What are some aspects of the American public?

What are some unique aspects of American culture?

• I'm working on a term paper for my Cultural and Applied Anthropology class on unique aspects of American culture? What are some things that are uniquely American? If possible, I'd like to even contrast it with an aspect of Russian culture?

• Answer:

  To answer this question, you first have to ask what makes any culture unique from another.   As others have indicated, uniqueness is a hard thing to come by.  Humanity operates within certain given parameters--cultures arise out of other cultures (which means we are limited by our past) and we are limited by the functioning of our minds and bodies and the extent of our experiences.  Yet, within those narrow limitations, difference does exist and that difference is enough to have spawned many unique and rich cultures around the world.  So, what makes any culture unique from another?  The answer to that question is rather simple: it is not any one given thing that makes a culture unique, it is not the hot-button issues torn from today’s headlines nor is it a single event or idea (those things are reductionist and are the result of culture and not culture itself).  The uniqueness of any culture is the result of an amalgam of many things—of the common values and beliefs, the shared history of the society, and how that myriad of events and ideas is expressed.     Now, that is the simple answer to this question: what makes the culture of the United States of America unique is its particular set of values, beliefs, history, and its mediums and styles of expression.  But I think you are looking for more than this, a description of the culture and its various aspects.  Well, no one could possibly give you a complete and accurate response to that question.  What the writer and civil rights activist, James Baldwin, said is quite true:  "American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it."  For one thing, there is no single culture in the United States.  Someone unfamiliar with the United States arriving in Hawaii might think that a purplish goo made of taro root was a primary staple in the American diet, another arriving to a remote part of Alaska may think that Americans all hunt whales from kayaks, and yet a third arriving in New Orleans might think that American funerals involve a lot of loud, brassy jazz music and a parade to the local cemetery where people are interred in above-ground tombs.  Though, as most of us understand, those are aspects of subcultures which fit under the much, much larger umbrella of American culture. Invariably, with a topic as large as culture, people will see in it what they are looking for.  If they look for what is negative, they will see what is negative, and if they look for only the good, they will see only the good.  Having made that disclaimer, I will tell you what I see from my perspective: When I think of American culture, I think of stained glass.  I'm not thinking here about a simple metaphor using the rich and varied colors of a diverse population combining to make a single picture--nothing so trite, though such a thing would not be untrue.  I am specifically thinking about Louis Comfort Tiffany and his stained glass objects de art. You see, for centuries European glass makers honed their skills, working through ages, generation after generation to purify the glass, giving it uniform shape and color.  So, by the late 19th century when Tiffany started working as a glass artist in Brooklyn, the best glass makers in the world could pass their creations off as the purest jewel to the untrained eye.  But Tiffany was dissatisfied with this.  He was an artist and found the purity of such glass lacked in texture and variation, things he wished to incorporate in his designs.  Tiffany sought out the best glass makers of the time, and each rejected the very notion of deliberately including impurities in their work.  So, with no other alternative, he was forced to collect cheap jelly jar and bottles to make his creations.  After he established himself, he was able to found his own studio and manufacture glass for his own purposes.  Today, the world's most expensive lamp, the lotus lamp made by Tiffany Studios, last sold for 2.8 million dollars. So, why does this story illustrate something unique within American Culture to me?  Well, again what is unique about any culture is not one given thing but a set of shared ideals, history, and forms of expression.  Here, as an innovator, Tiffany created something entirely new out of what was already available just by breaking with traditional methods and ideas; as an entrepreneur, he founded his own company and made it a success (his work was and remains highly sought after); but mostly--and something very American, indeed--while for centuries Europe and many parts of Asia were obsessed with creating purity and perfection . . . from the bloodlines of their aristocracy to something as insubstantial as glass, Tiffany preferred imperfection.  And nothing speaks more of the American experiment than the idea that from something humble can come something very profound, it is in the tradition of American Populism, and the very idea of democracy--that one's worth or the worth of any object is based on what can be made of it and not its origins. These ideals are pervasive throughout American history and expression.   From Mark Twain's story of a ragamuffin boy and a slave seeking freedom on a raft floating down the Mississippi to "Shenandoah’s" exultation from an American sea shanty to its many and varied performances among the finest choirs around the world.  Rock music and Jazz music have very humble beginnings.  And even the fine arts, like American classical music, are inspired more by what went on in the streets than what could be heard in the concert halls or seen at museums.  As a boy, when the composer Charles Ives grimaced at the off-key singing of a common laborer, his father turned to him and said, "Look into his face and hear the music of the ages. Don't pay too much attention to the sounds--for if you do, you may miss the music. You won't get a wild, heroic ride to heaven on pretty little sounds."  Far from the perfection of timbre and tone of the opera house, Charles Ives learned to value vernacular music.  So, there is my perspective.  I don't think I answered your question, but as I said, I doubt any one person could.  So, I'll dedicate this song to a very good question--one that defies any answer. The Unanswered Question, Charles Ives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Comfort_Tiffany http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/expensive67.html