Is America Culture-Less?

[KarenNC]

In my opinion, everything that is considered part of American culture can be traced back to other countries due to immigration.

 

What makes that different from (or inferior to, which is what I am hearing from many in this thread, including the OP) the cultures of any other country? It is merely a difference of time frame and awareness.

 

Immigration (willing or enforced through something like conquest, slavery or transportation for crimes) has existed from time immemorial. Even ancient Roman culture was a blending of Greek and Etruscan. The Greeks borrowed many things from the countries with which they had contact and from older civilizations (including some of the Gods that we know as an integral part of their culture). As I said, there is no culture that is "pure and unadulterated"---the culture of *everyone* is some form of amalgamation (well, almost, there may be some tribes left in the Amazon that have not had contact with any others, but we wouldn't know, would we;)).

Edited April 6, 2009 by KarenNC

[Kathy in MD]

Okay, I've avoided this thread, but truthfully, if we discount everything that is considered genuinely American by other cultures -- Baseball, Jeans, and Apple Pie as "americanized," rather than "American," couldn't we do that for ANY culture?

 

Other than Rome, Greece, and China, where were things "truly" invented? Cheese, languages, customs, clothing -- don't they all have their origins in the Ancients in some way, shape or form? I wonder if you can't find "culture" because you are making your definition so narrow?

 

Most Europeans I know have multiple European heritages, even.

 

:iagree: But I'll challenge you even for Rome and Greece developing their own culture independently. Much of Roman culture was a straight take off Greek culture (myths, religion, art, education -Greek slaves were the teachers oft, etc.) And then the Greeks developed some of their culture from the Egyptians, starting with their architecture. And I have no doubt that the Egyptians developed much of their culture from previous cultures.

[Kathy in MD]

.....

Also, I suppose the only things that are truly "American" are the customs of the Native Americans, because, afterall, they were the only people to originate here. The rest came from other countries...

 

Nope, not even the Native Americans originated here. They've just had a lot more time to develop a culture different from those in Asia, Europe, and Africa. And even then it's not ONE culture. It's a whole slew of cultures.

[Greta]

Oh I agree with you that baseball is an important part of American culture. Somewhere in this thread, however, it was suggested that it was first played in the US, which is not the case. It was developed, popularised and adopted in the US.

 

Laura

 

Gotcha. :001_smile:

[Kathy in MD]

Is it our SIZE that makes us so diverse? I mean, geographically we are so large and even our geography is varied, that perhaps it is hard to be unified. The foods we prepare "southern" versus "northeastern" might be because we are in different climates with different locally grown or "caught" foods that lead to different recipes (even clam chowder!). Different music -- the Blues are part of southern culture from playing on streets -- can't do that too often in Maine, kwim? Or California, New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona being near Mexico -- there are some much stronger influences there....etc.

 

We can't forget out "country" is much bigger than most!

 

In the '70 a book was published titled The Seven Nations of America. A couple of the "nation" titles I remember are The Breadbasket, and The Empty Quarter. I found it to be very acurate from my observations. These "nations" had very different attitudes based to some extent on their economic basis and historical backgrounds. And our size definately contributes to these different "Nations".

[skaterbabs]

These are excellent questions! I thought about teaching the kids Mandarin (well, not me but a tutor) becuase China is supposed to be the next up and coming super power nation. But others told me that the Chinese are learning English so fast that it probably won't be necessary to learn Mandarin.

 

 

This is very much true. My father's wife is Chinese, and last summer her son came over to go to school here. The Chinese have turned from their traditional dislike of anything Western and are encouraging their people to learn English in order to compete in the world economy. Additionally, American English is sometimes preferred to British English for reasons I don't quite fathom but probably have more to do with the US being a current world power and the UK not.

 

Also, I suppose the only things that are truly "American" are the customs of the Native Americans, because, afterall, they were the only people to originate here. The rest came from other countries...

 

Nope, not even the Native Americans originated here. They've just had a lot more time to develop a culture different from those in Asia, Europe, and Africa. And even then it's not ONE culture. It's a whole slew of cultures.

