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Cultural Assimilation Paper

Decent Essays

The United States is host to a variety of different cultures from around the globe. However, while many remain authentic to their foreign heritage evidence of cultural assimilation are everywhere. An example of this assimilation can be found at the eatery The Silk Road Restaurant; genuine Afghanistan cuisine. Where despite the authentic food and afghan inspired interior, still remains guilty of trading in many of the social norms that are customary when eating afghan cuisine. This cultural disconnect can also be seen in the restaurants cliental as their cultural connection varied greatly.
One of the groups that stood out was a table consisting of a man and woman in their mid-thirties, and another man and woman who were both senior citizens. The group all shared an olive skin tone hinting at a middle eastern heritage. The fashion worn within the group were contemporary variations of dress shirts, sweaters, jeans, and slacks. Additionally, the two women wore a scarf that …show more content…

To elaborate the tagline of the restaurant “authentic Afghanistan cuisine” says a lot about the cliental, many of the customers entering are unaware of the Afghanistan eating customs and are just fans of the authentic food. This adheres to Sociologist Militant Gordon’s first stage of assimilation known as cultural assimilation where cultural patterns are changed in order to appeal to the host society. This emphasizes a one sided view of assimilation found in the U.S known as Anglo-Conformity where assimilation in the U.S is designed to maintain the dominance of the English langue and its customs (Healy, 2008). Some of the customs left out were having guest sit on cushions, eating communally from the same dish, and eating with one’s hands. Instead the group sat in chairs, used silverware, and ate their own

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