Amerification
Amerification is the influence the United States of America on indigenous and colonized peoples under the United States. For other uses, see Americanization (disambiguation).
Amerification is a form of cultural assimilation process during which indigenous peoples and internal national communities, voluntarily or not, give up their culture and language in favor of an American one. This is similar to Russification and is a specific form of colonialism.
In a historical sense, the term refers to both official and unofficial policies of United States to indigenous peoples in North America, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and Philippines (during the American period) aimed at perpetuating American social, cultural, and economic domination.
The major areas of Amerification are politics and culture. In politics, an element of Amerification is assigning white Americans to leading administrative positions in national and educational institutions. In culture, Amerification primarily amounts to domination of the English language in official business, the legal system and strong influence of the English language on national literature. The shifts in demographics and transmigration in favour of the white American population are sometimes considered as a form of Amerification as well. It also includes the removing or co-opting existing forms of self-governance, political institutions, and cultural forms as in the case of Hawaii to bring about changes more favourable to American interests and American settlers.
Analytically, it is helpful to distinguish Amerification, as a process of changing one's ethnic self-label or identity from a non-American ethnonym to an American one, from Americanization which is merely the spread of the English language and American culture into cultures and regions globally.
See also[edit]
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- American culture in the arts and literature.
- American Dream
- American imperialism
- Americanization (immigration)
- Anti-American sentiment
- American stereotypes
- Cocacolonization
- Cultural imperialism
- Debates over Americanization
- Empire of Liberty
- Military globalization
- Neo-colonialism
- McDonaldization
- Pax Americana
- Soft Power
- Westernization
- Indigenization
Bibliography[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Silva, Noenoe. Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism. Duke University, 2004
- Trask, Haunani. From a Native Daughter. UH Press, 1993.
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