Your American Artifact Free Writing:

Describe your artifact. What is it? Why is it significant?

Why does your artifact represent American culture? Would it represent American culture to just you or would other people also say it is a representation of American culture?

Terms of Culture Culture: A shared, learned or symbolic

system of beliefs and attitudes that shape one’s behaviors. This belief system is used by members of a society to cope with their world and one and one another and it is passed down from generation to generation.

Terms of Culture Diversity: Ethnic variety, as well as socioeconomic and gender variety, in a group, society, or institution

Terms of Culture Acculturation: The gradual process by

which the culture of a person or group is modified because of contact with another culture. Can be forced or willing

Create Your Own Culture Web: What makes you who you are?

Your Cultur

e

People: Family

/Friends/ Community

Values & Beliefs

(politics, religion,

etc.)

Background (Where you are

from, Where you live, work

and life experiences)

Artifacts (books, music,

important objects)

Race & Ethnicit

y

Norms (rules by

which people

guide their lives)

Language(s) spoken

Diversity Questions What is the value of diversity in

American Culture? What are some issues that stem from

diversity in American culture? What is American Culture? Create an

active definition based on the webs at your table and things we have shared and discussed in class.

“The Quilt” by John Updike What is this poem about? How do you

know? Give examples What does it mean when the poem says,

“Don’t kick your clinging covers son. This bead is built so you can never shake your clinging quilt?” What do the covers symbolize?

What does this poem have to do with culture, hegemony or the American dream?

“This Land is Your Land”This land is your land This land is my landFrom California to the New York island;From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream watersThis land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,I saw above me that endless skyway:I saw below me that golden valley:This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footstepsTo the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;And all around me a voice was sounding:This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:This land was made for you and me.

Censored LyricsAs I went walking I saw a sign thereAnd on the sign it said "No Trespassing."But on the other side it didn't say nothing,That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,By the relief office I seen my people;As they stood there hungry, I stood there askingIs this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,As I go walking that freedom highway;Nobody living can ever make me turn backThis land was made for you and me.

The American Spirit 1. What do people refer to when they use

the phrase “the American Spirit?”2. What ideals does this song promote?3. What are the political implications of

this song?4. When the omitted lyrics are added is

the song changed? Does its message change?

“I, too” Read Langston Hughes’ poem “I, too.”

Compare the message of this poem to original version of the song, “This Land is your land.” What do we learn about the American Spirit from reading these two poems together.

Terms of Culture

Dominant culture: a dominant culture is one that is able, through economic or political power, to impose its values, language, and ways of behaving on a subordinate culture or cultures. This may be achieved through legal or political suppression of other sets of values and patterns of behavior, or by monopolizing the media of communication.

Sociocultural Perspectives Hegemony: control or dominating

influence by one person or group, especially by one political group over society or one nation over others

Terms of Culture Meme: an idea, behavior or style that

spreads from person to person within a culture. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena.

This is an illustration of the hierarchy created by dominant culture values in the Antebellum and Jim Crow South. As you can see by this illustration, wealthy Whites were on the top which means that they had control of resources, power and cultural norms.

Sociocultural Perspectives

Wealthy

Country Folk

"White Trash"

Black Community

•In hegemony, all cultures must work within the dominant culture to survive. This brings tension among all subordinate cultures, a pattern you will see illustrated in the slave tale.

Slave Tale Assignment Read the introduction to the slave tales and

write down what struck you and why. Read the slave tale “When Brer Deer and

Brer Rabbit runned a Race” and take note of how you heard this story before. What is the more commonly known ending? Speculate why this ending was changed.

Answer slave tale questions for homework (these questions are on the page with “We Wear the Mask” and “Malindy”

Cultural Perspectives on The American Dream, the American Reality and the American Spirit

What ideas do we gather about the American experience and American Culture when comparing “This land is your land” to the lessons of The Awakening, The Color Purple, “Can I ask you a question?” and “The Quilt?”

• Answer in a well-written paragraph with well-developed support