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How to think about cultural identity
The consequences of cultural assimilation
How culture affects identity
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Assimilating can be both negative and positive. A positive aspect of assimilation is that you are trying to fit in and become a part of American culture. You become accustomed to new traditions, values, and morals. However, there is a part of you that does not let go of where you came from. Regardless of what culture you come from you will also hold on to those traditions and incorporate it as part of your new traditions. Assimilation can also be negative in the sense that you may be looked down upon taking part in new American traditions. Your family or culture might view you as “too American”. They might look down upon you for forgetting were you came from and not embracing your culture. Depending on the situation and who you are talking
Back to the American history, "assimilation" policy was introduced to the Native Americans during the earliest colonial times. During that time, all American Indians must either adopt the White's lifestyles or perish. With the declaration of the Dawes Act, a goal of destroying all tribal structure and their communal life were summoned. Tribal lands were divided among natives and the Westerners, leaving the natives, a land surrounded by the foreigners. With such acts, the American Indians were slowly assimilated into the White's culture and without their own people around them, they will have to communicate with the Westerners with their language instead of their indigenous languages; they ...
Native Americans have had a long history of resistance to the social and cultural assimilation into white culture. By employing various creative strategies, Native Americans have attempted to cope with the changes stemming from the European colonial movement into the Americas. There are fundamental differences in world views and cultural and social orders between Indians and Europeans, which contributed to conservatism in Native American cultures. In this paper, two aspects of such cultural and institutional differences of Native American societies will be examined: holistic Native American beliefs versus dualistic world views and harmony versus domination. These two aspects are important in terms of explaining changes (or lack thereof) in Native American societies because they suggest that the Native American world view is more cyclical and its components are interlinked, while Western societies have a clear demarcation between cultural elements, such as religion, kinship, and morality. However, there are certain limitations to the theoretical frameworks that explain conservatism in Indian cultures because these theories are oriented around the Western world view and were developed based on the Western terms; therefore, indigenous population was not taken into account when these theories were developed.
The Allotment and Assimilation Era of the 1880’s to the 1930’s had a widespread and devastating impact on the Native American population in the United States. These two policies were attempts by the U.S. Federal Government to separate tribes, and indoctrinate the Native American youth to further assimilate the Native American population into the western body of culture. These policies were allotment, which broke apart the tribal land of the Native American people, and boarding schools, which attempted to teach the Native American youth about western culture and ways.
My essay will have an outlook of the history of the first Americans “Indians” and how they’ve adapted with their religion, subsistence strategy, social organization, and material culture. Over the years things have change in the history of Native Americans, prior to the reconstruction period, Native Americans knew who they were and what they lived for. Before the Europeans came and changed their living they one with nature and the land they’ve came to know. They believe that America was there’s and they lived free. In today’s history of Native Americans culture was founded in many ways, started in the mid 8200s B.C and before Christopher Columbus discovered America. Living in the Americas they were in touch with nature as well as their ancestors. The first Americas have ruled this country for many years. In my research I’ve learned that so many things around us are influence by Native Americans culture, independence and were they have come from Native Americans are disputed in this country, diverse among tribes, culturally mixed and socially in their own political standards.
During my research in the assimilation of Native American Education, it was both interesting and alarming to learn of how the Americans assimilated the Native Americans into their White society. The focus of my paper is on how the assimilation of Native Americans was carried out in relation to their education and culture change. As well as, listing and describing certain types of schools created by the government to attain this. It is necessary to include how a typical day in the life of a Native American was spent; therefore, I have included a brief description of a day. In conclusion, there is a discussion of the reactions to boarding schools and the changing process in Native American culture and education.
Immigration has always been an issue in the United States, which is often portrayed as harmful and as major threat to American culture. As a result, various anti immigration policies have been aimed against immigrants in order to prevent and preserve the miscegenation of American culture, such as English only policies. Among the largest minority groups in the U.S, are Latinos who currently compose of 15% of the U.S population (Delgado and Stefancic 3). Unfortunately, Latinos have been accused of taking American benefits, jobs, and have wrongfully been depicted as a result of not assimilating to American culture. Latinos are often accused of resisting assimilation, but what has failed to be acknowledged is that there are obstacles set in place that are preventing Latinos from completely assimilating. Among those greatest obstacles there is discrimination. Institutional as well as individual discrimination have prevented many Latinos from feeling a sense of belonging. As a result Latinos have been reluctant to assimilate. Another major component is proximity. Many Latinos are native to nearby countries which allows for easy communication with family members as well as their culture. Moreover, it also allows for a constant influx of immigrants that replenish and preserve Latino cultures and traditions in the U.S. Lastly, Latino movements are working diligently to promote unity among communities for the purpose of creating a sense of identity and pride amongst Latinos, such as the Chicano movement.
