Introduction to the Science of Sociology Part 103

a.s.similation is a process of interpenetration and fusion in which persons and groups acquire the memories, sentiments, and att.i.tudes of other persons or groups, and, by sharing their experience and history, are incorporated with them in a common cultural life. In so far as a.s.similation denotes this sharing of tradition, this intimate partic.i.p.ation in common experiences, a.s.similation is central in the historical and cultural processes.

This distinction between accommodation and a.s.similation, with reference to their role in society, explains certain significant formal differences between the two processes. An accommodation of a conflict, or an accommodation to a new situation, may take place with rapidity.

The more intimate and subtle changes involved in a.s.similation are more gradual. The changes that occur in accommodation are frequently not only sudden but revolutionary, as in the mutation of att.i.tudes in conversion.

The modifications of att.i.tudes in the process of a.s.similation are not only gradual, but moderate, even if they appear considerable in their acc.u.mulation over a long period of time. If mutation is the symbol for accommodation, growth is the metaphor for a.s.similation. In accommodation the person or the group is generally, though not always, highly conscious of the occasion, as in the peace treaty that ends the war, in the arbitration of an industrial controversy, in the adjustment of the person to the formal requirements of life in a new social world. In a.s.similation the process is typically unconscious; the person is incorporated into the common life of the group before he is aware and with little conception of the course of events which brought this incorporation about.

James has described the way in which the att.i.tude of the person changes toward certain subjects, woman's suffrage, for example, not as the result of conscious reflection, but as the outcome of the unreflective responses to a series of new experiences. The intimate a.s.sociations of the family and of the play group, partic.i.p.ation in the ceremonies of religious wors.h.i.+p and in the celebrations of national holidays, all these activities transmit to the immigrant and to the alien a store of memories and sentiments common to the native-born, and these memories are the basis of all that is peculiar and sacred in our cultural life.

As social contact initiates interaction, a.s.similation is its final perfect product. The nature of the social contacts is decisive in the process. a.s.similation naturally takes place most rapidly where contacts are primary, that is, where they are the most intimate and intense, as in the area of touch relations.h.i.+p, in the family circle and in intimate congenial groups. Secondary contacts facilitate accommodations, but do not greatly promote a.s.similation. The contacts here are external and too remote.

A common language is indispensable for the most intimate a.s.sociation of the members of the group; its absence is an insurmountable barrier to a.s.similation. The phenomenon "that every group has its own language,"

its peculiar "universe of discourse," and its cultural symbols is evidence of the interrelation between communication and a.s.similation.

Through the mechanisms of imitation and suggestion, communication effects a gradual and unconscious modification of the att.i.tudes and sentiments of the members of the group. The unity thus achieved is not necessarily or even normally like-mindedness; it is rather a unity of experience and of orientation, out of which may develop a community of purpose and action.

3. Cla.s.sification of the Materials

The selections in the materials on a.s.similation have been arranged under three heads: (a) biological aspects of a.s.similation; (b) the conflict and fusion of cultures; and (c) Americanization as a problem in a.s.similation. The readings proceed from an a.n.a.lysis of the nature of a.s.similation to a survey of its processes, as they have manifested themselves historically, and finally to a consideration of the problems of Americanization.

a) _Biological aspects of a.s.similation._--a.s.similation is to be distinguished from amalgamation, with which it is, however, closely related. Amalgamation is a biological process, the fusion of races by interbreeding and intermarriage. a.s.similation, on the other hand, is limited to the fusion of cultures. Miscegenation, or the mingling of races, is a universal phenomenon among the historical races. There are no races, in other words, that do not interbreed. Acculturation, or the transmission of cultural elements from one social group to another, however, has invariably taken place on a larger scale and over a wider area than miscegenation.

Amalgamation, while it is limited to the crossing of racial traits through intermarriage, naturally promotes a.s.similation or the cross-fertilization of social heritages. The offspring of a "mixed"

marriage not only biologically inherits physical and temperamental traits from both parents, but also acquires in the nurture of family life the att.i.tudes, sentiments, and memories of both father and mother.

Thus amalgamation of races insures the conditions of primary social contacts most favorable for a.s.similation.

b) _The conflict and fusion of cultures._--The survey of the process of what the ethnologists call _acculturation_, as it is exhibited historically in the conflicts and fusions of cultures, indicates the wide range of the phenomena in this field.

(1) Social contact, even when slight or indirect, is sufficient for the transmission from one cultural group to another of the material elements of civilization. Stimulants and firearms spread rapidly upon the objective demonstration of their effects. The potato, a native of America, has preceded the white explorer in its penetration into many areas of Africa.

