Society of the United States

As the United States is an immense, immigrant country, defining a common set of customs, traditions, behavior and way of life is difficult. However, its culture can be interpreted as having an overall Western European based culture with influences from the native peoples and other more recent immigrants. Additionally, due to its large size and value of individualism, subcultures within the U.S. have come in existence. Many of these subcultures generally share the common customs, but have their own customs beyond those of the general culture.

At present in the U.S., the mass media, and to a lesser extent, the educational, religious and political institutions shape the overall culture.

General living patterns

Television and Media

Television often plays an important role in introducing children to new ideas and developing common views of the world. These shows are broadcast over the entire U.S., delivered to the home via the air or by cable and thus have an influence on a very large set of the population as 98% of all American households have at least one television and in fact, the majority of households have more than one. It is through the mass media that Americans develop their sense of the rest of the world. The national broadcasts are in English, though many more urbanized areas of the country have some local broadcasts in languages other than English such as Spanish or Chinese.

Newspapers, have declined in their influence and penetration into American households over the years. The U.S. does not have a national paper per se. Though the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are sold in most U.S. cities, they do not have a significant penetration into the average home. Instead, metropolitan areas have their own local newspapers. Typically, a metropolitan area will support at most one or two major newspapers with many smaller publications targeted towards paticular audiences. Although the cost of publishing has increased over the years, the price of newspapers has generally remained low to none forcing newspapers to rely more on advertising revenue and on articles provided by the major wire service, the Associated Press for their national and world coverage.

Food

The types of food served at home varies the most and depends upon the region of the country and the family's own cultural heritage. Newly immigranted families tend to eat food similar to that of their country of origin. Other families that have lived for a few generations in the U.S. tend to eat the food common to the region such as New England cuisine, Mid-Western cuisine, southern cuisine, Tex-Mex cuisine and Californian cuisine.

Clothing

Dress is more uniform, being similar to other Western European nations, though their exist ethnic and regional differences as well such as the cowboy dress found in south-western and western regions of the United States.

Education

Children are generally required to attend school from the ages of 5 or 6 until 16 with the majority continuing until they are at least 17 or 18. The public education systems vary from one state to another but generally are organized as follows:

• Age 5 kindergarten
• Ages 6-11 elementary school. Children start in grade 1 and advance to grade 6.
• Ages 12-13 or 12-14 - junior high school.
• Ages 14(or15)-17 - high school.

Additionally, many children attend schools prior to age 5. These schools are known as pre-school are often private and not part of the public educational system although some public school systems include pre-schools.

Public Education. Public education in the United States is provided by the separate states, not the federal government. It is free, but unlike other countries, there is no standard curricla, neither nationwide or typically not even statewide, taught in these schools. Rather it is up to the teachers and administrators of the school districts to determine what is and is not taught. Increasingly state-wide curricla are being developed.

Funding of schools is often done on the local level with money obtained from property taxes used to fund the public school.

Private Education. Most of the private institutions have traditionally been religious institutions such as catholic schools. In larger cities, private secular schools, military schools and multi-lingual schools are available. Private secular and multi-lingual elementary education may cost upwards of $10,000 to $20,000 per year per student in large metropolitan areas, placing these schools out of reach of all but the most wealthy of middle and upper middle class families. Religous schools vary in price, from nearly free to costs on par with private secular schools. Poorer families may send their children to these lower priced schools for a religious education. Home schooling is allowed in many states and is alternative for small minority of households. Motivation for home schooling is often of a religious nature.

Higher Education. As with the lower level public education system, there is no national public university system in the United States. Each state has its own public university system as well as generally having many privately run colleges, universities and trade schools. State university tution ranges from the nearly free on up, but is generally significantly lower than private schools. The US does provide some federal grants and loans for higher education to lower income families.

Work

Most people commute to work using automobiles rather than mass transit. Commute time varies, but in the extreme, some commuters in California will travel upto 4 hours one way to work. This however, is not the typical commute time, 30 minutes to 1 hour is far more typical.

Most jobs are based on a 40 hour work week, that is 5 days, 8 hours per day. The United States has minimum wage laws requiring a minimum wage for many employees, though a number of employment sectors are excluded.

