Acculturation
America, the land of "Golden Opportunities," is the world's melting pot for a growing mass of people. Along with this flowering population, comes an extraordinary sense of diversity and cultural value. Immigrants who come to America bring with them their traditional customs, values and beliefs. Thus many people today have grown up or live in a society of "two worlds." Because of this, one sees many cultures on "display" on the bus, in the grocery store or while walking down the street. However, as often happens, as more and more immigrant families assimilate into American society, culture and traditions are lost. This process, generally described as acculturation, lends the questions of why. Why are the practices of traditional ethnic customs and beliefs lost? Why are so many children compelled or have such a powerful need to become "Americanized." Is it because people find it hard to live with the demands of two societies or for the reason that there is just no need for ethnic traditions and in the American society? Whatever the reason, acculturation has a major impact on the American society as well as the individuals or group of individuals being acculturated. Because America is made up of so many diverse cultures,
Doob, L.W. (1960). Becoming More Civilized: A Psychological Exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press. the need to understand how and why acculturation occurs is very important. Let us, first then, begin with a look at acculturation in a general sense. Once can define acculturation in several ways depending on viewpoint. According to Doob (1960), acculturation is when people "concern themselves with at least some of 'those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups.'"(p.3) In other words, acculturation is a process where individuals or groups of individuals take on the customs of the greater majority while their own either become lost or are adjusted to the main stream culture. Mair (1963) describes acculturations as the "adoption of alien cultural trait." (p.l99) J. Milton Yinger defined acculturation by splitting it into two separate parts, a one-way process and two-way process. Yinger describes his one way process of acculturations as a loss of culture and distinctiveness of smaller, lesser-developed groups who then become absorbed into the larger society structured around the dominant group. Hence, the acculturation is one way, only one group is changing. In the two way process, Yinger describes the process as being more emphasized on a "mutual change" and terms it transculturative. Because of the various views and definitions of acculturation, the line between acculturation and assimilation or culture change sometimes gets blurred. Acculturation is considered more narrow then simply a culture change and broader then assimilation. Thus making assimilations a part of the acculturation process. Connor, J.W. (1977). Acculturation an the Retention of an Ethnic Identity in There have been many studies done as to why acculturation occurs, all of which have resulted in factor I chose acculturation because I can strongly relate to the topic, myself being the second generation of an immigrant family. My parents came to America in the early 1970's to, like most other immigrants, start a new life in hopes of prosperity and stability. For the first few years of living in America, my parents were well on their way to complete acculturation - they did not actively practice any traditional values, moral, or beliefs. But then religion came into he picture and it has been because of out religious faith that my parents have pushed my sister and I to retain so much of our cultural heritage. This is not to say that my sisters and I are not "Americanized" as my relatives call us, but w
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1800
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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