Immigrants in the United States: Cultural Diffusion and Xenophobia
Open Access
- Author:
- Musolino, Noelle
- Area of Honors:
- Global and International Studies
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Luke Glowacki, Thesis Supervisor
Jonathan Eran Abel, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- cultural anthropology
immigration
immigrants
chinese-americans
Italian-americans
Mexican-americans
german-americans
irish-americans
cultural diffusion
xenophobia
mexican immigrants
chinese immigrants
italian immigrants
irish immigrants
german immigrants
immigrant culture
united states culture
united states
immigrants in the us
immigrants in the united states
us
us culture
mexican
chinese
italian
irish
german
culture - Abstract:
- In the early 1900s, anthropologists developed two ideas that are still central to the study of culture. The first is that all cultures are influenced by and influence other cultures, such that no culture develops in isolation.The second is that cultures are fluid and inevitably change over time. These two ideas formed the core of what became known as cultural diffusionism. Cultural diffusion is often accompanied by intense resistance to new cultural forms that can manifest in xenophobia. Early cultural diffusionists were primarily interested in what were then labelled “primitive societies,” but some, such as Franz Boas, emphasized the importance of using anthropology to study and understand all societies, including the society in which one lives. This thesis argues that the patterns of cultural diffusion, resistance, and xenophobia that the early cultural diffusionists studied can be observed in the study of immigration waves to the United States from the 1700s to today. These patterns will be demonstrated through the analysis of the responses to waves of immigrants as well as how those immigrants shaped US culture through the study of five major groups: Irish, German, Italian, Mexican, and Chinese immigrants.