Housing

Immediately after World War II, Americans began living in every increasing numbers in what is referred as the suburbs, belts around major cities with higher density than rural areas, but much lower than urban areas. This move has been attributed to many factors such as the automobile, the availability of large tracts of land, the increasing violence of the urbanized centers, and the cheapness of housing. These new single family houses primarily consisted of wood, were one or two stories and often were part of large tracts of homes built by a single developer.

Coupling rituals

The typical coupling in the United States involves two people of different sexes. Couples often meet through religious institutions, their work or friends. There are many private firms providing dating services, services that are geared to assist individuals in finding partners.

The trend over the past few decades has been for more and more couples deciding to live together before or instead of getting married. The 2000 Census reported 9.7 million different sex partners living together and about 1.3 million same sex partners living together. These cohabitation arrangements have not been subject of many if any laws regulating them, though many states now have some domestic partner laws that confer some legal support for unmarried couples.

Marriage between individuals is only allowed between indviduals of different sexes and the marriage laws are established by each individual state, however all of the states in the U.S are bound by the constitution's full faith and credit clause to honor the marriages and divorces of another state. Married couples typically reside in their own separate dwelling rather than living with others or with their parents.

Marriage Cermony

The typical marriage cermony involves a couple proclaiming their commitment to one another in front of their close relatives and friends and presided over by a religious figure such as a minister, priest or rabbi depending upon the faith of the couple. It is the general practice of the bride's father to give away the bride to the groom.

Divorce

Divorce, like marriage, is the providence of the state government, not the federal government. Divorce laws vary from state to state, but all states allow for divorce of married couples. State law provides for child support where children are involved and sometimes alimony.

Death rituals

Deaths are generally thought to be an occasion for grieving by the majority of Americans. Funerals are held to honor the passing away of the individual. The dead are placed in a coffin and are generally embalmed and displayed before being buried in the ground. Unlike some Western European countries where the body remains in the cemetery for a limited period of time, e.g. 20 years, in the United States their is typically no limit. Other traditions such as cremation have arisen in which the body is burned to ashes and the ashes are stored in an urn or scattered over a site significant to the deceased.

Gender roles

Since the 1970s, traditional gender roles of male and female have become increasingly challenged by both legal and social means. Today, there are far fewer roles that are legally restricted by one's sex, though there are still cultural means of inhibiting such roles. More and more women have entered the work place and at all levels, though women are still typically found at the lower, less influential roles in private companies. Most men however have not taken up the traditional homemaker role, nor have they taken many of the traditional work related roles such as receptionists and nurses. These roles are still by and large held by women.

Suburban nuclear family

This has been identified as part of the "American Dream", a married couple owning a house in the suburbs with kids. Kids are reared by their parents until they are sent away to a college or university, or until they acquire their own jobs and decide to move out into their own apartment or home. The suburban middle class nuclear family has been from the middle 1900s until very recently the dominant cultural Archetype. This archetype is re-inforced by mass media, religious practices and government policies and is based on traditions from the white Anglo-Saxon cultures.

The family life is generally centered around the rearing of the children.

Today, often both parents hold jobs.

Regional differences

• New England
• South
• Midwest
• Southwest
• West

Subcultures

• Asian subculture
• Country/rural subculture
• Black Subculture
• Gay Subculture
• Indian Subculture
• Islamic Subculture
• Jewish Subculture
• Native American Subculture

National holidays

Holidays For Most Businesses
New Year's Day
Martin Luther King's Birthday
Washington's Birthday
Memorial Day
4th of July
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas

Other National Holidays
Ground Hog Day
Valentines Day
St. Patrick's Day
April Fool's Day
Mother's Day
Father's Day
Columbus Day
Veterans Day

Popular culture: Arts and Entertainment

• Movies
• Music
• Sports

Cultural exports

The United States is an enormous exporter of entertainment often in the form of sports, movies and music. This readily consumable form of culture is widely and cheaply dispersed for entertainment consumers world-wide. That said, what a society considers entertainment is not necessarily reflective of the 'true culture' of its people. More popular syndicated programs cost more therefore overseas entertainment purchasers are left with 're-runs' that reflect various, and dated, stages of the United States cultural development.

Related topics

See also: Hollywood, Music of the United States