Research

Maged

Jandt8e_ppt11.pptx

Home >English homework help >Research

Chapter 11:

Cultures Within Cultures

What will you learn?

Why some immigrant groups have maintained separate cultural identities?

How is the marginalization category of acculturation exemplified by the Hmong?

How is the separation category of acculturation exemplified by Koreans in Russia and Amish in the U.S.?

How can indigenous cultures assert their identities?

How are the assimilation and integration categories of acculturation identifiable in the United States?

What Are Cultures Within Cultures?

Most often based on geographic region, ethnicity, or economic or social class

Usually encompass a relatively large number of people and represent the accumulation of generations

Awareness of cultures within cultures is a critical intercultural communication skill

What Is Diaspora?

Term originally used to refer to the experiences of Jews, and later Armenians, who were forcibly exiled from their homelands

More recently, scholars have expanded that definition to include all groups that move from one part of the world to another, even if migration was of free choice

Diaspora can create cultures within cultures in the country into which peoples move

Marginalization: The Hmong

The Iu Mien and the Hmong, who left Laos, and the Montagnard, who left Vietnam: lost their identities provided by their homelands and were unable to establish a new identity in the United States; are examples of marginalization

The Hmong left the villages of Laos and migrated to Australia, France, Canada, the United States

an ancient Asian hill tribe that has resisted assimilation for millennia; long persecuted; written language destroyed centuries ago

Hmong immigration to the U.S. started in the late 1970s. Today, over 260,000 Hmong reside in the U.S., primarily in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin

Marginalization: The Hmong

Cultural Patterns

Hmong culture is evident in the U.S.: grocery stores, radio programs, family centers, festivals

Religious practices that blend ancestor worship, animal sacrifice, and shaman healing

Early marriage age, marriage by capture, high fertility rates (9.5 children per mother)

Ill prepared for life in the U.S.; few marketable skills, high poverty rate (27% among Hmong, compared to 10.5% for the U.S. overall); 40% speak English “less than very well;” the highest welfare dependency rate of any refugee group

Marginalization

Tran Minh Tung (1990) described groups within Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong, and Vietnamese refugee cultures most at risk for marginalization:

Newcomers: many were in relocation camps, experienced dehumanizing conditions, resulting in passivity, dependency

Refugee teenagers: many become involved in gang criminal behavior; loss of traditional values and lack of support from parents who are themselves experiencing stress may be contributing factors

Elderly refugees: minimal/nonexistent English language skills result in social isolation; family structure changes as children and grandchildren begin to take places in the new culture

Rural refugees: less sophisticated than urban counterparts, do not fare well in a capitalistic society, although their children progress economically and socially

Separation: Koreans in Russia

Koryo-saram: ethnic Koreans in post-Soviet states; 470,000 people, the largest number in Uzbekistan (198,000), Russia (125,000), Kazakhstan (105,000)

Began migrating to Russia in the 19th century to escape famine, economic hardship, Japanese imperialism in Korea

Prior to the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Koreans outnumbered Russians in the Russian Far East

1930s: Stalin’s government relocated 200,000 ethnic Koreans to central Russia under suspicion of spying for Japan

Separation from the Russian culture, interacting little with the nomadic peoples around them; farms, schools, media

Separation: The Amish

Amish and Mennonites grew out of an Anabaptist movement in Switzerland

Amish broke from Mennonites in late 17th century and immigrated to Pennsylvania

Left voluntarily and have voluntarily remained separate

Subculture based on religion; attempts to maintain its original culture

Amish settlement: geographic area; within each settlement, one or more affiliations of people share a set of theological rules and practices; each affiliation (made of 25-35 families) makes its own decisions in meetings of members

Separation: The Amish

Cultural Values

Worldview: Gelassenheit, “submission;” the Amish believe in complete submission to God and do not separate religion from other areas of life

Activity Orientation: Work is preferred over idleness, which is believed to breed laziness, a trait of the outside world

Human Nature Orientation: A major factor in maintaining control of change was the dominant culture’s allowing the Amish their own educational system

Relational Orientation: Amish youth must choose to accept an Amish identity; 80% to 90% make the decision to join the church and choose Amish way of life; male-dominated society

Indigenous Cultures

There are 5,000 indigenous cultures worldwide (300 million people, or 5% of the world’s population)

There are pressures on indigenous cultures brought on by contact with other cultures

Individual indigenous peoples are asserting their cultural identities and claiming ancestral lands and the right to control their destinies

