pork, so they opened a kosher meat plant to suit their needs. Commodification has taken place because kosher foods were not sold before the Jews entered Postville. Once the Jews entered Postville, kosher foods were able to be bought and sold through the kosher meat plant.
Sequent Occupance-The impacts of sequential imprints of occupants whose impacts are layered on top of one another
Relocation Diffusion-The movement of individuals who carry their ideas to a new distant locale and proceed to disseminate it.
Relocation Diffusion occurred in Postville when the Jews moved in. As the Jews came into Postville, they brought their ideas with them, such as eating kosher food and abstaining from eat pork. These ideas were then disseminated into the rest of Postville, and a kosher factory was created. When the Mexicans came into Postville, they brought with them their traditions of the piñata, their music, and the type of foods that they ate. An example of relocation diffusion can be seen in the picture below when a Jewish boy tries to break the piñata.