Acculturation

Overview

Acculturation refers to the process of cultural change; cultural adaptation is the result of acculturation. In its most basic form, acculturation leads to the acquisition of new cultural traits. For example, when an African American practices Tae Kwon Do or a Pakistani American makes tamales, it is said that these individuals have undergone acculturation because they have assumed new behaviors as a consequence of contact with other cultural groups.

However, acculturation is not limited to the exchange of cultural traits. Acculturation may be indirect, as in the case of a group that must acclimate to a new climate because another group has colonized its original environment. Changes also may occur in reaction to other groups. For instance, groups may start cultural revitalization movements to reclaim traditions eroded by other cultures' influences.

Although this entry focuses on group acculturation, it is important to note that the process of acculturation occurs on both group and individual levels. Interaction with other cultures can alter the economic, social, and political outcomes of an entire group. For example, westward expansion in the United States affected the entire Native American population because contact with European culture and diseases altered the ways of life of indigenous populations as a whole.

Shifts in individual attitudes, behaviors, and identities also result when the group with which a person affiliates experiences acculturation. Acculturation on the individual level is referred to as psychological acculturation. Psychological acculturation is closely related to the stages of individual identity development. Similar to identity development, the psychological acculturation of individuals within a group may vary significantly.

Another significant aspect of acculturation is the directionality of the cultural change. While the most basic definition of acculturation describes it as a bidirectional process of adaptation in which the interacting groups experience change in approximately the same proportions, in actuality, acculturation frequently affects one group more markedly than the other. This disproportionate impact is often a result of an imbalance of resources and power. In societies where one [Page 15]group is culturally dominant—meaning that one group's culture is considered to be the prevailing mainstream culture—nondominant groups are pressured to adapt more readily than members of the dominant group. Although acculturation affects groups unequally, dominant cultural groups do experience acculturation. In the United States, the integration of Spanish words into the American English vocabulary is an example of nondominant cultural infusion into the dominant culture.

Acculturation Strategies

According to John Berry, when groups come into continuous contact with each other, they voluntarily or involuntarily employ one of four modes of adaptation, which he terms acculturation strategies. These strategies include assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalization. A group's ability and/or desire to retain its original cultural traits and its capacity and/or willingness to participate in other cultures' practices determine which strategy the group uses. Assimilation occurs when a group abandons its cultural traits and adopts those of the other group in order to participate in the new culture. When a group maintains its cultural characteristics and avoids interaction with other cultural groups, the group is engaging in the separation strategy. Integration describes the strategy in which a group maintains its original cultural traits but also interacts with other groups. Finally, marginalization occurs when a group's original culture is abandoned and the group does not participate in the other culture.

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