The Culture Of The United States

There are many different cultures in the world and even some people that share the same culture as you. According to Heslin , “Culture is the language, beliefs, values, norms behaviors and even material objects that characterize a group and are passed from one generation to the next” (p. 42), The way we see reality and the way we perceive everything has to do with our culture. Our culture helps us make our decisions by both material and nonmaterial culture. Material culture is the material objects that a group of people may value, touch, taste and see, such as their art, hairstyles, food, clothing and jewelry. Nonmaterial culture is more abstract. It includes a group’s way of thinking and doing. For example, values and morals, like working hard builds success or the belief in freedom (Henslin, 2012).

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.

The right to possess guns is a fundamental element to American identity. The right to own and operate guns under certain circumstances is in fact guaranteed as part of the United States Constitution. Over the course of American history and particularly in the 21st century, there exists a great debate over the possession of guns of private citizens. Both sides of the debate argue with fervor. There are those that argue fervently for the right to possess arms; they argue for guns with regard to home protection, property protection, personal security, and that it is a fundamental right as a citizen.

Before describing the dominant culture in the United States, we first need to know what culture is and what a dominant culture is. Culture is the life style people choose. This includes language, religion, values and norms that a group of people accept without thinking about it. Now that we know what culture is, what is a dominant culture? The dominant culture in a society is the established language, religion, behaviour and norms that are proper to a certain culture. This is the dominant culture. Most often, dominant culture is the most powerful culture in a country and has the most powerful people or the most people associated to the culture.

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.

The idea of political culture is found within the state’s history. The history of the state is impacted by the people settled in the region, religious backgrounds, and geography. The history of the state influences the attitudes and beliefs that people hold regarding their political system. Daniel Elazar theorized a connection between the states’ history and attitude towards government by explaining differences in government between states. Every state is different with some common ground. Elazar’s theory divides states into three types: moralistic, traditionalistic and individualistic. The state’s constitution defines the powers of government with political culture bias. Because of the state constitution, the political culture

Guns have always been a part of American culture, dating back to the Revolutionary War where guns were used to overthrow the British rule. With Americas government being put into place, the second amendment was implanted to defend the American citizen’s freedom. Since its implementation guns have remained a staple of American culture and society. Statistics from gunpolicy.org, a gun statistics website organized by

Throughout the history of the United States, firearms have always been an ideal American tradition and right that has been fought for time and time again. Due to recent tragedies involving firearms, the view of guns and peoples rights to own and operate firearms have been frowned upon and viewed in a bad light due to Media. News sources have cherrypicked pictures of tragedies and stories about bad instances of gun usage in order to fight for Gun Control and the suppression of Americans rights.

Guns have played a major role in shaping and constructing the United States of America to the way it is today. In the early times of United States history, the founding fathers set in stone that every man has the right to bear arms. In recent years there have been numerous politicians that have been fighting to take that right away from us. The Second Amendment to the Unites States Constitution states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The history of the gun has played major roles in conquering land and defending the land that one would call home. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Colonists relied heavily on firearms to take and protect the land from Native Americans and Europeans. During the time of the Revolutionary War, every male citizen was required to own a firearm to help fight off British forces .

Gun culture is one of the most striking parts of American culture. Early in 2012, statistics have shown that American citizens owned 270 million guns, about 42 percent of the total guns owned by civilians in the world. The freedom of guns protects the rights of citizens, but

Televisions. Cars. Children. In America, these are all things outnumbered by the amount of guns, which is over 300 million (Whitney x). A gun is a weapon which fires projectiles propelled by explosive force and consists of a metal barrel, trigger, and a handle. For centuries, a gun has been a pivotal element of society, as it is a means of offsetting the balance of nature. In a match between beast and human, beast usually triumphs. However, when a gun is placed in the hands of the human, the outcome of the match is not as certain. History would be very different were guns not invented. Although many people today see a gun as a symbol of violence or synthetic authority, there are also many who see a gun as a symbol of protection and even freedom.

Many people in America believe that owning a gun is very important. Owning a gun is not only important, but it is also beneficial to the individual in America society. Some of the beneficial reasons are as follows; constitutional rights (Second Amendment right), personal safety or protection, self-defense, hunting and social events.

In order to properly elucidate the degree of significance that firearms have on the cultural identity of the United States, it is necessary to briefly analyze the history of this country. The U.S. has only been in existence for less than 250 years; its other leading counterparts in Western Civilization, by contrast, have endured for over a millennium. Therefore, during the relatively brief history of this country, it is necessary to determine the role that guns have played in it. That history can be stratified in three principle parts: its inception during the Colonial War, its expansion to encompass the majority of the North American continent that was fully realized prior to the closure of the 19th century, and its current period in which it has expanded as a global power. All of these developments were exceedingly belligerent in nature and powered by the use of firearms. It is due to America's lengthy relationship with guns as the chief means in which the country was founded and expanded upon that ordinary citizens cherish the right to brandish firearms today, therefore accounting for its full ingrained culture of firearms.

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