...American Culture Since the beginning of the Second World War in 1945, America appears as the first world economic power. Nowadays, it is the most powerful country in a lot of domains, that’s why it represents a model for most of the countries and particularly for the developing countries. However, like Ian Ralston said in The Christian Science Monitor, America’s supremacy is mostly spread through its culture. It leads us to wonder how American culture invades the world. In order to answer this question, we will see in a first step the different areas of it and the major role played by globalization. Then, in a second step, the consequences of this domination. First, the term globalization can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. Obviously, we can say that the world is unified into the American society through its widespread culture. Indeed globalization implies all the communication systems such as television, radios, magazines, newspapers, advertisement…etc. These communication systems are essentials in order to diffuse the American culture. Moreover, as it is mentioned in the statement, by American culture, we understand Hollywood, popular music and literature. Hollywood is the place where the most broadcasted and the most famous movies are produced like, for example, Gone with the Wind or Titanic. Then, American artists, poor before to get rich and famous, have introduced new kinds of...
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...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...
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...Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho once said, “culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers.” Culture is a way of thinking, behaving, and representing a group of the same morals and art. Culture gives us a sense of belonging in society, and differences in cultures lead to diversity in people from different parts of the world. Our cultural values and beliefs manifest themselves through lifestyle, making the United States a multicultural society. In our daily lives, those who live around us, those we socialize with, and those we work with, come from different parts of the world and have different cultures, so we are forced to...
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...When I moved to Colorado for the summer of 2009, I couldn’t have prepared myself for the culture shock. I grew up in a small town in Northern Ohio. The town that I grew up in has backwoods feel were everyone knows each other and space was very limited. These influences defined my sense of culture. I’ve never experience a dense type of culture until I went to Denver, Colorado. At first, I didn’t fully understand what culture shock is until I experienced it. To most people, culture shock is when traveling to a new country or state and experiencing all sorts of new stuff. Culture shock can be a little overwhelming, but it can be exciting as well. Upon my arrival to Denver, I noticed that the culture was completely different from what I am use to....
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...Native Cultures of the Americas Gallery: National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) has exhibits spanning a variety of topics including animals, plants, ecosystems, fossils, earth sciences and human diversity. The Native Cultures of the Americas Gallery (NCAG) is one of five exhibitory spaces within the museum devoted to cultures from around the world and offers visitors a condensed walking tour of the distinct cultural areas of North America, encapsulated through select and supposedly representative objects (Rubin 2015). In this section I focus on three displays within the gallery that remove Native American experiences from time and history and as a consequence depict Native American cultures as ahistorical...
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...Culture is the essence of life; living the majority of my life in the United States has taught me the differences and similarities of Mexican and American cultures. Since both of my parents come from Mexican heritage, my roots align more with the Mexican culture. Therefore, I have learned the essential values of the Mexican culture from my parents, such as language and behavior. My appreciation for both cultures has come from all the experiences I have gathered from living in El Paso the majority of my life. Although I have spent the majority of my life All of my years living in the United States, I find myself abiding by traditional Mexican values. Due to this I have been able to differentiate the values and norms of both cultures. One aspect...
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... 1. The American mass culture was primarily dominated by movies, radio and television. As technology advanced we saw a decline in one of the above categories and an explosion in the other. As they replaced each other in the role of providing americans entertainment, each left behind a legacy that is important to the history of America. In the early 1940's radio was considered vital to the every day life of an American. The radio provided entertainment as well as news to the broad audience that listened. Due to the inexpensive nature of the radio, it quickly became a very popular and common thing for people to have and use. While the radio is commonly known for broadcasting news and music, it also broadcasted shows that resembled soap operas. This shows would go on everyday at a set time frame and would engage the listener and cause them to imagine the scene that was acted over the radio. Some of the more popular radio broadcasts such as Abbott and Costello eventually transitioned to the television when it went mainstream. (Cross and Szostak 263) For the government, the radio in the 1940's was an outlet for propaganda. Countless advertisements where broadcasted about the war. Since the radio had a good deal of the population listening, it allowed for government to make mass speeches to people and for those people to receive it in almost real time. Radio in prime had successfully grabbed the attention of the American Mass Culture and allowed for our culture to grow at a...
