Culture of the United States

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The culture of the United States encompasses various social behaviors, institutions, and norms in the United States, including forms of speech, literature, music, visual arts, performing arts, food, sports, religion, law, technology, as well as other customs, beliefs, and forms of knowledge. American culture has been shaped by the history of the United States, its geography, and various internal and external forces and migrations.[1]

America's foundations were initially composed of Indigenous Nations as evidenced for example, by the wide distribution of place names of States, cities and landmarks originating in Native American languages. Later influences include Western-based, and primarily English-influenced, but also with prominent French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Polish, Scandinavian, and Spanish regional influences. However, non-Western influences, including African and persistent Indigenous cultures, and more recently, Asian cultures, are firmly represented in the tapestry of American culture as well. Since the United States was established in 1776, its culture has been influenced by successive waves of immigrants, and the resulting "melting pot" of cultures has been a distinguishing feature of its society. Americans pioneered or made great strides in musical genres such as heavy metal, rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel, country, hip hop, and rock 'n' roll. The "big four sports" are American football, baseball, basketball, and ice hockey. In terms of religion, the majority of Americans are Protestant or Catholic. The irreligious element is growing. American cuisine includes popular tastes such as hot dogs, milkshakes, and barbecue, as well as many other class and regional preferences. The most commonly used language is English, though the United States does not have an official language.[2] Distinct cultural regions include New England, Mid-Atlantic, the South, Midwest, Southwest, Mountain West, and Pacific Northwest.[3]

Politically, the country takes its values from the American Revolution and American Enlightenment, with an emphasis on liberty, individualism, and limited government, as well as the Bill of Rights and Reconstruction Amendments. Under the First Amendment, the United States has the strongest protections of free speech of any country.[4][5][6][7] American popular opinion is also the most supportive of free expression and the right to use the Internet.[8][9] The large majority of the United States has a legal system that is based upon English common law.[10] According to the Inglehart–Welzel cultural map, it leans greatly towards "self-expression values", while also uniquely blending aspects of "secular-rational" (with a strong emphasis on human rights, the individual, and anti-authoritarianism) and "traditional" (with high fertility rates, religiosity, and patriotism) values together.[11][12][13] Its culture can vary by factors such as region, race and ethnicity, age, religion, socio-economic status, or population density, among others. Different aspects of American culture can be thought of as low culture or high culture, or belonging to any of a variety of subcultures. The United States exerts major cultural influence on a global scale and is considered a cultural superpower.[14][15]

  1. ^ "U.S. Culture". International Students and Scholars Office. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  2. ^ "Official language of the United States | USAGov". www.usa.gov. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  3. ^ Woodard, Colin (July 30, 2018). "The Maps That Show That City vs. Country Is Not Our Political Fault Line". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
  4. ^ Coleman, Gabriella (2013). Coding Freedom. Princeton University Press. pp. 10, 201. ISBN 978-0-691-14461-0.
  5. ^ "Held Dear In U.S., Free Speech Perplexing Abroad". National Public Radio. September 19, 2012. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
  6. ^ Liptak, Adam (June 11, 2008). "Hate speech or free speech? What much of West bans is protected in U.S.". The New York Times. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  7. ^ Durkee, Alison (April 25, 2018). "What if we didn't... have the First Amendment?". Mic. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  8. ^ Wike, Richard. "Americans more tolerant of offensive speech than others in the world". Pew Research Center. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  9. ^ Gray, Alex (November 8, 2016). "Freedom of speech: which country has the most?". World Economic Forum. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  10. ^ Hall, Ford W. (1950). "The Common Law: An Account of Its Reception in the United States". Vanderbilt Law Review. 4: 791.
  11. ^ Inglehart, Ronald; Welzel, Chris. "The WVS Cultural Map of the World". WVS. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  12. ^ Norris, Pippa (February 2023). "Cancel Culture: Myth or Reality?". Political Studies. 71 (1): 145–174. doi:10.1177/00323217211037023. ISSN 0032-3217. S2CID 238647612. As predicted, in post-industrial societies, characterized by predominately liberal social cultures, like the US, Sweden, and UK...
  13. ^ Staff (December 6, 2023). "WVS Database: Findings". World Values Survey. Retrieved December 6, 2023. These maps indicate that the United States is not a prototype of cultural modernization for other societies to follow, as some modernization writers assumed. In fact, the United States is a deviant case, having a much more traditional value system than any other postindustrial society except Ireland. On the traditional/secular dimension, the United States ranks far below other rich societies, with levels of religiosity and national pride comparable with those found in some developing societies. The United States does rank among the most advanced societies on the survival/self-expression dimension...
  14. ^ "Country Profile: United States of America". BBC News. London. April 22, 2008. Retrieved May 18, 2008.
  15. ^ Fergie, Dexter (March 24, 2022). "How American Culture Ate the World". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved July 3, 2022.