The Culture Of The United States

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 Lore is just like any other lore it has myths, legends, and fairy tales, but American lore shows the history of America and how we live today, with a twist to the story. With Legends, myths, and fairy tales it expresses the way americans think and how creative we can be to come up with these stories from things that could actually happen. Legends are based on historical facts Myths are based on religion and gods and goddesses. Fairy Tales are made believe not real, includes special creatures. Tall tales and legends are more based in American lore and is heavily based on history and the many traditional stories that are spread from generation to generation. American lore is based on, “power social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources. Achievement which is a personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards . Hedonism pleasure or sensuous

Political culture in the United States is about a person’s behavior, value and belief. Most important ideas of political culture are the rights of people, responsibility of both the people and the government and the relationship between people and the government. Common languages and symbols are used in political culture to unite people. However, the understanding of a constitution, freedom of speech and voting divide people.

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.

Throughout the 1960s there was a cultural phenomenon that started in the United States and spread like wildfire to multiple other cultures in the world. This phenomenon was also known as countercultures. This decade raised the 76.4 million Americans born during the baby boom generation. The babies of this boom entered their teen years during the 1960s and they definitely embraced a multitude new standards, dramatically different from the way their parents were raised. While some encompassed new ideals in dress, music and movies others joined countercultures and rebelled against the social norms with poetry, novels and art. Three of the most altering countercultures were the Hippies, the Sexual Revolution and the Gay Liberation.

The introduction of movies at the theater and radio broadcasting open a new era of how information gets around to people. It made it easier to pass on information to people in hard to reach places. It also open new opportunities for employment. It created movies stars and radio personalities. In the 1920's, the radio was well-thought-out to be one of the most powerful way of communication. the radio broadcasts popular music, classical music, sporting events, lectures, fictional stories, newscasts, weather reports, market updates, political commentary, religious stories, events, and even operas during certain seasons. “New communications media reshaped American culture in the 1920's, and much of the new mass culture was exported to the rest

A) There were a couple of things that surprised me when I started citizenship classes. First, the urge that some students had to feel like they were a part of the American culture. During, some conversations that I held with students, some felt like they were not a part of the American culture, nor their native country. In all, feeling alienated and shunned by non-immigrants in the United States. In lecture, we spoke that migrants felt like “they were not here, nor there,” and I can only imagine what it is like not to be a part of society, simply because they made a sacrifice to improve my family’s lives. We also, have to take into consideration that many of the students were aware that they were still at risk of deportation, being

Major labor-saving technological changes of the 20th century gave rise to the industrial processing of food. In the 1950’s and 60’s we saw a rise of supermarkets and the spread of fast-food eateries. The growth of supermarkets and fast-food eateries gave way to a new method of consumption. No longer was food’s route from the local farm or ranch to the

Twenty-first-century culture is inclined to award trophies to all participants of a sport, even if the participant did little to contribute to the team’s success; they all receive participation awards. In doing this, it may remove the incentive to be the best in that sport. Mathematical equations no longer have right or wrong answers; there is partial or full credit given for following the correct procedure. The students may not be learning where they are making mistakes; therefore, they may not be benefiting from the common core arithmetic’s. Today's society strives to protect children from experiencing failure or negative feelings. Of course, parents want their children to think positively as this reinforces desirable behavior; however, thinking

I grew up in a small town, which was highly populated with individuals of Basque descent. My grandfather severed in the military and was stationed in Basque Country. Despite the large Basque population surrounding me, I knew very little of the culture and traditions commonly found within the Basque Country. “The homeland of the Basque people, commonly called the Basque Country, is located on the Bay of Biscay at the western end of the Pyrenees mountain range, straddling the border of France and Spain. The nearly 8,000-square-mile Basque Country is divided into seven administrative districts, four in Spain and three in France. Basque culture is distinctive from that of the rest of Spain in many ways” (Thomas, par. 1). This assignment has allowed me the privilege to interview and spend time with Maria Begona Narvaiza-Peck. I was able to experience the Basque culture through conversation, photographs, museum, and meals.

In consideration of the current cultural shift in the US, the impact of education, intellect, style of speech, dress, or physical appearance cannot be overlooked. According to Wilson, (2014), the impact of cultural diversity on education and vice versa can be maximized for the benefit of the learners. While any institution and educational system have increasingly incorporated new strategies and concerted efforts towards formulating and implementing strategies and systems geared at cultivating cultural diversity and leveraging college affirmative action. While the author intended to analyse the purposeful incorporation of diversity efforts within post secondary system-wide and institutional strategic plans, the author mainly focused on institutional

American culture refers to the traditions and practices of the people of the United States. Culture comprises of the nature of buildings, religion, music language and marriage. The population of the United States is more than 320 million people making it the most culturally diverse country in the globe. Books such as Crabgrass Frontier, Manifest Destination and Muscular Christianity are important sources of information about American culture. This paper is a reflection on the methods that these books use in providing information about the evolution of the US culture. The paper examines the relationship between these three sources and ways they challenge or inform an understanding of the American society during the late 19th and early 20th century. There is an analysis of the efficiency of the issues tackled by these books in influencing the contemporary discourse surrounding American culture. The major argument of this paper is that Crabgrass Frontier, Manifest Destination and Muscular Christianity provide reliable information about the evolution of the US culture and they supplement each other through the use of relevant examples.

The United States of America being the third largest country in the world with more than 315 million inhabitants, consists of multicultural societies with ethnically diverse population. Since there are a lot of foreigners, the US culture has evolved in such a way accepting and tolerating other foreign cultures. US is very much influenced by protestant work ethics according to which people believe in themselves and their efforts to attain the goal of self-actualization and success. The rich diversity in the culture brought by foreigners, prevailing values of protestant ethics, hard work etc. have helped US to emerge as a superpower in the past years. Nearly every religion had its impact on US culture in one way or the other. The