 

 

^ Yeah, that. ^

 

There is some fairly new evidence that suggests the first "Native Americans" were from Scandinavia/Western Europe and pre-date the Asian-decended "Native Americans" that we're all familiar with. There are no TRULY "native" Americans. :tongue_smilie:

[Kathy in MD]

.......

There is some fairly new evidence that suggests the first "Native Americans" were from Scandinavia/Western Europe and pre-date the Asian-decended "Native Americans" that we're all familiar with. There are no TRULY "native" Americans. :tongue_smilie:

 

Do you remember your sources for this? And the evidence for it? I knew that the Eskimos, arriving approx 2000 yrs ago, were of different origins than the bulk of the Native Americans but I've never heard this theory.

[skaterbabs]

It was a documentary I saw a while back; basically the archaeologists went deeper in their digs and ten thousand years before the layer of those we've always called the "Native Americans" who were Asian they found a layer of remains with Euro features. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly which documentary it was.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

 

In preparation for our move to Malaysia we are doing a unit study on American culture/geography/history as compared to Malaysian culture/geography/history and this question came up (by my ds). What does America have that is:

 

a. unifying as in common in all 50 states

 

b. uniquely American as in not borrowed from another culture and "Americanized"

 

c. easily recognized by other nations of the world as uniquely American

 

It was a lot harder than you think. Blue Jeans did not originate here and neither did baseball. Even Coca Cola was inspired by a drink from Europe. This of course lead to a discussion of what "American" really means since we are almost all descendants of immigrants and as such most of our culture, food, etc. comes from other countries.

 

So in the end, defining American culture (as in UNIQUELY American....not just the items that are familiar to us) became far more complicated than we originally thought. And it may be that "American" is more of an attitude or philosophy of life (individualistic, freedom in all things, capitalism, etc.) than it is a distinct culture in terms of food, customs, dress.

 

Then, of course, my ds wanted to know if other countries are the same way at which point my head started to hurt. :D

 

If this is how you intend to narrowly define a country's culture I would venture to say that no country would pass muster. Ultimately something is going to cross cultural lines with another country. Who gets wine, cheese, sausage as their national dish? The country who had it first or the country we think of first? If you pose this question long enough in many countries you will find that a particular item you would say is native is actually regional or specific to one city or even originally from what is now another country thanks to more recent political boundries.

 

This is like the old argument about how many generations have to live in the US to produce a "real" American. Just silly nonsense. If you insist on looking at everyone by their ethnic heritage (as in the earlier post) then no one will be an American and we could have no icons or heroes. Who's the real American-the one who's family was on the Mayflower, the one on the shore who watched the ship come in or the one who was naturalized last week?

 

I'm sure if you ask an American what is our culture and if you ask someone from another country you will get two different answers. Regional variations are inevitable, they happen in both smaller countries and large. For just one example consider Italian food. We lump it together as Italian-there it is regional and they would never consider it national. In Italy even the pasta companies produce different pasta shapes for each region. Even Italian pasta couldn't pass your test.

 

Your premise is doomed to fail-you have limited yourself out of answers. You will fail with applying the same formula to other countries.

[LUV2EDU]

If this is how you intend to narrowly define a country's culture I would venture to say that no country would pass muster. Ultimately something is going to cross cultural lines with another country. Who gets wine, cheese, sausage as their national dish? The country who had it first or the country we think of first? If you pose this question long enough in many countries you will find that a particular item you would say is native is actually regional or specific to one city or even originally from what is now another country thanks to more recent political boundries.

 

This is like the old argument about how many generations have to live in the US to produce a "real" American. Just silly nonsense. If you insist on looking at everyone by their ethnic heritage (as in the earlier post) then no one will be an American and we could have no icons or heroes. Who's the real American-the one who's family was on the Mayflower, the one on the shore who watched the ship come in or the one who was naturalized last week?

