Time lapse: Cross-cultural transition in cognitive and technological aspects - the case of ethiopian adult immigrants in israel

The purpose of this study is to examine the cognitive aspects of technological literacy of Ethiopian immigrants and their learning stratocracy for adjustment to daily life. Immigration is a common phenomenon in the modern world. In most instances, individuals or small groups assimilate gradually into the new culture, even if they are illiterate. In the case of Ethiopian Jewish immigrants to Israel, an entire community was transferred, virtually overnight, from a pre-industrial, agrarian society to a knowledge-based, technology-rich society. This immigration created a large-scale social experiment, which offered an extraordinary opportunity to examine the social and cultural transition and adaptation of a non-literate and semi populations. This paper opens a preliminary window which will enable a better comprehension of the cognitive aspects of intercultural transitions with respect to a non-literate and semi populations and their acquisition of technological knowledge; it examines the cognitive aspects of this unique phenomenon of dramatic technological and cultural transition.