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Tentamen (uitwerkingen) Amerikaanse cultuur American Civilization: An Introduction, ISBN: 9781138631724
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OPEN VRAGENChapter 1: The American context
1) Discuss whether multiculturalism and national identity can coexist. Attempt a definition of
‘Americanness’ and explore the tensions that arise from it. Illustrate your answer with examples
from US history.
- Muticulturism & national identity: A historical dilemma for the US has been how to balance a
need for civic unity against the reality of ethic diversity and to avoid the dangers of
fragmentation and conflict. Emphasis was initially placed on “Americanization” (= process of
acquiring or causing a person to acquire American traits and characteristics) or the assimilation (=
the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another) on different ethnic
groups into a shared identity or “meting pot” (=a term often used to characterize the United
States, with its history of immigration and mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples; has been
criticized for its assimilationist pretence)
- Definition Americanness: Americanness expresses what it means to be an American.
Americanness means shared civil guidelines: enshrined in the Constitution and
Bill of Rights
Americanness means Shared values: independence, freedom, democracy, hope,
the American dream (pursuit and protection of property), morality, patriotism
Americanness also means historical dilemma (mentioned above)
- Examples US history:
o War for Independence (1775–1783) common American identity contra Britain
o Civil War (1861–1865) oppositional notions of what America stands for
o Civil Rights Era (1954–1968) formal civil protections for gender, ethnicity, race
o Current malaise politicized notions of Americanness (e.g. MAGA = make America
great again)
- Tensions Americanness:
o American exceptionalism dates to the earliest days of the colonies.
o ‘The American dream’ was invented by early European immigrants, particularly those
who experienced (religious) persecution at home.
o America as the ‘land of opportunity’
o The ‘Protestant Ethic’
o Skepticism toward ‘big government’
2) What do you understand by American exceptionalism? Is the notion of exceptionalism a uniquely
American one?
- American Exceptionalism: American exceptionalism is the idea that the United States is
inherently different from other nations. Its proponents argue that the values, political system,
and historical development of the U.S. are unique in human history, often with the implication
that the country is both destined and entitled to play a distinct and positive role on the world
stage. It says that the U.S. is being perceived both domestically and internationally as superior to
other nations or having a unique mission to transform the world. (moral guide for other nations)
- Uniquely American one? No, many countries are claiming exceptionalism. F.e. China, Australia,
Germany,…
,Chapter 2: The country
3) Characterize Native-American cultural geography and contrast it with contemporary American
cultural geography.
- Charaterization Native-American cultural geography:
o When Europeans arrived in the mid-1500s, approximately 10 million Native Americans
living in the geographic area that is now the US
o Several hundred mutually incomprehensible languages and widely varying social
structures
o a variety of native cultures dependen on hunting, farming and gathering
o Maize cultures in the eastern half of the land mass
o Iroquois, Huron, Mohican, Delaware and Shawnee in the north, and Powhatan, Creek,
Cherokee, Seminole and Natchez in the south.
