American Culture In America

1. How can an understanding of the complexities of culture help us make sense of the day-to-day world which we live? Give an example from your life to illustrate your answer.

American culture has been referred to as a “melting pot.” Different cultures have added their own distinct aspects to society, making America a diverse country. Despite the plethora of cultures, certain norms, mores, and folkways are evident in American society. These ideas are vital to the function and stability of America. They provide guidelines for what is acceptable and not. In virtually every society, there are people who engage in deviant behavior and do not abide by the values that the rest of society follows. Theorists have debated if people are socialized into acting this way and if it is a social or personal problem. The sociological study of culture focuses on norms, mores, and folkways.

Contemporary American culture is defined as common themes of political attitudes, religious beliefs and news events that lead trends during the present time. Today, we see contemporary American culture portrayed in many more ways than that. We see it through art, music, and literature. In literature, for example, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin, contemporary American culture is portrayed throughout. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas represents contemporary American culture by portraying the exploitation of others, the symbolism of Americas political systems and oppression of the lower classes, and the lacking of moral responsibility.

American culture encompasses customs or traditions in the United States. Customs or traditions include, but would not be limited to, values, language, religion, or how we communicate. The population in the United States is over 325 million, (United States Census Bureau, (n.d.) and is built on immigration. In comparison to other countries, the United States is considered cultural, as most nations unite, and later mix, their culture into American culture.

The shaping of any culture requires adaptation to their environment and its problems, such as economical, social and geographical, and the learning from these in order for their culture to live by and survive. The Christian Church would prove the most important in shaping a new European religious civilization. In as much as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam undergirded civilizations in Asia and Africa, Christianity served as the basic unifying force that held together the new European civilization. (Sivers 2015) This process entails having the ability of shaping ones behavior in order to survive and have this same behavior passed onto the following generations.

Popular culture in America has visibly had an immense impact in other countries. It has created superheros such as Superman and The Avengers, invented cartoons that symbolize the childhoods of the youth such as Mickey Mouse and Scooby Doo, and globalized figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. There is no doubt that these idols represent positive images that spread influential ideas to other countries, but these positive ideas are only a small fraction of what American popular culture is. American pop culture invades other cultures and societies and to evade these intentions is nearly impossible. Many of these countries tend to look at the United States with disgust because of the way their culture is shadowed by them. The popular culture

My topic of interest is regarding how have Hispanics began to enter American Society and how have they assimilated or integrated to become part of it? Hispanics are a minority group who have overcome many struggles and stereotypes throughout history. It is important to know how it all started and how they managed to become such a huge part of todays society. Hispanics Americans constitute more than 15% of the U.S population, and the number is still growing. It is the country’s largest ethnic minority group.

American culture influences cultures and societies. Those cultures and societies have seized our lifestyles, fashions, music, entertainment, language, holidays, and values. America itself is full of people with diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. Deirdre Straughan describes American culture as “a rich soup of the many cultures that America originally came from.” Overall American culture has had a positive effect on the cultures and societies that have adopted it.

In the story of Samir, he illustrates that globalization and local culture wrestle with each other to determine what people deem correct. In his account, Samir portrays the westernized medicine’s dominance over an indigenous Costa Rican medicine man. In addition, Samir highlights many benefits that globalization opens the door to. For example, globalization has opened him to other cultures and languages allowing him to become more understanding of other people and to notice a unity among all people (Culture and Globalization, n.d.).

Out of 196 countries in the world, America is known to be "the land of the brave, the home of the free". A country that is filled with independence, privileges, pride, and power that is constantly growing everyday. With diverse people seeking for opportunity and freedom, there is no other country that has the same experience. Being one of a kind, humans have traveled across the ocean to come to America. Many had went through adversity to settle in this country because they were determined to start a new chapter in their life in America. America gives people the opportunity to work, opportunity to experience the American culture, and a chance to establish a new beginning.

Important to note, one’s culture often dictates right from wrong, and not all societies agree with the view of modern American culture and traditions (Abu-Raiya, 2014). In truth, the America’s remains relatively young regarding established countries and at times, more morally conscious than many global territories (Armstrong, 2006). Still, preludes for sexual iconography seemingly continues to increase with the internet, and other media resources availabilities are rampantly saturating society with intimate expressions (Armstrong, 2006; Barker, 2011). Most unfortunate is how the above sources assist with the natural predatory nature of man. Glamorizing sexual indiscretions with a mercenary of illusionary imageries have many individuals pursuing different identities and unnatural sexual actives and favors.

To become successful one must have the following: a big house, a beautiful spouse, a sports car that is worth more than your house, and kids that are equal to that of Nikola Tesla. Yes these are common defining traits of what the American culture views as “successful” it is not the defining items that make them so. Some say that is the way that people carry themselves, that someone can walk into a room and own it. This trait is seen as either one of two things. Someone who has such an inflated ego that they can’t fathom their situation or someone who knows the ropes and is there to say “I made and so can you.” Under all the heartache and grief of the school year it is hard to say that we are barely capable of a crawl compared to

The culture of America is marked by diversity and is constantly changing as a result of such diversity. The question posed is, “does the recent presidential election indicate a white, racist culture?” The culture of the U.S. has been, from its’ inception, white; our founding fathers were white. It has taken the U.S. hundreds of years with many conflicts along the way, to start to give value to other cultures. Looking back eight years ago to the election then; the approximate percentage of whites in the U.S. was 62.6% (Wikipedia, 2017) and Obama was elected to presidency in 2008 and again in 2012. The ratio of white Americans has not changed substantially and, if anything, has only decreased since then.” In 2012, the Census Bureau announced that

Culture can be seen influencing foreign perception of politics in the domestic arena, aiding the spread of ideas and values that mass media publicize on behalf of a state’s trends. A 2012 Pew Research was done in different countries to identify their position in terms of American values being spread around the world. In Western countries such as Germany, 41% of young people ranging from the ages 18 to 29 voted in favor of American customs and ideas. 94% of the same young German citizens were in favor of American music, movies and television. In Asia, 74% of Chinese students with a College degree and 42% without a College degree voted in favor of American music, movies and television. 43% of Chinese interviewees agreed to having American ideas

Although I always entertain the idea of Charles the Great, a king of the Franks that, “To have another language is to possess a second soul,” deep down I know language is a part of the culture. If I do not understand the culture attached to it, I may never get the real insight of the language I speak. That is why more than three months ago, I registered for a course called “American Studies” with an objective to gain a deeper perspective of the culture I am living in. Interestingly, during the coursework, I gain more than just a general concept about American culture.