American Culture?

Question

What is it?
Do we really have one beyond cowboys, baseball, apple pie and McDonalds (classy, right)?

culture: Common beliefs and practices of a group of people. The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.

classy: elegant and fashionable


Of course.. freedom. Which, is a lie.
But I meant more like traditions. So many other cultures are rich in traditions and food and art and music and America seems kind of..dead in that section.

Ok...its a combination of other different cultures. That doesn't define what it is. It just makes me further believe we don't really have our own.

ok.. rock music was NOT born here.
England has all the best rock arists

If your going to answer my question, please just answer it. I'm not trying to insult anybody. You people need to stop being babies. I'm posing a question and giving my opinon on it and letting you give yours.

Answer 1

The truth is, culture cannot be defined in USA, because people come here from all walks of life.....People come here and simply don't drop their culture, most adapt to this culture, and while continue holding there heritage/traditions....

Answer 2

Yes. You need to look up culture in the dictionary. The US is English speaking, predominately Christian w/a belief in secular government. Believes in the nuclear family. Loves to be entertained and makes large contribution to the arts (think movies and music). You may want to look up the word classy while you have the dictionary out there just might be a picture of an apple pie. ;)

Well, now that you've looked it up you know that every society has a culture. The US believes in the future not the past. That's where you get people saying it doesn't have a culture. That's is a fallacious statement. How can you think the US doesn't have music? Rock music was born here. Thanksgiving is an American Tradition. The 4th of July.

The British have great rock music, but it originated in the United States. See article in sources. (Jazz is African American and great too)

All cultures are combinations of others. When you get to Europe its a combination of ancient cultures. Roman/Celtic/Druid/Asian

Answer 3

**the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also : the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time **
The word 'culture' has many different meanings. If you tag the above definition onto American Culture, then it would be the beliefs, traits, etc of Americans. And then there are the sub-cultures in America, like the behaviors, etc that typify different religious groups, or regions (for instance, the southern states have a different culture than the northern states).


Tradition--the celebration of the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, do those count? You have to think, this is still a relatively young country, and like others have said, made up of all sorts of people from all over the world. So we have lots of time to still develop traditions.

Answer 4

Have you done much travelling? Have you ever lived abroad? Believe me, we have a culture. EVERY American I've ever known who has lived abroad for more than a few months (and I would estimate I have met over a thousand) can relate to this AND to one another. It is true that our culture is difficult to put a finger on, but if your criteria are what we go on, NO country in the world has a culture. Just speak to a few Brits of different backgrounds. Their beliefs and ways of viewing the world vary tremendously. As for class, it's no better anywhere else, unless you are talking about a caste system. Then no, we don't have quite the "culture" of some other countries. But caste does not equal culture. It may be a part of a culture, but it is not culture in and of itself.

Also, people from other countries who often like to claim that Americans have no culture still lump us all together in certain ways. When I lived in Greece, every time I insisted that something they would tell me was impossible was actually quite possible, they would sigh and say I sounded "too American." So the "can do" attitude is one identifiable aspect of our culture. There are hundreds of thousands of other little things here and there that make us American. You just may never recognize them until you are faced with doing things or seeing things another way.

I am from South Louisiana. There is no question that we have a culture that is distinct from anywhere else in the US. When I lived in New York, or Atlanta, or even Houston, though to a lesser extent there, I recognized just how different we were. Yet, as soon as I moved abroad 11 years ago, I began to understand that I am American through and through. I've lived in three different countries and travelled to about 20 others. I've met many, many Americans along the way. While I did not like them all or did not agree with them all, we all knew that we shared something in common that we didn't share with others. My best friends here in China are Australians and Canadians. Our cultures are very similar, but still distinct. (The American and Canadian cultures are pretty much the same, but there are still differences.) The Chinese Americans here KNOW that they are American!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even if they are "very Chinese" back home.

I exaggerate when I say that EVERY American can relate to one another. I have met a couple along the way who like to distance themselves from everything American. But you have met the type back home as well. And ironically, these seem to be the first to claim they are American when it is convenient or will gain them privileges or security.

Answer 5

Funny, that is actually a pretty complicated question I studied this in college and the problem comes down to how this country was founded by immigrants. You could say that the culture that we do have is based on a bunch of different things that came from other cultures and pieced together. You could also say that we are still creating what the American culture is. It is really one of the things that make this place so great there are still so many culture you can experience just by going to a major city.

Answer 6

You are right to be suspicious of claims to "culture" based on idiotic grounds such as sports ("baseball") or food ("apple pie"). Many Americans actually do think those kinds of things comprise culture.

Of course, they're stupid. The South has some actual culture, though we've lost millions of lives defending it. Idiots think it's about how you cook your food, but it is actually about not putting up with assholes--at least, that's the main component. Up North there is no culture except unadulterated aggression, and I don't know about out West. Hope this helps.

Answer 7

Well lets see. Ah yes. Just look @ all the museums, cultural instiutions, arts organizations etc. I would safely say that goes beyond Baseball, Hot Dogs, and Apple Pie. Plus a lot of people would wish for our Democratcia. Alright so I spelled
Democracy in Polish.

Answer 8

Yes, we do. We have several distinct regional cultures which are shouted down in some of our larger Cities. However, since I think you are really just slinging insults, I don't feel the need to educate you further.

While you travel the world, you might want to take a little time out to travel your own country.

Answer 9

Be your an idiot, baseball was invented by America, it is the great American past time right? why is it the dumbest people spout off at the mouth with something stupid like 'somewhere or other' or 'and some place' if you don't know what you are talking about, keep your mouth shut.

America has plenty of culture, to many people from other countries come here and skew that by dragging their culture with them. ASSIMILATE IF YOU WANT TO BE AMERICAN, OTHERWISE GO HOME, WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE

Answer 10

i think you are looking at the surface... look what america is suppose to stand for - freedom.... not just in the sense of being free of oppression, but free to do as you want for the most part and be what you want..... so our culture of one of mixture.... we watch a variety of tv, eat a variety of foods, listens to various music, but not one thing is the same for everyone all the time.... we have basic rights, and we can be and do as we want with our lives with reason, which is not true for many countries.....we can practice any religion freely, we can wear whatever we like when we like, we are entitled to an education irregardless of gender,
in my opinion this is american culture..... and more..... baseball, cowboys, applie, mcdonalds, are all apart of who we are.... but its not all we are..... dig deeper.....