One of the basic problems men and women confront in any complex is the limitation imposed on their access to institutions of their society. How the problem of of institutional or structural access is related to ethnicity and ethnic studies is the focus of this essay. Concern for ethnicity and ethnic studies in education can be traced to the rejection of the assumption that equal participation in American society depends upon assimilation within the mainstream--resulting in neoethnicity, or the revitalization of ethnic cohesiveness with emphasis on the symbolic salience of each group. Ethnic studies are based on a cultural view of ethnicity. Cultural heritage studies stress the rediscovery of ethnic diversity so as to increase appreciation of each group. Their emphasis is on attitudinal and behavioral modification rather than on institutional reform. Cultural heritage studies based on a cultural view are misdirected since minorities demands for equal structural access lends support to a structural view. Cultural heritage studies need a bi-focal perspective of both cultural and structural views of ethnicity--a new vision focusing upon, on the one hand, the institutional conditions which determine the patterns of ethnic groups' adaptation to the larger society, and, on the other, the cultural characteristics of these groups. (Author/AM)