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While different ethnic groups may display their own insular cultural aspects, throughout time a broad American culture has developed that encompasses the entire country. Developments in the culture of the United States in modern history have often been followed by similar changes in the rest of the world (American cultural imperialism).
The United States has a racially and ethnically diverse population. [1] At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately. The most recent United States census recognized five racial categories (White, Black, Native American/Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander), as well as people who belong to two or more of the racial categories.
Strong cultural differences have a long history in the U.S., with the southern slave society in the antebellum period serving as a prime example. Social and economic tensions between the Northern and Southern states were so severe that they eventually caused the South to declare itself an independent nation, the Confederate States of America ...
Black or African American alone 12.61% (percent in the race/percent in the age group) American Indian and Alaska Native alone 0.95% (percent in the race/percent in the age group) Asian alone 4.75% (percent in the race/percent in the age group) Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone 0.17% (percent in the race/percent in the age group)
Cultural identity can be expressed through certain styles of clothing or other aesthetic markers. Cultural identity is a part of a person's identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality, gender, or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture.
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1998): 39-76. online; Swierenga, Robert P. "Ethnocultural political analysis: a new approach to American ethnic studies." Journal of American Studies 5#1 (1971): 59-79. Tully, Alan W. "Ethnicity, Religion, and Politics in Early America." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1983): 491-536.
The earliest attested use of the term "American" to identify an ancestral or cultural identity dates to the late 1500s, with the term signifying "the indigenous peoples discovered in the Western Hemisphere by Europeans." [14] In the following century, the term "American" was extended as a reference to colonists of European descent. [14]
Ethnicity is used as a matter of cultural identity of a group, often based on shared ancestry, language, and cultural traditions, while race is applied as a taxonomic grouping, based on physical similarities among groups. Race is a more controversial subject than ethnicity, due to common political use of the term.