UCLA

This thesis will test the sociological theory of social and cultural differentiation in the urban American Indian community of Minneapolis, Minnesota in order to examine the ways in which five prescribed, sociological elements of culture are organized, and for which previous sociological research would suggest, should remain nondifferentiated in contemporary Indigenous societies. Relying upon previous academic literature, independent research collection, photographic imagery, and a personal interview with artist, Mario Enriquez, a Nahua and Mayan Indigenous artist, this scholarship will test the theory of social and cultural differentiation utilizing of a contemporary case study from 2015. This scholarship serves to increase our knowledge of contemporary Indigenous mural art, urban Indigenous societies, contemporary Indigenous culture, sociological theory and analysis in the present century.