Cultural Studies & Ethnology of America - What's it all about?

Culture has several definitions. I consider culture as a way of living encompassing history, traditions, customs, beliefs, laws, thoughts, literature, art, architecture, music and anything that would give meaning to people's life. In that sense, culture is a combination of several aspects, all of which should be considered together to get an understanding of how people live.

What makes American culture unique is the way it's evolved as a conglomeration of several ethnic cultures over past centuries. Now, we may think again about the words of George Washington (in my previous post on my American Studies blog) speaking of diversity and how it builds one people out of many. Well, traces of American Exceptionalism could be observed at that early time; there is a certain (American) way of life and other people coming to the US have to be assimilated to that certain culture.

Nevertheless, studying American culture wouldn't make sense unless we know about various ethnic groups who've lived or settled there over the course of American history, before discovery of the continent by Europeans and after that.