America as a Foreign Culture

DeVita and Armstrong (2002) point out that it is difficult for an American student to truly appreciate the strangeness of our culture. We grow up with similar assumptions, the same language and follow the same patterns of behavior. Interestingly, outsiders take ass much for granted about American culture as Americans do. Distant Mirrors (2002) articles are written by anthropologists who have had their own experiences with every day American life, and are arranged in categories. It thought the goal of the anthology to better understand ourselves interesting at first when I began reading articles that seemed terribly misunderstood. I quickly realized that the point was that our cultural norms and values are often not noticed or realized by individuals within the culture and that our customs can seem extremely bizarre to individuals from other cultures. I have read approximately half of the book at this point and have found it very interesting. The first article by Ralph Linton, titled One Hundred Percent American, I found interesting. Historically, this country is based on immigrants who have assimilated into a single culture that is now considered American. I wonder what is truly American culture. Linton’s point is that what Americans consider 100% American is most commonly borrowed from other parts of the world. This is common sense to me as each immigrant culture brought along their values, norms and technologies upon assimilation. In my view, what is truly American is a melting pot of cultures and views living together in harmony and interacting as one. My opinion is that this concept, is perhaps more unique to North America. I also enjoyed the Growing up American: Doing the Right Thing by Amparo B. Ojeda. She pointed out the difference in using first names as opposed to Mrs. or Mr. and embracing a child’s independence as a