(2) The changes in languages in the course of the contacts, conflicts, and fusions of races and nationalities afford data for a more adequate description of the process of a.s.similation. Under what conditions does a ruling group impose its speech upon the ma.s.ses, or finally capitulate to the vulgar tongue of the common people? In modern times the printing-press, the book, and the newspaper have tended to fix languages. The press has made feasible language revivals in connection with national movements on a scale impossible in earlier periods.

The emphasis placed upon language as a medium of cultural transmission rests upon a sound principle. For the idioms, particularly of a spoken language, probably reflect more accurately the historical experiences of a people than history itself. The basis of unity among most historical peoples is linguistic rather than racial. The Latin peoples are a convenient example of this fact. The experiment now in progress in the Philippine Islands is significant in this connection. To what extent will the national and cultural development of those islands be determined by native temperament, by Spanish speech and tradition, or by the English language and the American school system?

(3) Rivers in his study of Melanesian and Hawaiian cultures was impressed by the persistence of fundamental elements of the social structure. The basic patterns of family and social life remained practically unmodified despite profound transformations in technique, in language, and in religion. Evidently many material devices and formal expressions of an alien society can be adopted without significant changes in the native culture.

The question, however, may be raised whether or not the complete adoption of occidental science and organization of industry would not produce far-reaching changes in social organization. The trend of economic, social, and cultural changes in j.a.pan will throw light on this question. Even if revolutionary social changes actually occur, the point may well be made that they will be the outcome of the new economic system, and therefore not effects of acculturation.

(4) The rapidity and completeness of a.s.similation depends directly upon the intimacy of social contact. By a curious paradox, slavery, and particularly household slavery, has probably been, aside from intermarriage, the most efficient device for promoting a.s.similation.

Adoption and initiation among primitive peoples provided a ceremonial method for inducting aliens and strangers into the group, the significance of which can only be understood after a more adequate study of ceremonial in general.

c) _Americanization as a problem of a.s.similation._--Any consideration of policies, programs, and methods of Americanization gain perspective when related to the sociology of a.s.similation. The "Study of Methods of Americanization," of the Carnegie Corporation, defines Americanization as "the partic.i.p.ation of the immigrant in the life of the community in which he lives." From this standpoint partic.i.p.ation is both the medium and the goal of a.s.similation. Partic.i.p.ation of the immigrant in American life in any area of life prepares him for partic.i.p.ation in every other.

What the immigrant and the alien need most is an opportunity for partic.i.p.ation. Of first importance, of course, is the language. In addition he needs to know how to use our inst.i.tutions for his own benefit and protection. But partic.i.p.ation, to be real, must be spontaneous and intelligent, and that means, in the long run, that the immigrant's life in America must be related to the life he already knows. Not by the suppression of old memories, but by their incorporation in his new life is a.s.similation achieved. The failure of conscious, coercive policies of denationalization in Europe and the great success of the early, pa.s.sive phase of Americanization in this country afford in this connection an impressive contrast. It follows that a.s.similation cannot be promoted directly, but only indirectly, that is, by supplying the conditions that make for partic.i.p.ation.

There is no process but life itself that can effectually wipe out the immigrant's memory of his past. The inclusion of the immigrant in our common life may perhaps be best reached, therefore, in co-operation that looks not so much to the past as to the future. The second generation of the immigrant may share fully in our memories, but practically all that we can ask of the foreign-born is partic.i.p.ation in our ideals, our wishes, and our common enterprises.

II. MATERIALS

A. BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF a.s.sIMILATION

1. a.s.similation and Amalgamation[241]

Writers on historical and social science are just beginning to turn their attention to the large subject of social a.s.similation. That the subject has until recently received little attention is readily seen by a mere glance at the works of our leading sociologists and historians.

The word itself rarely appears; and when the theme is touched upon, no clearly defined, stable idea seems to exist, even in the mind of the author. Thus Giddings at one time identifies a.s.similation with "reciprocal accommodation." In another place he defines it as "the process of growing alike," and once again he tells us it is the method by which foreigners in the United States society become Americans. Nor are M. Novicow's ideas on the subject perfectly lucid, for he considers a.s.similation sometimes as a _process_, at other times as an _art_, and again as a _result_. He makes the term "denationalization" coextensive with our "a.s.similation," and says that the ensemble of measures which a government takes for inducing a population to abandon one type of culture for another is denationalization. Denationalization by the authority of the state carries with it a certain amount of coercion; it is always accompanied by a measure of violence. In the next sentence, however, we are told that the word "denationalization" may also be used for the non-coercive _process_ by which one nationality is a.s.similated with another. M. Novicow further speaks of the _art_ of a.s.similation, and he tells us that the _result_ of the intellectual struggle between races living under the same government, whether free or forced, is in every case a.s.similation. Burgess also takes a narrow view of the subject, restricting the operation of a.s.similating forces to the present and considering a.s.similation a result of modern political union. He says: "In modern times the political union of different races under the leaders.h.i.+p of the dominant race results in a.s.similation."

