..."America has no culture"? Every country has a unique common heritage or joint experience. Therefore culture can be defined as the complex system of values, traits, morals shared by society. All the choices we make reveal something about our personality, surrounding and our upbringing influences these choices. The way we speak, dress, the food we eat, the music we listen to tells allot about us and how we came to be. Everywhere we look in America we can see different cultural signs. But does America realy have a culture? A variety of different arguments have been put forward about this issue. Some people think that America has no culture, while other say that America definitely have its own, unique cultur. In this essay I will consider arguments for my opinion, about this issue. I will provide one of the mosto people opinion and summarize everything. Most of people say that America's culture is a combination of every culture in it, on it's own and combined with other cultures to make something new, out of something old. They have a diverse culture because the people are from different states. This is one of the things that make Americans culture interesting because of the beauty diversification that their culture has that helps them in uniting as opposed to bringing division. American culture is a Western culture, largely based on British culture with influences from other parts of Europe, the Native American peoples, African Americans and to a lesser extent Asian...
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...northeastern or America is densely populated, because of the extensive corridors of the urbanization it has been called the national “megalopolis”” as stated by Molly Doane in her statements at http://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/United-States-of-America.html. After years of acting as the leader for technology and the industry in America the Northeastern part of America falls off of being the leader to California’s Silicon Valley. Though it’s not towards the restaurants and businesses of the Italian, French, German, Russian, Muslims, Jews, and the English; “Huge waves of non-European immigration since the 1960s have made the United States the nation with the highest immigrant population in the world” also stated by Molly Doane in her statements at http://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/United-States-of-America.html and so because of this today most of the cultures that are a part of America and its history would be the Italians, Jewish, and the English cultures. This is because before the revolutionary war people emigrated from Britain to America to the 13 colonies, then there were the Italians who immigrated to America because of the English population saying it is a land of the free and people would live better and richer than they already were. The Italians are most famous for creating the mafia and godfathers that people have heard or known about today. The Jewish have more history with America than the Italians. The Americans helped free the Jews and leads them to America so they can...
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...Culture is defined as “the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time”, according to Merriam-Webster (2016). What does this mean to the average person? Surrounded by multiple cultures, humans sometimes have the tough decision to develop new relationships, or possibly deter one from another due to one’s culture. Nevertheless, no one country, state, city or village in the world will be the same; this makes the world a very interesting place. It is always interesting to compare countries to America to realize how different everyone is, even though the world is not that big. For example, Pakistan (when compared to the United States) is a very different place which could be a ‘culture shock’ to someone who...
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...America Deaf Culture After reading the book, Reading Between the Signs, I realized that there was a big difference between the America deaf culture and my culture. This book aimed at the audience who study sign language or sign language interpreters. It focused on the different aspects of culture instead of the language expression. Firstly, the author, Anna Mindess, describes the study of the culture. She cited the reference that Tylor said “ culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. Then Anna selected topics in intercultural communication, such as the collectivism and individualism, high context and low context, and time orientation. Finally, she talked about the American deaf culture, which is my favorite part in the book. Now, I would like to describe the chapter of America deaf culture that I read from the book. This describes the perspectives of insiders who live in deaf culture and outsider who just study deaf culture. Anna discusses the development of deaf culture that deaf children attended to residential school and hard to communicate with hearing people in the past, while the recent developments of deaf culture are disappearing. The reason is that the deaf culture did not have some rules that deaf people have to live in the deaf culture and they wants to become rich or full people. So it means they have to become enculturated...
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...as such. While discussing the “miracle” the cochlear implant is considered to be, it is implied that Deaf people are an inconvenience and that they are broken and need to be fixed. Deafness is not a disability, a disability is considered to be a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements or activities. The ADA (Americans with disabilities act) goes on to add that a disability “includes individuals who do not have a disability but are regarded as having a disability”. This means that disabilities are not necessarily a set concept rather it is largely influenced by the attitude towards whatever “disability”. People that are Deaf have become a proud culture, refusing to consider themselves handicapped because they can do anything any hearing person is capable of besides hear. The Deaf culture in America begins in the nineteenth century when French Deaf educators, Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc, came with the...
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...World” or the Americas, they probably heard that it was land free for their taking; a land of opportunity and wealth. However, in their voyage to the Americas, they would be met by numerous different people, with towering structures, successful farm lands, and fearsome warriors. Truly, it would be false to say that “the Americas was void of civilization and culture, open for the taking by Europeans.” Before the European settlement, the Americas already boasted a large population, great and varying cultures, and intelligently built bodies of architectures within their own settlements. In fact, “prior to European settlement, the northern and southern American continents were home to more than 2,000 separate cultures and people groups.” (Power Point 1 Early Migrants) Evidently, the Americas cannot be considered void of civilization when numerous people of different cultures and groups had already been in the area. Also, the Aztecs were known to have built “Pyramids… [as well as], causeways that would connect their floating city to the main land provinces… These causeways required a strong workforce and the best of...
