Cultural assimilation . Process by which a specific ethnic group is absorbed and generally loses its originality partially or totally, such as its ways of speaking, its dialect , its peculiarities in speech, its ways of being and other elements of its cultural identity when comes into contact with the dominant society or culture.
Summary
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- 1 Definition
- 1 Terminology
- 2 Examples of cultural assimilation
- 2 Sources
Definition
Processes of cultural assimilation have occurred throughout the history of humanity and many have generated new cultures.
Assimilation can be voluntary, as is generally the case for immigrants, or it can be forced, as can be the case for many minority ethnic groups within a given state in processes of colonization.
The assimilation of culture tends to happen faster when both cultures have similar traits, facilitating the process by which the dominant culture exerts its own customs on the immigrant culture.
Assimilationism constitutes a proposal for cultural uniformity, it supposes and proposes that minority groups must adopt the language , values, norms, signs of identity, of the dominant culture and, in parallel, abandon their own culture. Assimilation goes beyond acculturation.
Terminology
The term is used to refer to both individuals and groups; The latter case may refer to a number of social groups, including ethnic minorities, immigrants, indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups, such as sexual minorities that adapt to being culturally dominated by another social group.
The presumption that these general elements are the guarantee of cultural coexistence within a state or territory, is what motivates the beginning of said process. It is a sociocultural process by which the different minority cultures tend to homogenize with the majority culture.
This process is usually imposed by the pressure of the majority society or by the will of some people to renounce their culture of origin and adopt the language, values, norms and signs of identity of the majority culture, in order to seek greater integration .
Cultural assimilation can involve rapid or gradual change depending on the circumstances of the group. Complete assimilation occurs when the members of a society become indistinguishable from those of the dominant group.
Whether it is desirable for a given group to assimilate is often disputed by both members of the group and those of the dominant society. Cultural assimilation does not guarantee social alikeness.
Examples of cultural assimilation
The best known historical case is the “romanization”. A couple of centuries after the Romans colonized Hispania, the native peoples of the plateau and the Mediterranean coast had lost almost all of their language and sense of identity as Iberians or Celtiberians, to adopt the language, the values and the way of life of the Romans, until they identify themselves as Romans.
A contemporary example can be Brazilian society. Despite the fact that the population descends from various origins: Portuguese, African, Italian, German, Japanese, to this day, few of the descendants continue to maintain the cultural identity of their ancestors, but all have merged in the mixture of miscegenation that defines the “Brazilian” identity.