From one point of view a.s.similation is a process with its active and pa.s.sive elements; from another it is a result. In this discussion, however, a.s.similation is considered as a process due to prolonged contact. It may, perhaps, be defined as that process of adjustment or accommodation which occurs between the members of two different races, if their contact is prolonged and if the necessary psychic conditions are present. The result is group h.o.m.ogeneity to a greater or less degree. Figuratively speaking, it is the process by which the aggregation of peoples is changed from a mere mechanical mixture into a chemical compound.

The process of a.s.similation is of a psychological rather than of a biological nature, and refers to the growing alike in character, thoughts, and inst.i.tutions, rather than to the blood-mingling brought about by intermarriage. The intellectual results of the process of a.s.similation are far more lasting than the physiological. Thus in France today, though nineteen-twentieths of the blood is that of the aboriginal races, the language is directly derived from that imposed by the Romans in their conquest of Gaul. Intermarriage, the inevitable result to a greater or less extent of race contact, plays its part in the process of a.s.similation, but mere mixture of races will not cause a.s.similation.

Moreover, a.s.similation is possible, partially at least, without intermarriage. Instances of this are furnished by the partial a.s.similation of the Negro and the Indian of the United States. Thinkers are beginning to doubt the great importance once attributed to intermarriage as a factor in civilization. Says Mayo-Smith, "It is not in unity of blood but in unity of inst.i.tutions and social habits and ideals that we are to seek that which we call nationality," and nationality is the result of a.s.similation.

2. The Instinctive Basis of a.s.similation[242]

It is a striking fact that among animals there are some whose conduct can be generalized very readily in the categories of self-preservation, nutrition, and s.e.x, while there are others whose conduct cannot be thus summarized. The behavior of the tiger and the cat is simple and easily comprehensible, whereas that of the dog with his conscience, his humor, his terror of loneliness, his capacity for devotion to a brutal master, or that of the bee with her selfless devotion to the hive, furnishes phenomena which no sophistry can a.s.similate without the aid of a fourth instinct. But little examination will show that the animals whose conduct it is difficult to generalize under the three primitive instinctive categories are gregarious. If, then, it can be shown that gregariousness is of a biological significance approaching in importance that of the other instincts we may expect to find in it the source of these anomalies of conduct, and of the complexity of human behavior.

Gregariousness seems frequently to be regarded as a somewhat superficial character, scarcely deserving, as it were, the name of an instinct, advantageous, it is true, but not of fundamental importance or likely to be deeply ingrained in the inheritance of the species. This att.i.tude may be due to the fact that among mammals, at any rate, the appearance of gregariousness has not been accompanied by any very gross physical changes which are obviously a.s.sociated with it.

To whatever it may be due, this method of regarding the social habit is, in the opinion of the present writer, not justified by the facts, and prevents the attainment of conclusions of considerable fruitfulness.

A study of bees and ants shows at once how fundamental the importance of gregariousness may become. The individual in such communities is completely incapable, often physically, of existing apart from the community, and this fact at once gives rise to the suspicion that, even in communities less closely knit than those of the ant and the bee, the individual may in fact be more dependent on communal life than appears at first sight.

Another very striking piece of general evidence of the significance of gregariousness as no mere late acquirement is the remarkable coincidence of its occurrence with that of exceptional grades of intelligence or the possibility of very complex reactions to environment. It can scarcely be regarded as an unmeaning accident that the dog, the horse, the ape, the elephant, and man are all social animals. The instances of the bee and the ant are perhaps the most amazing. Here the advantages of gregariousness seem actually to outweigh the most prodigious differences of structure, and we find a condition which is often thought of as a mere habit, capable of enabling the insect nervous system to compete in the complexity of its power of adaptation with that of the higher vertebrates.

From the biological standpoint the probability of gregariousness being a primitive and fundamental quality in man seems to be considerable. It would appear to have the effect of enlarging the advantages of variation. Varieties not immediately favorable, varieties departing widely from the standard, varieties even unfavorable to the individual, may be supposed to be given by it a chance of survival. Now the course of the development of man seems to present many features incompatible with its having proceeded among isolated individuals exposed to the unmodified action of natural selection. Changes so serious as the a.s.sumption of the upright posture, the reduction in the jaw and its musculature, the reduction in the acuity of smell and hearing, demand, if the species is to survive, either a delicacy of adjustment with the compensatingly developing intelligence so minute as to be almost inconceivable, or the existence of some kind of protective enclosure, however imperfect, in which the varying individuals may be sheltered from the direct influence of natural selection. The existence of such a mechanism would compensate losses of physical strength in the individual by the greatly increased strength of the larger unit, of the unit, that is to say, upon which natural selection still acts unmodified.

