TilE NATURE OF ASSIMILATION 61 Sociologists and cultural anthropologists have described the proc­ esses and results of ethnic "meetings" under such terms as "assimi­ lation" and "acculturation." Sometimes these terms have been used to mean the same thing; in other usages their meanings, rather than being identical, have overlapped. (Sociologists are more likely to use "assimilation"; anthropologists have favored "acculturation" and have given it a narrower but generally consistent meaning.) With regard to the term "assimilation," particularly, there is a cer­ 3 tain amount of confusion, and there is, further, a compelling need for a rigorous and systematic analysis of the concept of assimilation The Nature of Assimilation which would "break it down" into all the possible relevant factors or variables which could conceivably be included under its rubric. Such an analysis, based in part on the discussion in the preceding chapter, will be attempted here. But first it would be helpful to examine some of the existing definitions of the concepts which What happens "when peoples meet," as the phrase goes? 1 Such social scientists have used to describe the coming together of meetings in the modem world are likely to take place under a va­ "peoples." riety of circumstances: colonial conquest, military occupation, re­ An authoritative definition of "acculturation" was provided by drawing of national boundaries to include diverse ethnic groups, a Subcommittee on Acculturation appointed by the Social Science large-scale trade and missionary activity, technical assistance to Research Council in the middle 193o's to analyze and chart the underdeveloped countries, displacement of an aboriginal popula­ dimensions of this field of study, so crucial to the field of cultural tion, and voluntary immigration which increases the ethnic diver­ anthropology. This special group, consisting of the distinguished sity of the host country. In the American continental experience, anthropologists Robert Redfield, Ralph Linton, and Melville the last two types have been the decisive ones. The displacement J. Herskovits, declared that acculturation and attempted incorporation of the American Indian on the white conqueror's terms, and the massive immigration into this land of comprehends those phenomena which result when groups of indi­ over 41 million people, largely from Europe but also from the other viduals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand con­ Americas and to a smaller extent from the Orient, from the days tact, with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups. 2 of the thinly populated and, even then, ethnically varied seaboard 2 republic to the continent-spanning nation of the present, constitute Robert Redfield, Ralph Linton, and Melville J. Herskovits, "Memorandum for the Study of Acculturation," American Anthropologist, Vol. 38 , No. 1 the setting for the "meeting of peoples" in the American context. (January-March 193 6) , p. 149. For further anthropological discussion of the 1 term see Melville J. Herskovits, Acculturation: The Study of Culture Contact, A collection of articles on racial and cultural contacts bears this title. See Alain New York, J. J. Augustin, 1938; and Ralph Linton (ed. ), Acculturation in Locke and Bernhard J. Stern (eds.) , When Peoples Meet, New York, Hinds, Seven American Indian Tribes, New York, D. Appleton-Century Co., 1940. Hayden and Eldridge, revised edition, 1946. 62 ASSIMILATION IN AMERICAN LIPJ: 'I'IIE NATURE OF ASSIMILATION 63 We note here that the term is used to designate one factor or di­ that American sociology has produced, appears to confine the mension in the meeting of peoples: cultural behavior. The changes ers referents of the term to the realm of cultural behavior (with po­ may take place in the cultures of either one of the two groups or litical overtones), and, by implication, to secondary relationships. there may be a reciprocal influence whereby the cultures of both Assimilation (called here "social assimilation"), according to this groups are modified. Nothing is said about the social relationships of the two groups, the degree or nature of "structural" intermin­ definition, is gling, if any, the question of group self-identification, or any other the name given to the process or processes by which peoples of diverse possible variable in the situation. racial origins and different cultural heritages, occupying a common An early and influential definition of "assimilation" by the two territory, achieve a cultural solidarity sufficient at least to sustain a na­ sociologists Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess reads as fo11ows: tional existence. Assimilation is a process of interpenetration and fusion in which per­ He goes on to add: sons and groups acquire the memories, sentiments, and attitudes of In the United States an immigrant is ordinarily considered assimilated other persons or groups, and, by sharing their experience and history, as soon as he has acquired the language and the social ritual of the are incorporated with them in a common cultural life. 3 native community and can participate, without encountering prejudice, What the Social Science Research Subcommittee referred to as in the common life, economic and political. The common sense view of the matter is that an immigrant is assimilated as soon as he has "acculturation" is certainly included in this definition, and the shown that he can "get on in the country." This implies among phrases "sharing their experience" and "incorporated with them in other things that in all the ordinary affairs of life he is able to find a a common cultural life" seem to suggest the additional criterion of place in the community on the basis of his individual merits without social structural relationships. This is further suggested and speci­ invidious or qualifying reference to his racial origin or to his cultural fied in the later remarks: inheritance.s As social contact initiates interaction, assimilation is its final perfect Here another variable-actually two, if a rightful distinction is product. The nature of the social contacts is decisive in the process. made between prejudice and discrimination-is suggested. Assimila­ Assimilation naturally takes place most rapidly where contacts are tion has not taken place, it is asserted, until the immigrant is able primary, that is, where they are the most intimate and intense, as in to function in the host community without encountering preju­ the area of touch relationship, in the family circle and in intimate congenial groups. Secondary contacts facilitate accommodations, but diced attitudes or discriminatory behavior. Another process, "amalgamation," is distinguished by Park and dotoo notremote. greatly4 promote assimilation. The contacts here are external and Burgess. This is In a later definition of assimilation, solus, for the Encyclopedia a biological process, the fusion of races by interbreeding and intermar­ of the Social Sciences, Park, one of the most prolific germinal think- riage. Assimilation, on the other hand, is limited to the fusion of cul­ 3 tures. [What has happened to "social structure" here?] Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess, Introduction to the Science of Sociol­ ogy,4 Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1921, p. 735· 5 Robert E. Park, "Assimilation, Social," in Encyclopedid of the Social Sciences, Ibid., pp. 736-7. Edwin R. A. Seligman and Alvin Johnson, (eds.) , New York, The Macmillan Co., 1930, Vol. 2, p. 281. 64 ASSIMILATION IN AMERICAN LIFE However, it is pointed out that there is a relationship between the THE NATURE OF ASSIMILATION two processes: 65 This definition contains a number of ambiguities. What does Amalgamation, while it is limited to the crossing of racial traits through "merged into a homogeneous unit" mean? Is cultural behavior only intermarriage, naturally promotes assimilation or the cross-fertilization being referred to here, or are social interrelationships envisaged of social heritages.6 also? And if the latter, what kind? What is the nature of the "new cultural unit"? The later summary sentence, we note, which refers Two essays at a "dictionary" of sociological terms were made in the early 194o's. In one, "social assimilation" is defined as to "substitution of one nationality pattern for another," appears to center the definition on changes in cultural patterns alone. the process by which persons who are unlike in their social heritages In recent writings, a number of sociologists have simply equated come to share the same body of sentiments, traditions, and loyalties. 7 "assimilation" with "acculturation," or defined it as an extreme Here the emphasis is on changes in cultural values and behavior. form of acculturation. Thus Brewton Berry declares that The use of the term "loyalties" suggests, also, a psychological vari­ By assimilation we mean the process whereby groups with different cul­ able of some sort, but in the absence of further comment, it is not tures come to have a common culture. This means, of course, not possible to describe precisely the nature of the author's conception merely such items of the culture as dress, knives and forks, language, food, sports, and automobiles, which are relatively easy to appreciate toof bethis variable. In the other "dictionary," social assimilation is said and acquire, but also those less tangible items such as values, memories, sentiments, ideas, and attitudes. Assimilation refers thus to the fusion the process by which different cultures,