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...During America’s early development, slavery was the central issue fueling the conflict between state and federal rights, which caused the Civil War. The institution of slavery in the United States resulted in profound effects upon our nation socially, economically, and politically. These changes have had a lasting impact that can still be seen in American society today. The article Origins of the Southern Labor System describes that the American form of slavery was not molded after European concepts of servitude. The article even points out that the word “slave” had no meaning in English law. However, as farmers found large-scale cultivation more profitable, there was a need for the cheapest and most exploitable labor supply. As this system developed, slaveholders out of fear of revolt “were forced to conclude that the slave was wholly unfree, wholly lacking in personality, and wholly a chattel,” (Handlin p.99). At this point black slaves were dehumanized and degraded through the use of masks, whips, separation, and fear. Powerful white plantation owners dominated the south politically and justified their actions through state law. As this continued, the low skilled majority of white southerners could not compete with the free labor system. This labor system led to the fight over westward expansion, southern dependence on northern goods, and the social rift of the north and south. Consequently, our nation was faced with the tragedy of the Civil War, in which Dubois states “poor...
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...Behavior Consumer Possession on the Extended Self Write Up on Gun Culture in America. Introduction The culture of Gun use and ownership by private citizens date backs to the days of the founding fathers, with the bill of rights passage in 1791.The use and possession of guns and firearms has historically been rife with controversy. In 2008, with the Heller V District of Columbia case, the Supreme Court finally clarified the right for individual Americans to bear arms thereby settling century’s long debate on one of the most controversial issues in American history. The culture of Gun ownership and personal attachment individuals feel about guns and firearms is a very interesting dynamic. In the old confederacy (Now nicknamed Red States), according to Barack Obama in 2007,people in this region who feel left out of the modern day progressive society tend to cling to their guns and religions as to further find a sense of purpose and fulfillment. While this view point cannot be empirically proved, there is a level of validity in such a claim as historically known, those areas tend not to support any form of Gun Control. In the more liberal parts of the country, from New York City to the New England Colonies, the attitudes towards gun and firearms ownership is more subtle, there is no religious following however statistically the occurrence of gun crimes and other mass shootings is more prevalent in this part of america than in the old confederacy. Methodology The intent of this...
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...Business culture in America Americans take business very seriously. Professionalism and punctuality are expected. When doing business in America, expect a heavy reliance on facts and numbers. A scientific approach is the norm for all aspects of business, even the human relations department. When meeting business partners for the first time, American’s culture expect a handshake, not a hug. Address your business partner as "Mr." or "Ms." followed by the person's last name. He will generally invite you to call him by his first name. After the initial contact, communication similarities end. Americans prefer blunt speech. Tactfulness is seen as wasting time. Americans pride themselves on their egalitarian culture, and everyone is encouraged to speak up and disagree with a higher-ups. Passionate confrontation may take the more reserved Canadians aback. These confrontations, however, almost never stem from personal animosity, but rather from the business culture of the country. In America, management still is very individualistic. Managers are held personally accountable for decisions. They assume any consensus will dissolve as soon as an initiative hits rocky ground, so American managers are less willing to compromise and play politics. However, this approach can lead to resentment and confrontation if subordinates believe their voices are not being heard. Formal business dress: dark business suits and ties for men, and pants or skirts with a suit jacket for women. Beyond that,...
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...LGBT Culture in America Table of Contents LGBT Culture………………………………………………………………………. 3 History……………………………………………………………………………….. 6 Current Events……………………………………………………………………….. 7 Influential LGBT People……………………………………………………………….. 8 Travel………………………………………………………………………………… 9 Tegan and Sara…………….. ………………………………………………………. 10 Gay Pride Events …………………………………………… ……………………… 11 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………… 12 LGBT Culture in America LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered/trans-sexual and these words define groups of people who are categorized by their sexual orientation except in the case of transgendered. Transgendered people are defined by their gender identity which is often different from their genetic gender. These groups of very different people have come together in a united front because they are all discriminated against in similar ways. So while LGBT people are not a culture in the traditional sense, their adversity brings them together in a special subgroup of society that can be found in just about every country worldwide. The American LGBT culture specifically is very rich, diverse, and active. To best understand this diverse group of people, it is best to examine each letter of LGBT separately. Beginning with lesbian culture, these people are categorized as women who are sexually attracted to other women. Within this group of women, there are very different expressions of their varying degrees of femininity. Some stereotypes of...