1. Becoming Bicultural is another form of assimilation. It entails people of different cultures borrowing from one another’s culture what they consider right and integrating it within their individual cultures. The United States being a nation of immigrants and due to the recent massive immigration, the country is led to a nationwide struggle with the need to become bicultural, a difficult and sometimes painful process of navigating between ethnic cultures. Some former minority groups are now becoming the dominating group due to their high rate of immigration and high birth rate. The Latino and Asian populations form the largest portion of the leading groups that have literally changed the face of the nation and thus calling in for the need to become bicultural.
Our country is acclaimed for its endless ability to integrate. Whether it occurred in the early 1900s when desegregation occurred in Topeka middle school, or how we have integrated every nationality to every ethnicity and have been renown as the melting pot. In every aspect of how our country has come to what we know as United States, there is a simple integration that occurred to create what we are today. Assimilation is a positive force when it is necessary, it is needed in our companies, to our marriages, and we alongside the media are the causes of these types of assimilation; Americans tendency for assimilation will remain a beneficiary factor so long as we do not loose our individuality in the process.
Assimilation has been a successful process that has easily helped civilize many people. The Native Americans and the wolf girls are perfect examples of this, and have been able to become part of a new culture through assimilation. However, there is evidence that the process was a difficult one since there is a in both cases extreme cultural gap tween student and teacher that caused them difficulty in the forced assimilation. The assimilation itself done at an uncomfortable distance away from home causing students to feel homesick. The complete destruction of the old cultural ties does little to improve this. The difficulty in the process of assimilation was mainly caused by how the Indian students and the wolf girls were viewed as uncivilized,
A subculture can consist of any small group outside the central or key majority group. The groups can range from an organized crime group, to an Asian American group, to a religious group, to even a hippie commune. The main focus of this unit is the immigrant subcultures. The immigrant subculture that is becoming more commonplace every day in the United States is the Mexican Americans. Mexican Americans have many religious traditions, ceremonies, customs, as well as art and music forms. There are also various cultural traditions. Mexican Americans have their own identity on the contrary they still have distinct American characteristics.
Acculturation and assimilation are treated as complex, multifaceted phenomena. The acceptance of new cultural traits or social associations and retention of traditional cultural traits and social associations are viewe...
It is the dream of every immigrant, to live a worry free life in a new country that can offer so much. A place where one can work for suitable wages, a place where one can raise their children free of the problems plaguing their previous country and a place where one can grow spiritually and socially. Assimilation can be drastic or very simple, from changing the type of food one eats to converting one's religious beliefs. The determining factors of whether to adapt or not are the morals and beliefs that the immigrant has been brought up on. If the immigrant was brought up on strong morals and beliefs towards their religion and nationality, chances are that the immigrant would rather be alienated and looked down upon rather than conforming to
According to Crapo, assimilation is "When members of one society become a politically or economically subordinated part of another, as when a conquered group is incorporated into the conquering society or when an ethnic population immigrates into a country with a different culture, the subordinate group may lose its original culture as its members adopt the customs of the larger society, a process called assimilation.” Furthermore, Crapo attributes this process as a “result of the choices of individual members of the assimilating group to enter the lifestyle of the dominant society, but it can also be a coercive process”
Culture is a part of everyone's life, whether we choose to express it in our everyday lives or to just be aware of its presence. A major part of one's culture is a defining language. The topic of assimilation versus multiculturalism directly relates to culture in America, and even more specifically to the power of language in American culture. Since language is the basis of communication I think that all immigrants must assimilate to a certain degree by speaking English, while preserving their heritage if they choose to do so.
Today I am here to discuss the topic of effects on American culture caused by immigration. There are many different perspectives on what American culture really is. The most common, as well as my perspective, is that American culture is essentially a mixture of many different cultures. Immigration, whether illegal or not enriches this culture. Immigration is a fundamental and beneficial part in American culture and people preserve their culture and still assimilate to America, which is why Immigration has no effects on American culture.