What is American Culture?

[Marc Chevalier]

It did and it didn't. The American colonies eventually broke away from their primary investor, Britain. (And then did business with it again almost immediately afterward.)

A controversial aspect of American culture: the creation of Native American reservations. Treaties were made and broken with impunity. American settlers illegally immigrated to, and squatted on, lands belonging by treaty to Native American tribes.


.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... cheese burgers and french fries

And, by extension, high cholesterol levels and obesity.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Backyard swimming pools ... and BBQ pool parties.


.

 

[scotrace]

From Ohio?????? Whatchoo know 'bout shrimp poor boy????

Not doodly-squat. I was trying to think of a uniquely American food.

I think hot dogs came from someplace else? Pancakes too. Maybe hoe cakes?
I know! Hush Puppies!!

 

[scotrace]

Shelby Foote said

"Americans like to think of themselves as uncompromising. But the ability to compromise is one of our greatest strengths. Our whole system is based on it."

Compromise.

 

[jp*81]

An easy definition - Things shared by the vast majority of native born Americans.

We share some of these with other countries, but I believe that all together they make our culture.

-Believing in God; or the freedom to worship your own god.
-You think of McDonald's and other fast food as cheap food.
-Most likely you own a telephone and a TV.
-Your home is heated in the winter and cooled in the summer.
-You do your laundry in a machine.
-You don't have to kill your own food.
-You don't have a dirt floor in your house.
-You eat at a table, sitting on chairs.
-You don't consider insects, dogs, cats, monkeys, or guinea pigs to be food.
-You have a bathroom inside your house and it might not have a bathtub, but it certainly has a toilet that you can sit comfortably on.
-You think problems could get solved if only people would put aside their differences and work together.
-You'd respect someone who speaks French, German, or Japanese but you very likely don't speak them well enough to communicate with a monolingual foreigner.
-You're a bit more ambivalent about Spanish; you think the schools should teach kids English. You can travel the continent using nothing but English and get by pretty well in the rest of the world, too.
-School is free through high school (at least, it's an option, even if you went to a private school).

And I am sure there are more.

EDIT:I am not excluding the subjects mentioned in the previous posts...this is in addition to them.

 

[Lauren]

I disagree about the "expoited" word. I believe that the people who came here invested in the land and invested themselves in their institutions. Most of them didn't want to take without giving something back and making that something grow. They saw America as theirs.

I'm with you, Marc. Why do you think a large majority of settlers were puritans or other groups escaping religious persecution.

Obviously, there were those who were hoping to make money, but they had to be willing to starve themselves and their families in the beginning. There was indentured servitude composed of the poor or convicts leaving other countries- all hoping for a better life than they had back home. Unfortunately, they found more hardship than they could imagine.

I think most the early settlers were looking for something- and not neccessarily looking for a land to "take over". The way cultures were back then it seems it wouldn't take much for people to slaughter their neighbors (the Spanish, the Indians, etc...) it was just the way it was done back then, unfortunately.

I convict myself of being fftopic:

 

[Miss Neecerie]

An easy definition - Things shared by the vast majority of native born Americans.

We share some of these with other countries, but I believe that all together they make our culture.

-Believing in God; or the freedom to worship your own god.
-You think of McDonald's and other fast food as cheap food.
-Most likely you own a telephone and a TV.
-Your home is heated in the winter and cooled in the summer.
-You do your laundry in a machine.
-You don't have to kill your own food.
-You don't have a dirt floor in your house.
-You eat at a table, sitting on chairs.
-You don't consider insects, dogs, cats, monkeys, or guinea pigs to be food.
-You have a bathroom inside your house and it might not have a bathtub, but it certainly has a toilet that you can sit comfortably on.
-You think problems could get solved if only people would put aside their differences and work together.
-You'd respect someone who speaks French, German, or Japanese but you very likely don't speak them well enough to communicate with a monolingual foreigner.
-You're a bit more ambivalent about Spanish; you think the schools should teach kids English. You can travel the continent using nothing but English and get by pretty well in the rest of the world, too.
-School is free through high school (at least, it's an option, even if you went to a private school).

And I am sure there are more.

Wow....a lot of these are to me -not- a given throughout the USA at all.

examples:
-Your home is heated in the winter and cooled in the summer.
I have no cooling system in summer..and I am well off comparatively. Poor folks have no heat or cant afford to run the heat they have.

and I am fairly sure there are folk in the Appalachian mountains and elsewhere that are living with dirt floors and have no washing machine.


Very thought provoking as ideals...