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...On Saturday, January 9, 2016, several Republican presidential candidates gathered in Columbia, South Carolina to discuss the grappling issue of poverty in America. However, the conservatives’ narratives relied on a “single story”: people in poverty are poor because they do not work hard enough, therefore complementing the underlying beliefs about the poor in the United States. Furthermore, candidates claimed that too much government involvement has “weakened the poor’s moral spine” and created a web of dependency – claims perpetuated by the media. However, as Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie argues, over-reliance on a single story poses a danger to truth. Through the assertion that poverty is a result of individual failures, these candidates (and several million Americans) ignore structural explanations and in turn cultivate a negative image of the poor different from reality....
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...Despite the cultural advancements of the United States, the definition of freedom overtime has changed so that marginalized groups are less oppressed. Fighting those limitations that where once holding people back, but were not defined by their limits. As creatures of change, we socially have expressed a way that the population proceeds on in their way of life. "...'culture' is undergoing a transformation that is already challenging many of our most basic assumptions about what constitutes human society.”, written by George Yudice on page 72. Explaining that the practice of any culture are very difficult, and are varied depending on the change that, that cultural group has under gone. We as a society have grown complacent with the way that the government leaders have chosen our paths for life out for us, with a select few that fight against these social barriers that we have been placed under. These cultural groups have in some shape and form made cracks in social bonds that once held them back. Racially as a part of the African American community, you are told tales of how as an evolving culture we have gone through trials. Those trials of their true citizenship to get the freedoms that we are granted today. As wrote by Kevin K. Gains on page 16, "...African-descended peoples' struggle for identity and inclusion...”. The darkened past of this nation having been created and kept afloat on the disregard and cruel intentions done to Africans. The spirit of those Africans...
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...Americans like to imagine themselves as unique individuals unlike anyone else and that we all possess specific characteristics that distinguish us from the pack. However, despite our illusions, the majority of human beings conform to some set of societal rules most of the time. We drive on the right side of the road; children attend school and adults work; these are examples of conformity for obvious reasons; society is based on rules that keep our society functioning, if there were no rules then our entire structure would break down. The question of this thesis is to investigate why individuals give in to less important reasons to conform. Why do a group of teenagers prefer to wear one brand of clothing over another, why do teenagers judge others for their choice of clothes, electronics, and hairstyles? Why do adults feel the need to live in certain areas over others, why do they find fulfillment in the type of car they drive? For decades, advertisers have portrayed a happy and successful lifestyle by using images of consumption. We are told that to measure our success in life we must use status symbols of designer clothes, cars, jewelry and our choice of neighborhoods and homes. Americans have been seduced into the belief that without designer labels and expensive electronics, our lives are not complete and that we are not truly fulfilled. Through advertising, consumers are persuaded to base purchases not on need or want but as a way to show others that they are happy, healthy...
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...Chicano Culture in LA “Chicano” is the culiminitive expression of social, political, and ethnic identity that derived from Latin American identity in the mid 1900’s. This movement thrived in places with higher concentrations of latin american people, and created a sense of pride that spread throughout the nation to create a form of self expression and identity for latin-american individuals that didn’t quite fit in to society. The original mindset was that they were too brown to be American, and too white to be Latino. According to (>>>)“Socially, the Chicano Movement addressed negative ethnic stereotypes of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness.” Essentially, they didn’t fit in to existing cultures; latin american people faced alienation from both the American culture they were born into, and the ethnic culture they descended from. This originated in the 1910 demand for labor in the U.S in the midwest-- “Mexicans began to migrate in large numbers after the Mexican Revolution in 1910, attracted to a demand for labor, especially in the midwest. They entered at a time where U.S residents were likely to be suspicious of immigrants.”(Donato, 1994)...
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...In “Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America” Morris Fiorina is addressing that the dark line drawn between the “red” and “blue” states is dramatized by “the journalistic community” (26). Fiorina begins his argument by dating back to the 1990s when the motion of culture war abrupted. He provides examples, such as that of political campaigns tensions, scandals, books, articles, and identifies the media as the one adding gasoline to the fire and making the issues “high in news value” (26) when in reality they are not. The authors main point is that the reports on culture war “range from simple exaggeration to sheer nonsense” (28). The notion of a culture war is nothing but a myth fabricated by headline news that want to captivate the audience's attention with radical and...
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