Introduction
Acculturation is how an individual or society from one culture adopts ideals and behaviors while upholding a distinctive civilization. This process is most often mentioned in terms of a minority culture acquiring features of the majority civilization. Acculturation is frequently the case with migrant groupings that are socially or culturally distinct from the large segment in their destination country (Gruzinski 21). However, since acculturation is a 2-way progression, associates of the mainstream culture often absorb characteristics of the minority civilizations they encounter. The procedure occurs between groups where neither majority nor minority is required (Veresiu and Giesler 557). Acculturation is not synonymous with assimilation, even though some individuals use the terms interchangeably. While assimilation is a possible endpoint of the acculturation process, the progression may also result in marginalization, rejection, incorporation, and transmutation. Acculturation may occur on both a collective and individual level and can be triggered by direct interaction or indirect contact through art, press, or literature.
Comprehension of Acculturation
Acculturation is the approach to cultural relations and exchange where an individual or group adopts, to a considerable degree, the ideas and norms of a civilization that is not their own. Consequently, the individual’s or group’s novel culture survives but is altered by this process. At its most drastic, assimilation happens when the native culture is completely abandoned in favor of the new one. Other effects, ranging from modest to fundamental change, include alienation, marginalization, integration, and transmutation (Karim 45). Powell further defined the meaning as the psychological events inside an individual due to extended cultural engagement. While they share cultural characteristics, Powell noted that they each preserve their own distinct culture.
Later in the 20th century, acculturation became a focal point for American sociologists, who employed ethnography to analyze the lives of immigrants and their integration into American culture. These early sociologists concentrated on the progression of acculturation encountered by immigrants and Black Americans within a predominantly white civilization. Sociologists today are more aware of the bidirectional nature of cultural interaction and adoption that occurs during the process. Socialization has traditionally been viewed as a lifetime developmental process involving changes and continuities in the human being’s interactions with the environment (Veresiu and Giesler 557). It is the process through which people acquire and integrate culturally influenced rules and modes of behavior. By studying and mastering society’s cultural practices, attitudes, and ideologies, one may gain a fundamental and thorough understanding of culture.
Psychological scientists have viewed the acculturation of immigrants as a process of resocialization, the learning of new interpersonal skills and values, changes in analysis and membership group connections, and emotional adjustment to a changing environment. To comprehend the acculturation process, it is necessary to distinguish between an internal promotion of change and an external alteration factor (Gruzinski 20). Internal aspects of acculturation encompass invention, exploration, and creativity while external factors include colonial government, schooling, and industrialization. Psychological acculturation exerts its impact through direct interaction with a different culture and participation in the broader acculturative processes occurring in society (Karim 46). Generally, the encounter has a long-lasting effect on subsequent generations.
Throughout the practice of acculturation, individuals may encounter novel phenomena for which they must continually make choices, such as which language to communicate, what to consume, and how to spend their everyday lives. Individuals differ in their entry into and degree of acculturation (Gruzinski 20). For instance, it has been established that individuals living in ordinary communities provide a limited possibility for socialization processes involving individual choices. Acculturation denotes when groups of people of diverse cultures come into steady direct contact, leading to alterations to one or both groupings’ unique cultural models (Veresiu and Giesler 559). Acculturation results in an adjustment to a new community and cultural stress among its inhabitants.
Acculturation at Group and Individual Levels
Acculturation signifies the broad reception of another culture’s values, customs, forms of creativity, and expertise on a group stage. These can vary from accepting initiatives, beliefs, and philosophy to the extensive adoption of foodstuffs and culinary styles from other civilizations, for instance, the embracing of Mexican, French, Indian, and Chinese cuisines in the United States. Therefore, acculturation may include immigrant groups’ simultaneous adoption of conventional American cuisines and meals. Acculturation on a collective level can also involve the interchange of cultural items such as dress, trends, and language (Karim 47). It occurs due to immigrant groups learning and adopting the dialect of their new residence or attributable to specific words and expressions from a foreign language entering general usage. Occasionally, authorities within a culture deliberately choose to embrace another culture’s technology or habits for efficiency and development.
Individual acculturation may entail the same practices as a group’s acculturation, but the inspirations and circumstances surrounding it may differ. For example, individuals who travel to foreign lands that have a culture dissimilar to their own and stay for an extended period are likely to participate in the practice of acculturation, whether deliberately or subconsciously. Acculturation makes individuals understand and realize new things, celebrate their interconnectedness, and minimize social friction caused by cultural differences.