 

[Berlin Buster]

I'm personally going for Jazz and Blues, as well as Swing/Big Band sounds as our musical culture (anyone can write inane songs with only a rythm and melody, no harmony - that covers most modern pop music), as well as adding in that I think our food culture can best be summed up by....

The Diner! (image taken from the page Roadside Diners - Reina's)

Think about it - diners and cafeterias are traditionally art deco, stainless steel, clean lines, efficient... they offer fast food, comfort food, but always GOOD food at a decent price. (There's a place in LA near Skid Row that purports to have created the French Dip sandwich, and they still sell their coffee for a nickle a cup). Those that break that mold tend to be on the roadside, and in a variety of shapes, sizes, and offerings (such as the large bowler hat, or a sitting bulldog).

 

[jp*81]

That is why I said "Majority"

Those are just some modern references to the history of American Culture.

They don't all express my cultural behavior and values either, but that is what makes us unique. Right?

 

[Berlin Buster]

Wow....a lot of these are to me -not- a given throughout the USA at all.

examples:
-Your home is heated in the winter and cooled in the summer.
I have no cooling system in summer..and I am well off comparatively. Poor folks have no heat or cant afford to run the heat they have.

and I am fairly sure there are folk in the Appalachian mountains and elsewhere that are living with dirt floors and have no washing machine.


Very thought provoking as ideals...

Yes, very true - and living in the Appalachian Mountain region, I can tell you that what you speak of is very true. West Virginia has an initiative every winter to help pay for elderly people's home heating, preferably with natural gas or propane; however, that doesn't always happen.

 

[jake_fink]

In addition to all that has been mentioned:

The fortune cookie.

Burlesque.

The internet.

 

[jp*81]

Please consider this...

There are 13 states with a population of less than 2,000,000.
All together they equal less than 26,000,000. Now compare that to:

California - 37,000,000
Texas - 22,000,000
New York - 19,000,000
Florida - 17,000,000

 

[Lincsong]

Don't forget SPAM!
and honorable mentions; Television, the internet, medicine, dams, agriculture:eusa_clap

 

[johnnycanuck]

What is American culture? The funniest thing I find about the responses is that the majority is coming from Americans. America is a big county, not as big as Canada, but big. With a wide diverse culture and a much greater population. I have traveled a chunk of your land from Alaska to Florida. I have walked the Las Vegas Strip, Marvelled at the grand canyon, Enjoyed coffee on the Warf in Seattle, and talked to a guy in a mouse costume at Disneyland. Nothing I have witnessed in America remotely resembles what I have seen on American TV. I never saw a gang banging, repressed blacks man in a stolen BMW. I never met a Texan wearing six shooters and a ten gallon hat that owned a oil well. Nore have I had a conversation with a Blond bimbo valley girl that excessively used the term "like totally". So right now I can say The image I get of Americans by watching there TV shows is not the America I have seen. If I think to my youth I think of fiercely proud people, waving flags, ready to put there life on the line for there beliefs. patriots, frontiers men, Davy Crocket, John Wayne, strong leaders and strong followers. I must say I have not seen that image lately.
If I was to choose one image of America I want to keep with me in my mind, it would have to be a music video. One day I accidentally switched to the county music station and there before me was "Little America" with "God Bless Texas". It was sunny, big open spaces, happy people and hot cheerleaders jumping around. That has got me be my idea of American culture.
Johnny.

 

[jp*81]

Minority meaning numbers, not race.

Those things you mentioned are in different regions of America, but I think they would be catagorized as a minority culture not "American" culture.

Nothing I have witnessed in America remotely resembles what I have seen on American TV. I never saw a gang banging, repressed blacks man in a stolen BMW. I never met a Texan wearing six shooters and a ten gallon hat that owned a oil well. Nore have I had a conversation with a Blond bimbo valley girl that excessively used the term "like totally".

 

[KAT]

.good my english isnt as good...otherwise i would say a lot more about this subject..lol

what country is behind the US? excuse me? please think about how old your country is and europe? my town had a 750 year anniversary when i was 10 years old..how old is the US by now?
oh...and sorry to dissapoint you all but even the Hot Dog and Hamburger are from Germany.. [huh] not my fault!

 

[jp*81]

Mmmm.....

Bratwurst.

 

[KAT]

Bratwurst.

here we goooooo
im proud of you my gal lol :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[johnnycanuck]

All right lets say it is "minority culture" and not "American Culture". What region do you have to be from to be categorised as from the "American Culture"? The only two I can think of is from Washington DC or Hollywood. DC is where Americans go to worship America, and Hollywood is its voice to the world. Ironically enough Hollywood gave me those images or Americans in the first place. More importantly what is "Minority Culture" isn't America just built up on a collective of minorities? "Send us your meek" and all that.