ACCULTURATION
The process through which one culture comes to adopt the practices and values of another culture while
retaining their own culture.
Minority culture adopting elements of the majority culture
Example
Immigrant groups that are culturally and ethnically distinct from the majority culture found in the place
where they have immigrated.
Process of Cultural Contact - person level
- group level
Group Level - adoption of values, practices, forms of art, technologies of another culture
immigrants - first generation - enculturation - acceptance - learn laws and customs - crucial to social and
economic success
Enculturation - the process of socialization that helps a person acquire social norms, values, behavior,
language and other tools of the culture that surrounds him.
It is facilitated by parents, peers, siblings.
It makes the person imbibe social values and norms
It helps a person survive and fit better.
What happens when a poor family suddenly becomes rich?
Assimilation - a new culture virtually replaces the old
- it is a process and an outcome
Five Different Strategies and Outcomes of Acculturation
1. Assimilation - strategy used when little or no importance is placed on maintaining the original culture
and great importance is placed on fitting in and developing relationships with the new culture
The culture or group is eventually culturally indistinguishable from the culture into which they have
assimilated.
It occurs in societies that are considered melting pots into which new members are absorbed.
Determinants of Successful Assimilation ([Link]
assimilation)
Education – higher educational attainment
Occupation – better jobs, higher pay
Residential Segregation – decreasing residential concentration
Language Acquisition, the ability to speak the national language and the loss of the
individual's mother tongue. The three-generation model of language assimilation states that the
first generation makes some progress in language assimilation but remains dominant in their native
tongue, the second generation is bilingual, and the third-generation speaks only the national
language.
Poverty
Health
Crime Rates
Family Type
Intermarriage
Naturalization
2. Separation - strategy used when little to no importance is placed on embracing the new culture and high
importance is placed on maintaining the original culture, the original culture is maintained while the new
culture is rejected.
[Link]
Example - racially segregated societies - watch Invictus
3. Integration - strategy used in maintaining the original culture and adapting to the new one are
considered important.
The dominant culture is adopted while maintaining their own culture.
It is observed among many immigrant communities and those with a high proportion of ethnic or racial
minorities.
Bi-cultural - code switching - when moving between different cultural groups
It is the norm in multi-cultural societies.
The measure of self-identification represents the most direct attempt to capture the general idea of social
integration, i.e. by asking whether an immigrant feels attached to (or identifies with) the host society.
The main sources of information are socio-economic surveys in which immigrants answer questions such
as "Do you feel [insert nationality]?", "Do you feel part of society?", and "Do you feel at home?".
General Self-identification
Culture Trust, social preferences (altruism, fairness, reciprocity,
(preferences and inequity aversion) and risk attitudes
beliefs) Values: gender roles, family ties, role of religion,
political attitudes
Social Language
participation/ Planned permanent stay in host country
inclusion Perceived discrimination
(behaviour) Hobbies, membership in a
local social club, non-immigrant friends, reading local
newspapers, residential
location choices
Demographics Age of marriage, intermarriage, divorce rate, fertility,
(behaviour) household structure
Civil and Active citizenship: contacting a (local) policymaker,
political being a member of any political party, working in a
participation political/civil organisation or association, participating
(behaviour) in civil activities
Voting, political awareness
Volunteering
4. Marginalization - it used by those who place no importance on maintaining their own culture or
adopting a new one. The end result is that the person or group is marginalized, pushed aside, overlooked
or forgotten.
This happens when cultural exclusion is practiced. This happens when it is unappealing for a culturally
different person to integrate.
Watch Tasaday - [Link]
Haring Walang Kaharian - [Link]
Understanding the Rohingya Refugee Crisis - [Link]
5. Transmutation - a third culture is created which is a blend of the old and the new
a mode of acculturation where the individual chooses to identify with a third cultural
group (e.g., microculture) which materializes out of the native and host cultural
groups.
[Link]