 

I'm sure if you ask an American what is our culture and if you ask someone from another country you will get two different answers. Regional variations are inevitable, they happen in both smaller countries and large. For just one example consider Italian food. We lump it together as Italian-there it is regional and they would never consider it national. In Italy even the pasta companies produce different pasta shapes for each region. Even Italian pasta couldn't pass your test.

 

Your premise is doomed to fail-you have limited yourself out of answers. You will fail with applying the same formula to other countries.

:iagree::iagree:

[Heather in Neverland]

If this is how you intend to narrowly define a country's culture I would venture to say that no country would pass muster. Ultimately something is going to cross cultural lines with another country. Who gets wine, cheese, sausage as their national dish? The country who had it first or the country we think of first? If you pose this question long enough in many countries you will find that a particular item you would say is native is actually regional or specific to one city or even originally from what is now another country thanks to more recent political boundries.

 

This is like the old argument about how many generations have to live in the US to produce a "real" American. Just silly nonsense. If you insist on looking at everyone by their ethnic heritage (as in the earlier post) then no one will be an American and we could have no icons or heroes. Who's the real American-the one who's family was on the Mayflower, the one on the shore who watched the ship come in or the one who was naturalized last week?

 

I'm sure if you ask an American what is our culture and if you ask someone from another country you will get two different answers. Regional variations are inevitable, they happen in both smaller countries and large. For just one example consider Italian food. We lump it together as Italian-there it is regional and they would never consider it national. In Italy even the pasta companies produce different pasta shapes for each region. Even Italian pasta couldn't pass your test.

 

Your premise is doomed to fail-you have limited yourself out of answers. You will fail with applying the same formula to other countries.

 

Ummmm....wow....it was just a question. And since it was originally posed by my 10 yo ds I think I'd rather use it as a jumping off point for discussion as to what it really means to be "American" (and many posters on this thread have given excellent food for thought) rather than tell him he failed. :confused:

[Heather in Neverland]

I just wanted to thank all you ladies (and gents) who took the time to respond to this post. What at first seemed like a simple question by my 10yo has become a rich and complex, and sometimes heated, discussion. What we ended up with in our talks today was that "American culture" is not so easily defined but then again maybe the cultures of other countries aren't either.

 

So now we are talking about the world being more "globally" connected than before. Things we look at as being American have their roots elsewhere but it seems so do the cultural traditions of most countries. The only difference I guess is time.

 

This is a great time for this discussion too with our move to Malaysia. Ds will attend school with kids from 24 different countries so he will get an up close and personal experience with this interaction of cultures and I am sure we will both have a better idea of similarities and differences in our cultures!

 

As long as I don't have to eat cheeze whiz and deviled ham on my spaghetti noodles, I will be OK. :D

[KidsHappen]

You're absolutely right....after growing up along the Canadian boarder nearly all of my life. I blurr the lines of US/Canadian culture. I remember distinctly the first time in my life I crossed "the border" to another state (Pennsylvannia). Crossing the border to Canada...you did that twice a week..gas, cigarettes, grocery and the summer cottage on the lake was on the Canadian side, so was the best icecream, fireworks stands, and tylenol with codiene OTC....so I do apologize for assimilating a bit of the northlands into my own cultural heritage.

 

"Maaac who paaaacs hes caaaa on daaaaveway is from Baaaaston." This is where they drop the R sound regularly from their speech.

My grandmother, who lived slightly more south of Boston, in PA, would pick up all those dropped Baaaastonian R's and insert them into her words, just so they weren't left laying about.

"Mornday eeeiis warsh day. Gert some worter fur de turb."

 

You can buy Tylenol w/codiene OTC on Canada and then legally bring it across the border into the US?

 

Also, I have lived in both Boston and TX and I have always said that the Texans got all the R's that they lost in Boston. Texas is my home and my hubby once asked me, "How many R's are in Wash?' I answered, "One, why?" and was honestly momentarily perplexed when he laughed at me. :tongue_smilie:

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Ummmm....wow....it was just a question. And since it was originally posed by my 10 yo ds I think I'd rather use it as a jumping off point for discussion as to what it really means to be "American" (and many posters on this thread have given excellent food for thought) rather than tell him he failed. :confused:

 

It is a wonderful topic for discussion and a particularly important one when you are going to be living as an expat. You will be faced with the need to define yourself both inside and outside your native culture and deal with how other people perceive your culture. But, if that is the test you would put any answer to most answers would fail and not just with regards to the United States but also when a similar test is applied to most countries.

