Chapter XI: Assimilation (3)

(6) Ravage, M. E. _An American in the Making._ The life-story of an immigrant. New York, 1917.

(7) Cahan, Abraham. _The Rise of David Levinsky._ A novel. New York, 1917.

(8) Antin, Mary. _The Promised Land._ New York, 1912.

(9) ----. _They Who Knock at Our Gates._ A complete gospel of immigration. New York, 1914.

(10) Washington, Booker T. _Up from Slavery._ An autobiography. New York, 1901.

(11) Steiner, Edward A. _From Alien to Citizen._ The story of my life in America. New York, 1914.

(12) Stern, Mrs. Elizabeth Gertrude (Levin). _My Mother and I._ New York, 1919.

(13) DuBois, W. E. Burghardt. _Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil._ New York, 1920.

(14) ----. _The Souls of Black Folk._ Essays and sketches. Chicago, 1903.

(15) Hapgood, Hutchins. _The Spirit of the Ghetto._ Studies of the Jewish quarter in New York. Rev. ed. New York, 1909.

TOPICS FOR WRITTEN THEMES

1. Race and Culture, and the Problem of the Relative Superiority and Inferiority of Races.

2. The Relation of Assimilation to Amalgamation.

3. The Mulatto as a Cultural Type.

4. Language as a Means of Assimilation and a Basis of National Solidarity.

5. History and Literature as Means for Preserving National Solidarity.

6. Race Prejudice and Segregation in Their Relations to Assimilation and Accommodation.

7. Domestic Slavery and the Assimilation of the Negro.

8. A Study of Historical Experiments in Denationalization; the Germanization of Posen, the Russianization of Poland, the Japanese Policy in Korea, etc.

9. The "Melting-Pot" versus "Hyphen" in Their Relation to Americanization.

10. A Study of Policies, Programs, and Experiments in Americanization from the Standpoint of Sociology.

11. The Immigrant Community as a Means of Americanization.

12. The Process of Assimilation as Revealed in Personal Documents, as Antin, _The Promised Land_; Rihbany, _A Far Journey_; Ravage, _An American in the Making_; etc.

13. Foreign Missions and Native Cultures.

14. The Rôle of Assimilation and Accommodation in the Personal Development of the Individual Man.

15. Assimilation and Accommodation in Their Relations to the Educational Process.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What do you understand Simons to mean by the term "assimilation"?

2. What is the difference between amalgamation and assimilation?

3. How are assimilation and amalgamation interrelated?

4. What do you consider to be the difference between Trotter's explanation of human evolution and that of Crile?

5. What do you understand Trotter to mean by the gregarious instinct as a mechanism controlling conduct?

6. Of what significance is the distinction made by Trotter between (a) the three individual instincts, and (b) the gregarious instincts?

7. What is the significance of material and non-material cultural elements for the study of race contact and intermixture?

8. How do you explain the difference in rapidity of assimilation of the various types of cultural elements?

9. What factors promoted and impeded the extension of Roman culture in Gaul?

10. What social factors were involved in the origin of the French language?

11. To what extent does the extension of a cultural language involve assimilation?

12. In what sense do the cultural languages compete with each other?

13. Do you agree with the prediction that within a century English will be the vernacular of a quarter of the people of the world? Justify your position.

14. Does Park's definition of assimilation differ from that of Simons?

15. What do you understand Park to mean when he says, "Social institutions are not founded in similarities any more than they are founded in differences, but in relations, and in the mutual interdependence of the parts"? What is the relation of this principle to the process of assimilation?

16. What do you understand to be the difference between the type of assimilation (a) that makes for group solidarity and corporate action, and (b) that makes for formal like-mindedness? What conditions favor the one or the other type of assimilation?

17. What do you understand by the term "Americanization"?

18. Is there a difference between Americanization and Prussianization?

19. With what programs of Americanization are you familiar? Are they adequate from the standpoint of the sociological interpretation of assimilation?

20. In what way is language both a means and a product of assimilation?

21. What is meant by the phrases "apperception mass," "universes of discourse," and "definitions of the situations"? What is their significance for assimilation?

22. In what way does assimilation involve the mediation of individual differences?

23. Does the segregation of immigrants make for or against assimilation?

24. In what ways do primary and secondary contacts, imitation and suggestion, competition, conflict and accommodation, enter into the process of assimilation?

FOOTNOTES:

[241] Adapted from Sarah E. Simons, "Social Assimilation," in the _American Journal of Sociology_, VI (1901), 790-801.

[242] Adapted from W. Trotter, "Herd Instinct," in the _Sociological Review_, I (1908), 231-42.

[243] From W. H. R. Rivers, "The Ethnological Analysis of Culture," in _Nature_, LXXXVII (1911), 358-60.

[244] From John H. Cornyn, "French Language," in the _Encyclopedia Americana_, XI (1919), 646-47.

[245] Adapted from E. H. Babbitt, "The Geography of the Great Languages," in _World's Work_, XV (1907-8), 9903-7.

[246] From Robert E. Park, "Racial Assimilation in Secondary Groups," in the _Publications of the American Sociological Society_, VIII (1914), 66-72.

[247] The three selections under this heading are adapted from _Memorandum on Americanization_, prepared by the Division of Immigrant Heritages, of the Study of Methods of Americanization, of the Carnegie Corporation, New York City, 1919.

[248] See chap. i, pp. 16-24.

[249] See _Menighetskalenderen_. (Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing Co. 1917.)