Similarly, first-generation immigrants frequently intentionally engage in the acculturation process as they integrate into their new society to achieve social and economic success. Indeed, immigrants are frequently required by regulations to acculturate in various settings, with mandates to speak the language and adhere to society’s rules, and in certain situations, with new regulations governing attire and body covering. Individuals who travel across social strata and distinct and disparate locations frequently undergo acculturation, both voluntarily and compelled (Veresiu and Giesler 564). Acculturation plays a crucial role in many first-generation tertiary education students often surrounded by compeers and conditioned to comprehend the norms and culture of postsecondary learning. It may also entail learners from lower-income populations who find themselves encircled by wealthy colleagues at well-financed academic institutions.
How Acculturation Varies from Assimilation
While the terms are frequently used indiscriminately, acculturation and assimilation are distinct concepts. Although assimilation is a possible effect of acculturation, it is not required. Additionally, assimilation is frequently a one-way process instead of acculturation, a two-way progression of cultural interchange. Assimilation is how an individual or group accepts a new culture that primarily replaces their ancestral one, leaving a few traces behind. The term assimilation refers to cultural blending in which a person or group becomes culturally indiscernible from those culturally indigenous to the community into which it has assimilated (Veresiu and Giesler 567). Assimilation, both a technique and a consequence, is prevalent among immigrant communities seeking to integrate into the established social fabric. Depending on the environment and circumstances, the process might be rapid or slow, unfolding over time. For instance, the cultural differences between a third-generation Vietnamese American raised in Chicago and a Vietnamese individual living in rural Vietnam.
Strategies and Upshots of Acculturation
Acculturation can receive many varieties and have a diversity of consequences, reliant on the approach used by the persons or organizations participating in cultural exchange. The practice chosen will depend on whether the individual or group feels it is crucial to preserve their indigenous society. Acculturation shows how critical it is to generate and sustain ties with members of the larger world and civilization whose cultures are distinct (Gruzinski 20). The four responses to these inquiries cause five distinct acculturation approaches and consequences: assimilation, separation, integration, marginalization, and transmutation.
The assimilation process is employed when little or no highlighting is positioned on preserving the indigenous culture. A high premium is situated on assimilating and forming links with the new culture. Thus, the individual or grouping becomes culturally unrecognizable from the culture they have assimilated (Veresiu and Giesler 565). This type of acculturation is more prone to occur in society denoted as melting pots, as new members are incorporated. Separation is employed when there is little or no emphasis on accepting the new civilization and an intense highlighting on preserving the existing culture. Consequently, the indigenous civilization is safeguarded while the new culture is rebuffed (Karim 54). This shows that acculturation is more prone to extend in culturally or racially separated cultures.
Integration is utilized when essential to preserve the original culture while also regulating the new one. This is a frequent acculturation advance seen in several immigrant societies and those with a significant percentage of racial or tribal minorities. Individuals who utilize this method may be deemed bicultural and might be understood to code-switch while interacting with members of various cultural groups (Veresiu and Giesler 566). This is considered the norm in what are referred to be multicultural cultures.
Unconcerned persons employ marginalization to preserve their native civilization or adopt a new one. Accordingly, the individual or grouping is isolated – neglected, forgotten, and pushed aside by the rest of the population (Karim 53). Marginalization can occur in civilizations where cultural segregation is practiced, making integration hard or unpleasant for people from diverse cultures. Transmutation is employed by persons who value both the preservation of their native culture and the adoption of the new civilization. Instead of integrating two distinct cultures into their everyday lives; they create a third, which is a combination of the old and the new.
Conclusion
Acculturation is the development by which a person or organization from one culture adopts the values and norms while retaining a unique civilization. Assimilation is an upshot of acculturation development, which may facilitate marginalization, rejection, and incorporation. Individuals may encounter novel phenomena during the process of acculturation for which they must constantly make choices, such as which language to communicate in, what to consume, and how to spend their daily lives. Periodically, authorities within a culture willfully adopt the technology or habits of another culture in the interest of efficiency and development. Assimilation is widely a one-way approach, whereas acculturation is a two-way practice of cultural exchange. Integration is employed when necessary to preserve the novel culture while also modifying the new one. In societies where cultural segregation is practiced, people from different cultures may find it difficult or unpleasant to integrate.
Works Cited
Gruzinski, Serge. The Mestizo Mind: The Intellectual Dynamics of Colonization and Globalization. Routledge, 2013.
Karim, Shahid. “Acculturation in a Globalised World: Implications for Theory and Educational Policy and Practice.” International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, vol. 23 no. 1, 2021, pp. 44-58.
Veresiu, Ela, and Markus Giesler. “Beyond Acculturation: Multiculturalism and the Institutional Shaping of an Ethnic Consumer Subject.” Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 45 no. 3, 2018, pp. 553-570.