 

I suspect as the US was designed to be a country united by ideas the only evidences of our culture would be in the application of those ideas. But, many were borrowed from European philosophers and Americanized. Where do you stop?

 

What have I experienced other countries to view as American? Pumpkin pie, legal freedoms not found in other countries, hamburgers, hotdogs, fast food, country music, cowboys, pickup trucks, jeans, how we walk, the quality of clothing, our expectations of our lifestyle, abundance of food, friendliness and openness with strangers, lots of money in your pocket-the melting pot of what is America is American. These things are not all good or positive images nor is this a complete list. Nor do they pass your litmus test.

 

Your child didn't fail but he has created a nearly impossible test for what is American. Perhaps the lesson instead is to refine the test and start again.

Perhaps the question should be to list what is American, what defines our culture, what are we as individuals and through the media projecting as our culture. Then decide what of those things are the most universal to our nation or even true. Maybe the question needs to be worked backwards. Or first worked from the outside-What is Malaysian? Then find out if it is truly applicable to all regions and cultural groups, is it truly native? Then apply this exercise to the US. Sometimes it is easier to start as the outsider looking in than the insider looking at himself.

[KidsHappen]

When we lived in Germany we lived on the economy 45 mins from the base. No one spoke English. There were a few phrases but for the most part it was no existent. When we visited Wisspasing Austria, (30 mins by train from Venia) no one spoke English (but were more than helpful in helping us). Rota Spain once again when you got away from Madrid or the bases English was almost non existent. The same was true for Italy. I will admit the England did the best job! In France we got by as long as we stayed in the cities. The best luck I had was Asterdam but once again when we left the city it quickly tapered off. Japan was by far the best place for English. The Koreans tried as hard as I tried to (which while it was a great effort on both our parts it was dismal experience). I can only comment on my experiences. In all of the countries we were stationed in we lived on the economy (except Korea). I always did my best to learn enough to be able to complete simple task. Languages are not my forte and I struggle with them. For the most part people were more than willing to help me and we would laugh our way through a simple task that took me 4 times as long as anyone else.

 

On the note of cultures, I think that many people do not look at the entire culture. The take in the food and the traditions and maybe the dress and think "Why don't we have that?" It appears often that we don't look at the darker side of the situation.

 

Example: In Italy there divorce is a rarity. When you know more about the laws you understand that it takes a minimum of 7 years to complete the divorce and for the most part the 2 individuals just agree to live separate lives. We had friends that we knew for quiet a while with small children, the house, the car etc... We always assumed they were married. They were just not to each other. They both had spouses in different areas and because it so difficult to get a divorce they just decided to go their separate ways. Because of the laws in Italy, legally the children she had belong to her legal husband not their biological father.

 

Wow! I have lived in or visited many of the same places and found just the opposite experiences. I lived in Germany for three years and I found that even way out in the boonies most Germans could remember their high school Englich well enough to communicate. Between their high school English and my college German I could muddle through well enough. If you were anywhere near a base, then most Germans spoke English reasonably well. Almost everyone I ran into in Amsterdam spoke not only English but a few other languages as well. Anyone in the banking inductry in Belgium or Luxemburg spoke perfect English. I ran into very few Japanese that spoke English even very close to bases although they did make sincere efforts. Everyone I interacted with in Korea spoke English and I think that main language in the Philippines is English. Many Filipinos don't even speak Tagala any more. We also lived on the economy in most places that we were stationed.

[KidsHappen]

I agree with the posters that mentioned that you'll really get to notice the American culture once you move abroad. But I think you'll notice it even more once you move back to the US. Every one anticipates culture shock when you move abroad, but they forget that there is also a culture shock for returning ex-pats. Especially for the kids.