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...I believe that to some extent culture protection was a motivator, however the sale of popular American magazines put an economic pressure on local Canadian magazine vendors to compete with sales that they saw was going to hurt them economically. American magazines would attract advertisers and resources would be diverted to the publication of the American magazines that they felt would be a major issue to compete for readership and advertisers. These American magazines would show the American lifestyle and I do believe that those images and readings may have presented a concern to conservative groups and felt that young readers would be influenced by the American pop culture. An example of one such magazine that could be a major influence...
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...Samir Moussa was born in the United States both his parents were immigrants. He spent most of his adulthood traveling the world and volunteering and learning about tribal medicine. Samir felt a connection with his parent’s respective homeland he was not only a family oriented person, but a person that love to connect with people in general. Although Samir was an American he shared the views of his friends and family throughout their respective countries. Globalization had a profane effect on Samir; frequently living in very different cultures and setting than his own Samir learned to speak several different languages just by associating with people of different cultures. According to Samir exposure to cultural diversity has opened his eyes,...
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...There are five dimensions of national culture that compare different countries and their culture. These dimensions include power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/ collectivism, masculinity/femininity, and long-term/short-term orientation.While the United States and the Netherlands are similar on four out of the five national culture dimensions, their drastically different on the masculine/feminine dimension. The US is known as a masculine society in which the men are seen as more aggressive and the females are viewed as gentle and caring. The Netherlands are known as a feminine society, in which both males and females alike are viewed as being gentle and modest. The two countries are useful to compare views on virginity loss and...
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...trends and innovations shaped American culture during the 1920s? There was many trends and innovations that changed the American culture during the 1920s including new technology, communication, and the knowledge of science. New technology created the automobiles and airplanes which improved transportation. Communication and entertainment increased due to radio’s and movies. And media and popularity helped promote sports. These are only a couple of innovations that shaped America. Technology changed American life forever with the automobiles and airplanes. The automobiles allowed families to move further away from the cities, lowered unemployment rates, increased industries and mass production, and brought excitement and adventure to...
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...Art from the past can depict and influence culture in a variety of ways, and can still be seen in our own culture today. At times, we might often wonder how a tradition or ritual had originally started, but never actually retrieve many answers. Fortunately, art from centuries ago could help us trace the clues to how things began. The things that we see and use nowadays could have easily be connected to the past as a sacred relic or a powerful symbol. Though we may not know it, we could very well be using some of the same customs that many have used in the past, but in our own modern way. Regardless of when it was made or where it was originated, art can take on different forms, but still hold some of the same meaning it had had from many years...
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...are the factors that define culture. There are seven major contributing factors that affect cultures; Geography, Climate, Religion, Economics, History, Political Structures, and Social Organizations. Geography and climate can dictate the clothing people use, the kind of shelter and even food that they eat. Humans adapt to the environment they are in. A country dominated predominately by deserts would have people that would value lightweight clothing that covers their skin to protect from the sun. In contrast, people that live in a mountainous region would use heavier padded clothes to shield them from the harsh cold. Geography and climate...
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...The culture of art has been apparent in every part of history dating back to the very beginning. It has allowed modern day people to learn and react. Just like many people before.It happens over and over, time and time again It is a way of communication. Not necessarily talking but the idea of sharing. Allowing a growth in knowledge and understanding. It opens one’s perception that may have been closed before. Cultures have connected and influenced one another over many years and continues as we speak. One of the most influential cultures of art stems from Africa. Africa is rich with culture especially in their dances, clothing styles, and musical instruments. Africa has influenced many other countries also and has made a huge presence in the...
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...Popular American Culture Twame M. Williams Introduction to Popular American Culture SOC/105 May 20, 2010 Ms. Ardra J. Norman, LMSW Popular American Culture Popular American culture is what’s going on now. It is the way we do things in America now. It is the way we make decisions in life. Based upon our population, popular American culture surrounds itself around food, music, technology, schools, books, people, places, and things to do. The actual definition for popular culture is the elements of everyday life. When things happen in the world, people change. The media puts information out there for America to view and have options. People tend to follow the trends, the fads, the way that everyone else is leading the world to be. The inventory list that was created to form this paper started with how I viewed society and what was in it. Music, fast foods, grocery stores, clothes, and shoes are many artifacts that society and culture are built upon. In this list, comparisons have been made and some are most common than others. The knowledge and beliefs that people have show their attitudes and expectations of how society is run. When trends are set in a community, it is normally driven into them to be that way. Knowing that everyday life thrives upon all of this, it makes you see why changes are continuing to exist. Artifacts There are many artifacts tied into popular culture. Music is one of them....
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