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Changing Culture. Lesson 2 Social Studies Coach. Changing Culture.
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Changing Culture Lesson 2 Social Studies Coach
Changing Culture The first settlers from England arrived in what is now the U.S in the early 1600s. These settlers brought along their traditions and customs. Native Americans, however, already lived throughout North America. Each Native American group had its own distinct culture.
Changing Culture In the early years of settlement, European colonists borrowed certain cultural practices from Native Americans. For example, Native Americans taught the settlers how to grow corn and squash. Both foods, especially corn, are now key parts of the American diet.
Changing Culture Settlers from such European countries as France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden soon followed. In the late 1800s, people from Austria-Hungary, Greece, Italy, Poland, and Russia also came to live in the United States.
Changing Culture Immigrants from Asia also began arriving in the 1800s. Most of these settlers came from China, India, Southeast Asia, Japan, and the Philippines. From the 1600s until the mid-1800s, about 375,000 Africans were brought against their will to America and forced into slavery.
The Spread of Culture Each group of settlers to the young United States brought along its culture. Over time, these different cultures mixed together and spread. This is an example of cultural diffusion. In cultural diffusion, cultural practices are passed from one culture to another when the culture comes in contact with another culture.
The Spread of Culture This spread of European culture throughout North America was disastrous to Native Americans. Most of the older Native Americans traditions and ways of life were lost forever.
The Spread of Culture Culture also changes as a result of the invention of new products and technologies. Technology is machines and inventions that solve problems and improve quality of life.
The Spread of Culture The invention of spinning and weaving machines had a big impact on American cultures in the 1800s. Before then, people made yarn and cloth by hand. New machines allowed people to make large amounts of yarn and cloth in a much shorter period of time. Eventually large textile mills were built. Many people moved from the countryside and settled in cities to work in these factories.
The Spread of Culture Advances in farming technology also began to take place. New machines enabled fewer farmers to work larger areas of land. Farm workers began moving to cities in search of new opportunities.
Urban Culture The shift from rural to urban living ahd a great impact on the way in which people lived. Cities had less space. Apartments were small and overcrowded. By the late 1800s new technologies, like the Bessemer process for producing steel, allowed for the building of taller structures. Skyscrapers enabled more people and businesses to fit on smaller tracts of land.
Urban Culture As populations in cities grew, so, too, did the problems facing their inhabitants. Many people worked long hours in dangerous conditions. Large families were crammed into tiny apartments. Disease outbreaks were frequent. Streets were filthy and the air was polluted.
Urban Culture Social service agencies struggled to improve living conditions. The U.S. government needed to provide more services for city people. These services included healthcare, sanitation, and aid for the poor. Beginning in the early 1900s, the federal and local governments passed laws to protect people, including children, who worked in factories.
Transportation Improvements in transportation also brought about big cultural changes in the U.S. The development of railroads started in the U.S. in the 1820s. The growing rail system made it easier to transport goods and raw materials faster, farther, and in larger amounts.
Transportation The expanding railroad system in the U.S. helped industry to grow. More and more factories were built as it became possible to ship greater amounts of goods to faraway markets.
Transportation In 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed. It connected the eastern part of the U.S. with the western part. Railroads allowed for the spread of Americans and their ideas throughout an ever-expanding United States.
Transportation Culture, however, never stops changing. Cell phone, satellite and computer technology have dramatically changed the way people communicate and do business. Every day, information, news, and ideas are shared by people are around the country and around the world.
Transportation New technologies enable a student in Japan to watch a concert taking place in Tennessee as it happens. Cultural diffusion is taking place as you read this page, helping to create what is beginning to be a “world culture”.
The Arts Art and creativity are an important part of culture. Art styles and thoughts about what is beautiful or interesting grow and change just as other elements of culture do. Works of art such as paintings, books, and films are shaped by the time in which they are created. Some artists-musicians, painters, sculptors, writers, and so on-use their work to comment on the times in which they lived.
The Arts Technology has greatly affected the way in which people express themselves. The development of photography enabled people to capture events as they occurred. People were moved, excited, and sometimes shocked by the photographs that began to appear in newspapers and later in magazines.
The Arts Film and later video brought the art of photography to the next level. News events were filmed as they took place. Some of the world’s great stories were turned into films that were of equal importance.
The Arts Modern technologies affected painters, sculptors, and musicians as well. New materials such as plastic and resin, as well as complex recording technologies, have changed the ways in which artists work, communicate their ideas, and inevitably spread culture.
The Arts Computers have also revolutionized the creative process and the spread of ideas. Today, many writers, illustrators, and filmmakers rely on computer technology to do their work.
Cultural Trends People’s ideas about cultural elements as music, art, clothing, and food change. Their choice in leisure activities change. The ways people in a society live also change over time. The direction in which a culture changes is called a cultural trend. Social scientists use charts and graphs to record and study how a culture has changed over a period of time.
Cultural Trends Advances in technology often bring about cultural changes. A good example of this is the way people listen to music and watch television today.
Cultural Trends One of the big cultural changes the have happened in the past 20 years is the growth of cable television. Cable television has been available since the 1940s. It grew greatly in importance in the 1980s. Before cable TV became widely available, there were only a handful of TV stations available.
Cultural Trends TV stations aired programs on a variety of subjects, and television shows were designed to appeal to a large number of people of all ages and backgrounds. Cable TV made it possible to deliver more than 100 stations to individual viewers. Today, there are cable stations that only air certain types of programs. For example, among the many specialty cable stations are those that air only sports, news, music, comedy, or weather.
Cultural Trends Music is another cultural area that has experienced tremendous changes since the 1980s. Styles of popular music have changed greatly, especially with the rise of rap music. The way people get their music has also changed a lot. Two of the biggest changes are the introduction of compact discs, or CDs, and the rise of music sharing over the Internet.
Cultural Trends Compact discs for music first became available in the U.S. in 1983. Before then, most people listened to music on cassette tapes or vinyl records. People quickly switched from tapes and records to CDs because CDs last longer and have better sound quality.
Cultural Trends The graph on the following page shows how the sales of CDs, cassette tapes, and vinyl records changed between 1973 and 2003. You can see how quickly sales of vinyl records and cassettes shrank after CDs became available in 1983.
Cultural Trends In recent years CD sales have decreased. Why? There are probably a number of reasons. One of them might be the popularity of file sharing and music downloading over the Internet.
Cultural Trends Another cultural trend is that today, fewer people are listening to the radio. Again, the Internet is one of the reasons. Instead of listening to traditional radio, people listen to broadcasts played online. They also download music and other radio programs from the Internet in the form of podcasts.
Cultural Trends People also listen to music on personal audio devices such as MP3 players.
Cultural Trends This graph shows how the number of radio listeners went down from 1999 to 2004.
1. What is cultural diffusion?A. creating a national culture for all people to followB. making rural cultures more like urban culturesC. the selling of new technology and productsD. the passing of customs and ideas from one culture to another
D. The passing of customs and ideas from one culture to another
2. What kind of services did the growing urban populations need?A. healthcare and sanitationB. music and technologyC. transportation and new farming technologiesD. Internet service and rail systems