 

:iagree: I absolutely agree with this. The worse culture shock I ever experienced was when I moved back to the US after living overseas for 6 years.

[KarenNC]

So now we are talking about the world being more "globally" connected than before. Things we look at as being American have their roots elsewhere but it seems so do the cultural traditions of most countries. The only difference I guess is time.

 

I think this is a great lesson for your 10yo and a good example of how very little is as clearly delineated as it might appear on the surface.

[Rosie_0801]

Twinkies are American. I can't imagine anyone else would want to claim them. There's an American grocer in my state somewhere that sells Twinkies. One of these days I'm going to go and look at them. (Hey, Keptwoman, what are you doing on the weekend? ;) ) I don't think I'd dare touch.

Why do you guys eat those things!

 

:confused:

Rosie

[Greta]

Why do you guys eat those things!

 

:confused:

 

 

 

Eww. This American does not! Believe me, even here they have a bad reputation. I've heard jokes about the preservatives in them giving them a shelf life of 20 years. At least I hope that's a joke. My dad calls them "a chemical feast" -- but he does NOT eat them. Actually, I don't know anyone who eats them. But someone must, because they do keep selling them!

[bella_gitana]

Twinkies are American. I can't imagine anyone else would want to claim them. There's an American grocer in my state somewhere that sells Twinkies. One of these days I'm going to go and look at them. (Hey, Keptwoman, what are you doing on the weekend? ;) ) I don't think I'd dare touch.

Why do you guys eat those things!

 

They are good! And they are even better fried :tongue_smilie:

My kids and my hubby love them. I don't eat them often, but I had one fried a few months ago and it was even better.

:D

[Katrina]

Eww. This American does not! Believe me, even here they have a bad reputation. I've heard jokes about the preservatives in them giving them a shelf life of 20 years. At least I hope that's a joke. My dad calls them "a chemical feast" -- but he does NOT eat them. Actually, I don't know anyone who eats them. But someone must, because they do keep selling them!

 

Hey, don't knock the Twinkies. As an adult, I refuse to buy them and my kids have never had one and wont under my roof. Luckily for me, my mom in the early 70's had no such reservations for her children and I got a Twinkie every day in my lunch (or hostess dingdongs) from 1st-2nd grade, and that's one of my most favorite childhood memories. Is it wrong that every time I pass a Twinkie display at the grocery store I secretly want to grab about 50 boxes for lunch desert?

 

American...how about cowboys? And cowboy hats and cowboy boots? I'd be very surprised if those originated someplace else.

Edited April 7, 2009 by Katrina

[Riverfront Headmistress]

I like Twinkies.

[newlifemom]

And here we have it ladies (and gents), America's culture.. . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know anyone that takes children to the doctor when they are well. maybe it is some strange American custom?

 

 

:D

Edited April 7, 2009 by newlifemom
excess words.

[newlifemom]

I hope I didn't offend anyone, I was just trying to be cute. :)

[LUV2EDU]

I was just reading an article on American food (junk food).

 

Quote:

 

And then there is truly American food, invented on U.S. ground by Americans, like Toll House cookies, corn dogs, cornbread, doughnuts, potato chips, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Another great American food contribution: almost all things ice cream, like ice cream sandwiches, hot fudge sundaes, and root beer floats.

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/recipe-makeover-all-american-food

 

In addition, Baked Beans, chewing gum, and Breakfast Cereal --to name a few.

http://great-scientists.suite101.com/article.cfm/food_inventions_and_who_did_them

Edited April 7, 2009 by LUV2EDU

[Kathy in MD]

Wow! I have lived in or visited many of the same places and found just the opposite experiences. I lived in Germany for three years and I found that even way out in the boonies most Germans could remember their high school Englich well enough to communicate. Between their high school English and my college German I could muddle through well enough. If you were anywhere near a base, then most Germans spoke English reasonably well. Almost everyone I ran into in Amsterdam spoke not only English but a few other languages as well. Anyone in the banking inductry in Belgium or Luxemburg spoke perfect English. I ran into very few Japanese that spoke English even very close to bases although they did make sincere efforts. Everyone I interacted with in Korea spoke English and I think that main language in the Philippines is English. Many Filipinos don't even speak Tagala any more. We also lived on the economy in most places that we were stationed.

