Tangaro, Marcel Ann E.
BSA(AG-2) SOCSCI 3
WESTERN CULTURE
The culture of the United States of America is primarily of Western culture (European) origin and
form, but is influenced by a multicultural ethos that includes African, Native American, Asian,
Polynesian, and Latin American people and their cultures. It also has its own social and cultural
characteristics, such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore. The United States
of America is an ethnically and racially diverse country as a result of large-scale migration from
many countries throughout its history.[1] Many American cultural elements, especially from
popular culture, have spread across the globe through modern mass media.
Dominant culture (USA)
The idea of a dominant culture is elusive and uncomfortable, so most people don't think or talk
about it except in brief references or symbols.
Simplest approach: What is the culture to which immigrants assimilate? What styles or values
prevail in mainstream American culture?
styles: plainspoken, not flashy, quiet, informal to businesslike, "unmarked"
values: mobility, individualism / nuclear family, cleanliness / sterility, security
Other simple approaches are to say the dominant culture is "the rich" or "white people"--that is,
identifying by class or race.
But the dominant culture is selectively absorbent of other races-- intermarriage with other
nationalities and races occurs as long as the new members conform to dominant styles and
values.
Class differences can prevail, but poorer whites often identify strongly with the values of wealth
and power.
cultural markers
Elusiveness to invisibility
Another reason for the subject's elusiveness is that America's dominant culture is surprisingly
invisible or hidden behind the walls of gated communities, high rises, and secure compounds.
This invisibility is increased by the "plain style" of fashion and behavior that typifies the wealthy
and powerful of the USA, in contrast to the extravagant displays of wealth that sometimes
marked the rich in older civilizations.
symbols: white bread, vanilla, soap, blonde hair & blue eyes
Back to race or nationality . . .
USA's dominant culture derives from its early settlers from Northern and Western Europe,
especially England and the British Isles
Two main traditions or strains of America's dominant culture from two early waves of
immigrants:
Puritan immigrants (1600s) in New England and Upper Midwest:
more educated, more community organization and stability, more faith in government
institutions
vast literary heritage for study and cultural influence
Scots-Irish immigrants (1700s) in Appalachian mountains and westward into lower Midwest, the
South, Oklahoma and Texas, even parts of California and the Mountain West
less emphasis on education, more individualistic and fractious, faith in family or clan, anti-
government
Proper spelling of a single word won't make or break your semester, but it really helps your
instructor-grader's mood if you don't spell "dominant culture" as "dominate culture."
"dominant culture" is right.
"dominate culture" is wrong.
Notes
Names or associations of dominant culture:
whiteness
Northern European descent and speech
earliest immigrants to North America, Germanic languages (English is Germanic)
gender: masculine privilege, but European code of chivalry honors women (esp. up the class
ladder, which is true of all cultures)
Most peculiar aspect of dominant culture:
subjectively: We recognize it, but we act like we don't. Difficult to talk about, partly because of
class power--in a nation devoted to equality, "one way you can tell if you're American is if you
can't talk about class"
objectively: the dominant culture is often marked by plainness, blandness, almost invisibility
Objective 4. To identify the United States' “dominant culture” to which immigrants assimilate.
Examples of national migration and dominant culture for objective 4
Our deep historical model for “national migration” is the ancient Jews who migrated from Egypt
to Canaan in the Bible’s Exodus story.
The standard immigrant story concerns families and individuals who strive to adapt to the
prevailing culture. In contrast, the Jews moved to the Promised Land as a group and resisted
assimilation and intermarriage with the Canaanites. American Jews have followed this pattern
until recent generations, when intermarriage has increased.
Our American historical model for “national migration” is the “Great Migration” of English
Pilgrims and Puritans to early North America, where they imitated the Jews in Canaan by
refusing to intermarry or assimilate with the American Indians. This English culture became one
basis for the USA’s dominant culture to which American immigrants assimilate.
A relatively recent internal example of “national migration” might be that of the Mormons in the
1800s from the Midwest to Utah, where they became the dominant culture.
Some elements of national migration and correspondence to Exodus may also appear in the
“great migration” of African Americans from the Old South to the urban North during slavery
times, in the early twentieth century, and in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