o Plains and bison cultures beyond the Appalachians
o Dakota, Blackfoot, Crow and Cheyenne
o Between 1700 and 1750 the population grew because the food supply increased
dramatically when people hunted bison on horseback
o Irrigation cultures in the Southwest
Hopi, Zuni, Acoma and later (between 1000-1500 CE) Navajo and Apache
o California-intermountain cultures
Materially poor but democratic political traditions and peaceful way of life
o Salmon cultures in the Northwest
Chinook, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl, Haida and Tlingit
o Sea-hunting cultures in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands
Inuit: native people of Alaska skilled sea hunters
o Indigenous Hawaiians
- Contrast to Contemporary American cultural geography:
o Four distinct cultural regions: (these regions are less distinct then the diffrences in
other countries -> every province in Belgium has its own caracteristics this is
because a lot off Americans move to other states also because of urbanisation,
centralization of government,… these make the differences in the regions less
distinct)
The Northeast
The South
The Midwest
The West
o Regions and its subregions:
consists of multiple states
,Cultural regions: The Northeast
New England
- Northern New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont) & Southern New England
(Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island)
Densily populated, highly urban and suffering from becoming post-industrial
Many closed factory, it was a industrial engine but now there is the transition from heavy
industry to high-tech
Northeast = economic and cultural center
- Most prestigious universities
- New England: place where the first cultures settles (lot of historical places)
Mid- Atlantic
- New York & Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland
Lager, bigger population, more natural resources
Surpassed New England in economic and industrial things
- Railroad system started in this region
- New York: is the beating heart of this area: through New York City, the east was connected to
more inland places (Chicago,…)
Cultural regions: The South
- Lowland (Coastal Plain) & Upland (in the Piedmont) & Urban (Atlanta, Austin, etc.) & Sunbelt
& Bible belt
11 states, that formed the confederacy in the Civil War
These states still feel intertwined because of this fact
Also includes border states, such as West Virginia, other states feel included/pulled towards this
region
All kinds of cultural influences
Important: slavery in its history, and the defeat and occupation of the Union of this region
Cultural regions: The Midwest
- Industrial Midwest & Agricultural Midwest & Rust belt
States that border the Great Lakes
This region was mainly manufacturing centers, but also important agricultural places
(breadbasket)
American heartland: small towns, family businesses, know as a very friendly place to go
In this area, all cultural influences from all over the country
Cultural Regions: The west
- Southwest & Mountain West & Pacific Northwest
Norm of self-relience, individuality
Very many regions: different cultural profiles
Area that was seized by America from the Mexicans, Federal Government is the largest land-
owner in these regions
A lot of activities is regulated and maintained by the government
, 4) Discuss the exploitation of US national resources and relate this to pollution problems and
conservation efforts.
- Exploitation of the US national resources:
o US ecology: reserve depletion (= uitputting) caused by wastefulness and
overexploitation (=uitbuiting)
o ‘the breadbasket’: the national resources of the Central Lowland, often calles the
nation’s breadbasket, are its soil and fossil fuels central Lowland
- Pollution problems
o ‘Fracking’: early 2000’s a new extraction process called fracking has greatly expanden
the territory affected by the fossil fuel industry Atlantic Plain
o Because of Fracking a lot of Pollution and environmental disasters (Deepwater
Horizon) had occured
- conservation efforts:
o Conservation of natural beauty and resources through national parks gained
acceptance in the late 1800s
Theodore Roosevelt: First national park: Yellowstone (1872)
o National Park Service established 1916
dual mandate: make public land available for recreation and industry
400 sites (incl. national monuments, historical sites, seashores, lakeshores and
vast wilderness areas
o Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Established in 1970, enforces the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act,
Endangered Species Act, Toxic Substances Control Act
Chapter 3: The people – settlement & immigration
5) Explain why the early encounters (= ontmoeting) between Native Americans and the Europeans
were so disastrous.
In the Late 1400s: European explores and settlers (=kolonisten) encounter Naïve Americans… and
then a long history of conflict begun. The encounters amounted to a Collision of worlds. Because
the contact between Americans and other continents had been so rare, diseased and human
societies evolved into different forms in the “new” and “old” worlds. By the 17 th century, over
half of Europeans died from adjustment difficulties (=aanpassingsmoeilijkheden). The Native
American population shrunk from 10 million to 2-3 million.
Extra information:
Because of the encounter, new animals and crops (=gewassen) were discovered. Horses, donkeys,
sheep, pigs and cows were new to Native Americans & Potatoes, maize and tobacco were new to
Europeans. (The potato played a key role in the great population growth that brought millions of
European and Asian immigrants to the US in the 1800s). The Native Americans and the
Europeans also had different concepts of time and ownership. A conflict among the Europeans
arose. Europeans seemed incapable of seeing Native Americans as anything but a single people
(= een enkel volk). To Europeans, Native Americans seemed lazy and wasteful of nature’s
potential.
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