 

We lived in Germany for 2 years and traveled extensively. We found in many parts of Germany, English was very common, yet even living in the the largest foreign US military area, we had neighbors who didn't speak English. And High German wasn't the standard dialect. We also managed to find many areas where English speakers were rare even in the hospitality industry and we had to translate for Americans with no German.

 

When traveling in France, we found ourselves occasionally dealing with individuals who spoke neither English nor German, even though we were just accross the border from Germany at times.

 

In Switzerland, a bus driver we had spoke German and very fluent English, but not French, one of the official languages of Switzerland. What made it really funny was another tourist came charging up speaking French. The bus driver couldn't understand a word he said, but I did, even though my French was truly horrible. Then it suddenly hit me that the French speaker was an American. No wonder I could understand his French :lol:

 

While traveling elsewhere in Europe, we typically didn't stray that far from the major tourist areas so I can't tell how common English was. But I did get the feeling that in Norway, multiple languages was common. After all, at the fish market in Bergen most of the vendors advertised that they spoke 7 languages. The more "educated" ones advertised that they spoke 8. :001_smile:

[KidsHappen]

And High German wasn't the standard dialect. :001_smile:

 

Yeah, I found the same thing. High German is what you learn in college. Generally speaking, High German is not what your average German speaks. Add that to my poor command of languages and an inability to master the German pronounciation and it was a miracle that any Germans managed to understand me at all. Their English was usually much better than my German. I also managed to make some truely embarrassing mistakes, such as the time I tried to tell someone good night and ended up telling them it was good to be naked. :blush: At least I am not the only one though. My hubby was in Italy once and he was trying to ask where he could catch the train that went around Mount Vesuvius and ended up asking where he could get a circumcision. :lol:

[LUV2EDU]

Yeah, I found the same thing. High German is what you learn in college. Generally speaking, High German is not what your average German speaks. Add that to my poor command of languages and an inability to master the German pronounciation and it was a miracle that any Germans managed to understand me at all. Their English was usually much better than my German. I also managed to make some truely embarrassing mistakes, such as the time I tried to tell someone good night and ended up telling them it was good to be naked. :blush: At least I am not the only one though. My hubby was in Italy once and he was trying to ask where he could catch the train that went around Mount Vesuvius and ended up asking where he could get a circumcision. :lol:

 

[coffeefreak]

Football anyone?

 

 

 

 

The pigskin kind, not what we know as soccer.

 

:leaving:

[Sebastian (a lady)]

[quote name=Happy;876499

 

One of the more interesting days of our stay in Brussels was the day the grocery store put in an ethic aisle. Along with the middle eastern and oriental section' date=' there was one with an American flag over it. Peanut butter, maple syrup, ketchup, rice krispies, marshmellow creme, picante sauce, and eventually Oreo's. Small containers and outrageously priced. By the time this little section was born, we had bonded well with other aisles of the store, so we never bought anything there. It was, however, interesting to see 'us' through 'their' eyes. To me, it did not resemble my knowledge of US cooking.

 

 

I remember shopping at KDW in Berlin just before Thanksgiving and seeing all the "American" food for sale amongst the Belgian chocolates and French cheese. I was very thankful for our access to a commissary so I didn't feel that the 5 Euro boxes of Stove Top stuffing were necessary for our Thanksgiving feast. On the other hand, MIL and I were trying to make dh his favorite chocolate pie for his birthday. We had everything but pie crust, for which we needed shortning. There is nothing so fun as trying to find something like shortning in a German grocery when you are trying to describe something that is used in a food that they don't make. (I think I ended up with Palmin or some other Frittusse Fett and dh brought a block of Crisco home from a business trip)

American brown sugar and chocolate chips were another favorite American item. And bagels were almost no where to be found. (MIL used to bring each kid a bag in her luggage.)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I think I might have to draw a distinction between an American culture and things that are either only American or American originated.

