
Free Compare and Contrast Essay Examples
Pluralism characterizes all four societies, through nei
ther to
the same degree nor
in the same way. Cultural pluralism (as
indexed both by
the amount of cultural difference between ethnic groups liv
ing with
in the same society and by
the relative size and power of
these groups) ranges from m
inimal
in the United States to maximal
in South
Africa, with Mexico and Brazil
in an
intermediate position.
In the United States
the overwhelm
ing majority of
the population (i.e., all except recent immigrants and a scatter
ing of
Indian and Eskimo groups) has become acculturated to
the dom
inant New World version of European culture.
African cultures have been virtually obliterated, among slaves; whatever small cultural differences exist between Negroes and whites (after controll
ing for social class) are
the products more of cultural "drift" as a result of segregation than of surviv
ing
African traits. American
Indians have ei
ther become encapsulated
in numerically and socially
insignificant enclaves or culturally assimilated to surround
ing white, Negro, or Mexican-American communities.
Most immigrant groups have become assimilated with
in two or three generations of
their arrival, with, however, differential rates of acculturation for Nor
thern
Europeans, Sou
thern and Eastern
Europeans, Spanish Americans, and Asians. Secondary cultural pluralism
in the form of age, class, religious and regional subcultures and of residual ethnic traits (such as cook
ing), does, of course, exist
in the United States, but major cultural cleavages are absent.