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples unequivocally suggests that indigenous peoples should occupy a privileged political and legal position

Indigenous Cultures

At different times in different countries, policies have ranged from forced assimilation to forced separation

Early laws had as an objective the assimilation of indigenous peoples into national cultures as quickly as possible and at any human cost

In the U.S., Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1820 to force American Indians west of the Mississippi River; later, the U.S. government sent many tribes to reservations

The trend today is that Indigenous peoples are encouraged or forced to learn a national official language but also are allowed to, and in some cases helped to, develop and promote indigenous languages and cultures

Assimilation: United States

Immigration and acculturation policies in the U.S. have ranged from forced separation (slaves), to assimilation (Germans), to acceptance of integration of subcultures while maintaining important aspects of one’s original culture (Hispanics)

Cultural myth of the United States as a nation of many backgrounds with one identity

Phrase most often used to describe the assimilation of early immigrants into the U.S.: The Melting Pot (title of popular 1908 play by Israel Zangwill)

Uniformity encouraged; patriotic significance placed on learning English and becoming “American”

Integration: United States

A century ago, there may have been a greater consensus as to cultural norms, religion, and what it meant to be a “true American”

Cultural pluralism: Horace Kallen described the United States as a symphony (1915)

Multiculturalism: U.S. residents today increasingly recognize their immigrant roots

Today, you are more likely to hear the salad analogy or stew analogy to suggest that the elements maintain their own taste or identity but exist together to create the whole

English-Speaking Cultures

English is the native language in Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, the United States, Guyana, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean countries of Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago

20% of the U.S. population in 2000 shared an important part of their identity, that they claim an ancestry from an English-speaking country

Spanish-Speaking Cultures

Spanish is official or de facto official language in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Bolivia, Honduras, Paraguay, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Equatorial Guinea, Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Uruguay

10% of the U.S. population in 2000 shared an important part of their identity, that they claim ancestry from a Spanish-speaking country

Spanish-Speaking Cultures

Antonio Guernica (1982):

Spanish speaking: population with ability to speak and comprehend Spanish language, whether as a primary or secondary language

Spanish surnamed: population segment with last names that have been identified as Spanish by the U.S. Census Bureau

Spanish origin: population segment that came or has ancestors who came from a Spanish-speaking country

Hispanic: came into common use as a result of 1980 census to identify U.S. Spanish speakers’ shared roots to Spain; population segment with capability of speaking and comprehending Spanish language, with ancestry based in a Spanish-speaking country, and that identify with Hispanic cultures

Chicano: population segment born in the U.S. but with ancestors who came from Mexico

Latino: Spanish-speaking individuals who came from, or whose ancestors came from, anywhere in Latin America

Mexican-American: person from a specific country of origin who is in the assimilation process

Hispanic Culture Within the U.S. Culture

Hispanic: U.S. Spanish speakers with ancestry based in a Spanish-speaking country

Total U.S. Hispanic population: 50.5 million (16% of U.S. residents, according to the 2010 census)

Over 75% of the U.S. Mexican-origin population resides in the Southwest and the Pacific region and, over time, is dispersing beyond border states to virtually every region of the country

Hispanic population in the United States has often been the subject of general-circulation media; stereotype of poverty

Hispanics have consistently had the highest labor force participation, the least use of welfare programs, and the highest rate of family formation

Hispanic Culture Within the U.S. Culture

Hispanics share some important cultural values:

an explicit moral structure

a Roman Catholic tradition

social integration that binds individuals and families together into a larger community

referred to as family oriented; compared to Anglo-Americans, Hispanics rely on extended families for emotional support and feel more anxiety when separated from families

a growing shared appreciation for the art, music, dance, literature, cuisine, and other elements of an international Hispanic culture

Hispanic Culture Within the U.S. Culture

Spanglish (or Tex-Mex or Cubonics): a practice called code switching by linguists - changing from one language to another for a word, phrase, clause, or sentence; Spanglish used by Hispanics reflects both a knowledge of Spanish and an awareness of the U.S. culture; simpler words are used

Hispanic cultures in the U.S. have a rich media, consisting of Spanish-language newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and social media; these provide a forum where minority issues can be freely discussed; they also help continue the culture and support an integrated status

Let’s Discuss!

What reasons can you give for the Hmong integrating, assimilating, or remaining a separate culture?

Why do many young people who leave their Amish community return?

What should be the policy with the more than 11 million undocumented persons currently living in the U.S.?

In light of the official English movement, what are possible consequences of major political parties’ candidates having Spanish-language websites?