 

I think that you can in fact define things that are cherished and held dear in America by a broad swath of Americans (native and naturalized). The fact that some or many these things have roots somewhere else doesn't have to diminish the role they play in American life.

 

Let me use two foreign examples as illustrations.

 

I would say that Spaghetti Bolognese is an Italian dish that shows off much of Italian food culture, despite the fact that noodles have roots in China and tomatoes are import foods from South America.

 

I would also say that the wide use of English in India is part of Indian culture (at least among a certain strata) and it is a piece of Indian distinctiveness that is being capitalized on (phone in service centers for example). So something that has roots in the British Raj is having an ability to unify Indians by giving them a working language that is understandable across regions and ethnic groups. (There are some funny scenes in the Indian movie Chak de! India that draw upon how Indians from different regions and religions view each other.)

 

So there is one set of answers that you might get from asking what is American culture.

There may be a different set of answers to the question of what originated in America.

There might even be a third set that looks toward how America took non-American concepts, traditions and foods and bent them to fit American sensibilities.

 

I might recommend the cook book The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American which looks at foods that either originated in the Americas or were primarily adopted in the Americas before spreading to other countries. Each chapter looks at one food item and discusses its history.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

 

One of the more interesting days of our stay in Brussels was the day the grocery store put in an ethic aisle. Along with the middle eastern and oriental section, there was one with an American flag over it. Peanut butter, maple syrup, ketchup, rice krispies, marshmellow creme, picante sauce, and eventually Oreo's.

 

 

 

Oh for goodness sake don't tell the Canadians! We could have an international dispute over who gets to claim maple syrup!:lol:

 

Cultures can't help but cross borders-just like maple trees.

 

Actually, it seems many people from other cultures think they know what is American-we do put much of it out there through the film industry alone. I find the main question is not always what but why. Ie: they have all seen movies of families gathering on Thanksgiving, seen the food all over the table, the football and Macy's parade. What they don't know is why...what does this mean to an American, where does it come from and why do we do it? I once had a foreign guest on tell me their favorite part of Thanksgiving was when everyone went around the table telling what they were thankful for-they knew about turkey and stuffing but they wanted to understand and enjoy the traditions.

Edited April 7, 2009 by JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst

[swellmomma]

Oh for goodness sake don't tell the Canadians! We could have an international dispute over who gets to claim maple syrup!:lol:

 

 

 

Funny you should say that, As soon as I read maple syrup I wanted to yell "HEY! that's our's!" :lol: *everybody* knows maple syrup is strictly Canadian :lol:

[Katrina]

Rootbeer

 

HISTORY

The first documented evidence of the production of "root beer" was in the American colonies. Prior to that, sassafras was being shipped back to Europe after the New World was discovered. I have not found any evidence of root beer being made with it, only tea, and mead. (I have found one instance in Digby’s The Closet Opened where sassafras is an ingredient.)

 

http://www.greydragon.org/library/brewing_root_beer.html (if you want to read a little more)

 

But hey, what can be more American than the American colonists???

[Sebastian (a lady)]

You could ask what are the distinctives of American culture. Or you could ask what is distinctively (or uniquely) American.

 

On the one hand you are asking to characterize what is typically American. The other question is much more restrictive (although still possible to answer).

 

Or to put it another way, the fact that Scotland and New Zealand both have mountains and sheep, doesn't mean that sheep and mountains can't be part of the culture of each. Or that pavlova can't be a cherished part of both New Zealand and Australian foodways.

 

I think that posters in this thread are sometimes answering somewhat contradictory questions.

 

Or to give another example, I was once at a US Armed Forces Day reception in Europe where the alcoholic drinks offered were Mike's Hard Lemonade and . . .

 

 

 

 

 

Corona Beer.

 

This got a few raised eyebrows from a few people (both host side and guest) but others just accepted it as typically American (to serve and enjoy the Corona, not that they'd invented it). And the pallets filled with case after case of each actually became quite the photo spot during the party.