The Importance of Assertiveness in Social Anthropology

Nowadays, it is suggested that humankind is experiencing an age of uncertainty and risk in the framework of globalisation, which supposes more significant global and local social conflicts. The complexity of contemporary society requires assertive communication, clearly, firmly, and honestly expressed, improving human relations in family, work, and community spaces. This chapter consists of a reflection on assertiveness and its connection with social anthropology, which studies cultural diversity, adopting the notion of respect for the “other” as a guiding principle in everyday intercultural relations. Two cases have been analysed throughout documentary research: one related to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, where different social groups were able to coexist temporarily with their own ethnic and religious identities and another referring to the construction of an experience of intercultural education in Mexico, which historically oscillated between integration as well as acculturation policies and others of a pluricultural nature under construction.