Introduction to the Science of Sociology Part 110

2. The Relation of a.s.similation to Amalgamation.

3. The Mulatto as a Cultural Type.

4. Language as a Means of a.s.similation 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 a.s.similation and Accommodation.

7. Domestic Slavery and the a.s.similation of the Negro.

8. A Study of Historical Experiments in Denationalization; the Germanization of Posen, the Russianization of Poland, the j.a.panese 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 a.s.similation as Revealed in Personal Doc.u.ments, as Antin, _The Promised Land_; Rihbany, _A Far Journey_; Ravage, _An American in the Making_; etc.

13. Foreign Missions and Native Cultures.

14. The Role of a.s.similation and Accommodation in the Personal Development of the Individual Man.

15. a.s.similation and Accommodation in Their Relations to the Educational Process.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What do you understand Simons to mean by the term "a.s.similation"?

2. What is the difference between amalgamation and a.s.similation?

3. How are a.s.similation 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 a.s.similation 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 a.s.similation?

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 a.s.similation differ from that of Simons?

15. What do you understand Park to mean when he says, "Social inst.i.tutions 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 a.s.similation?

16. What do you understand to be the difference between the type of a.s.similation (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 a.s.similation?

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 a.s.similation?

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

21. What is meant by the phrases "apperception ma.s.s," "universes of discourse," and "definitions of the situations"? What is their significance for a.s.similation?

22. In what way does a.s.similation involve the mediation of individual differences?

23. Does the segregation of immigrants make for or against a.s.similation?

24. In what ways do primary and secondary contacts, imitation and suggestion, compet.i.tion, conflict and accommodation, enter into the process of a.s.similation?

FOOTNOTES:

[241] Adapted from Sarah E. Simons, "Social a.s.similation," 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 a.n.a.lysis of Culture," in _Nature_, Lx.x.xVII (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 a.s.similation 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 Publis.h.i.+ng Co. 1917.)