The cardinal quality of the herd is h.o.m.ogeneity. It is clear that the great advantage of the social habit is to enable large numbers to act as one, whereby in the case of the hunting gregarious animal strength in pursuit and attack is at once increased beyond that of the creatures preyed upon, and in protective socialism the sensitiveness of the new unit to alarms is greatly in excess of that of the individual member of the flock.

To secure these advantages of h.o.m.ogeneity, it is evident that the members of the herd must possess sensitiveness to the behavior of their fellows. The individual isolated will be of no meaning; the individual as part of the herd will be capable of transmitting the most potent impulses. Each member of the flock tending to follow his neighbor, and in turn to be followed, each is in some sense capable of leaders.h.i.+p; but no lead will be followed that departs widely from normal behavior. A lead will only be followed from its resemblance to the normal. If the leader go so far ahead as definitely to cease to be in the herd, he will necessarily be ignored.

The original in conduct, that is to say, resistiveness to the voice of the herd, will be suppressed by natural selection; the wolf which does not follow the impulses of the herd will be starved; the sheep which does not respond to the flock will be eaten.

Again, not only will the individual be responsive to impulses coming from the herd but he will treat the herd as his normal environment. The impulse to be in and always to remain with the herd will have the strongest instinctive weight. Anything which tends to separate him from his fellows, as soon as it becomes perceptible as such, will be strongly resisted.

So far we have regarded the gregarious animal objectively. Let us now try to estimate the mental aspects of these impulses. Suppose a species in possession of precisely the instinctive endowments which we have been considering to be also self-conscious, and let us ask what will be the forms under which these phenomena will present themselves in its mind.

In the first place, it is quite evident that impulses derived from herd feeling will enter the mind with the value of instincts--they will present themselves as "a priori syntheses of the most perfect sort needing no proof but their own evidence." They will not, however, it is important to remember, necessarily always give this quality to the same specific acts, but will show this great distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristic that they may give to any opinion whatever the characters of instinctive belief, making it into an "a priori synthesis"; so that we shall expect to find acts which it would be absurd to look upon as the results of specific instincts carried out with all the enthusiasm of instinct and displaying all the marks of instinctive behavior.

In interpreting into mental terms the consequences of gregariousness we may conveniently begin with the simplest. The conscious individual will feel an una.n.a.lysable primary sense of comfort in the actual presence of his fellows and a similar sense of discomfort in their absence. It will be obvious truth to him that it is not good for man to be alone.

Loneliness will be a real terror insurmountable by reason.

Again, certain conditions will become secondarily a.s.sociated with presence with, or absence from, the herd. For example, take the sensations of heat and cold. The latter is prevented in gregarious animals by close crowding and experienced in the reverse condition; hence it comes to be connected in the mind with separation and so acquires altogether unreasonable a.s.sociations of harmfulness. Similarly, the sensation of warmth is a.s.sociated with feelings of the secure and salutary.

Slightly more complex manifestations of the same tendency to h.o.m.ogeneity are seen in the desire for identification with the herd in matters of opinion. Here we find the biological explanation of the ineradicable impulse mankind has always displayed toward segregation into cla.s.ses.

Each one of us in his opinions, and his conduct, in matters of dress, amus.e.m.e.nt, religion, and politics, is compelled to obtain the support of a cla.s.s, of a herd within the herd. The most eccentric in opinion or conduct is, we may be sure, supported by the agreement of a cla.s.s, the smallness of which accounts for his apparent eccentricity, and the preciousness of which accounts for his fort.i.tude in defying general opinion. Again, anything which tends to emphasize difference from the herd is unpleasant. In the individual mind there will be an a.n.a.lysable dislike of the novel in action or thought. It will be "wrong," "wicked,"

"foolish," "undesirable," or, as we say, "bad form," according to varying circ.u.mstances which we can already to some extent define.

Manifestations relatively more simple are shown in the dislike of being conspicuous, in shyness, and in stage fright. It is, however, sensitiveness to the behavior of the herd which has the most important effects upon the structure of the mind of the gregarious animal. This sensitiveness is, as Sidis has clearly seen, closely a.s.sociated with the suggestibility of the gregarious animal, and therefore with that of man.