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An interesting discussion I was having with a Briton in another thread here. The British man argued that the nations of the United States are little more than "administrative zones" and lack their own culture and identity. I disagreed with him on this point, as I believe that the United States isn't a homogenous entity, but rather a federation of 50 states. I believe these states, while sharing many common themes and a federal political framework, are unique.
Those arguing that each United States state has it's own culture and identity can point to a number of examples. One of these examples is the fact that each state has it's own unique constitution, government, laws and political environment. While the United States is generally perceived as "two party system" by outsiders, many states have independent and third party representatives in their state legislatures; whereas some states (Nebraska) have banned political parties altogether. Another example is that each state has it's own unique history, which molds a collective identity for the people living in the state. Each state also has it's own state symbols, such as flags, coats of arms, state birds, state flowers, state fish, etc. Many states even have their own national holidays to celebrate their national identity. States also differ drastically from each other in other respects, for instance, my home state of Missouri is a rural agrarian state and the people here have vastly different views than those from "urban" states, such as the District of Columbia and most of New England.
Conversely, those arguing that states do not have their own cultures and identities can point to other examples. Members of this group claim that the United States is a "federation in name only," because the federal government regularly violates the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which results in states effectively losing their sovereignty. They also claim that there are little or no differences between the cultures of different states. They also claim that the borders of states were defined solely on administrative conveniences, rather than cultural, historical or ethnic grounds.
Another interesting point to consider is that there is some regional cultural overlap between states. In other words, cultures may not necessarily end at state lines. How is this different from most of Africa, whose states were drawn up almost entirely based on colonial boundaries, rather than ethnic ones? Also, how is this different from how (for example) many towns and regions in Germany consist primarily of ethnic Poles?
The question I pose to you is whether or not you believe the 51 nations comprising the United States have their own culture and/or identity? Or whether the United States is an entirely homogenous state and there are no cultural differences between the states? What has led you to the conclusions that you have drawn?
Poll: Americans: Do states have their own culture and/or identity?States definately have their own identity/culture. (338) 85% States definately don't have their own identity/culture. (28) 7% I'm leaning towards states having their own identity/culture. (17) 4% I'm leaning towards states not having their own identity/culture. (14) 4% 397 total votes Your vote: Americans: Do states have their own culture and/or identity? (Vote): States definately have their own identity/culture.
(Vote): I'm leaning towards states having their own identity/culture.
(Vote): I'm leaning towards states not having their own identity/culture.
(Vote): States definately don't have their own identity/culture.
Poll: Foreigners: Do states have their own culture and/or identity?States definitely have their own identity/culture. (87) 50% States definitely don't have their own identity/culture. (52) 30% I'm leaning towards states having their own identity/culture. (18) 10% I'm leaning towards states not having their own identity/culture. (17) 10% 174 total votes Your vote: Foreigners: Do states have their own culture and/or identity? (Vote): States definitely have their own identity/culture.
(Vote): I'm leaning towards states having their own identity/culture.
(Vote): I'm leaning towards states not having their own identity/culture.
(Vote): States definitely don't have their own identity/culture.
Poll: What would you say is the main source of culture?Internal State Regional Culture (i.e. metro areas) (81) 46% Cross-State Regional Culture (37) 21% "National" Culture (26) 15% City / Town Culture (19) 11% State Culture (8) 5% Other (6) 3% 177 total votes Your vote: What would you say is the main source of culture? (Vote): "National" Culture
(Vote): Cross-State Regional Culture
(Vote): State Culture
(Vote): Internal State Regional Culture (i.e. metro areas)
(Vote): City / Town Culture
(Vote): Other
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i'd say it's between the north and the south but that's about it.
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Living in the southwest, I believe its actually even to a smaller scale. I believe there is a huge cultural differences even in just cities. Even more, there are hard cultural differences within cities. you can drive from one part of a city to another and experience such difference in culture because of our diversity.
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I'd argue that California is closer to somewhere like the Netherlands or Germany in political ideology than Arizona which is a neighboring state. I can see why your friend had such an image of the U.S., as in my head, the E.U. has a much more homogeneous political identity than the U.S. has within itself.
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There is identity and culture between states in the US, but it is not the same as between major countries.
A good comparison is that one state is to another, as one major city is to another in many european places.
eg. Ohio is to Louisiana, what London is to Glasgow.
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United States24698 Posts
I definitely think there are major variations in culture around the USA, but I don't think state lines are a good way to differentiate them.
I think many Europeans don't realize how different it is living in some states versus others. The size and diversity of the US is difficult to understand if you haven't experienced it yourself (there are not many comparable nations in this regard).
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There's definitely different culture by state or general region, but it's not as dominant as it has been historically. If you stick to big cities especially, it's getting pretty homogeneous. 50% of the US population lives in a metro as big or bigger than like Milwaukee, and for the most part people are pretty similar culturally.
Lot of little differences to keep it interesting. For instance in the Pacific NW, apparently every other person is convinced they have a gluten allergy.
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Some states no doubt have a culture of their own, but sometimes several states in a region can share a similar culture. Also there could be multiple cultures within a single state.
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all you have to do to know that yes we have our own ways is travel to one country and then come back. CLEAR AS DAY. my example, look at filipinos who are american born and look at the real filipinos. Entirely two different people.
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Florida is one of the best examples of multiple varying cultures/identities even within a single state. Huge hispanic population in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and it's very liberal socially since there are a ton of different nationalities. You travel towards Central Florida and you start running into huge white evangelical populations and mega-churches. Continue north and you start actually getting into Deep South territory where you start seeing rebel flags displayed proudly on the back of pickup trucks with southern accents. I also forgot to mention Key West in the very south which is very unique on it's own, especially when Fantasy Fest is going on. I also forgot about the Indian tribes sprinkled through Florida as well.
I could literally go on and on about how just Florida varies within itself, forget about having to compare it to another state.
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It depends there is kind of a mix between regions and states... another example of a state having an identity all its own is Texas, but on the other hand you could group much of new england together as having more of a regional identity.
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There's so many different cultures in the US, mostly due to the different cultures that colonized it. New Orleans which is where I live is some weird mix of French, Spanish, and African. Very unique and cool too
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I grew up in New Jersey and I definitely notice a strong state-cultural presence around here. Some of it is based off pop culture (Bruce Springsteen, Jersey shore), some from historical sites/famous achievements (princeton university, revolutionary war sites) and some is more of a folk-culture (agricultural presence -- "garden state", sports teams, folk tales like the Jersey Devil, etc). That kind of stuff just passively comes up in school and in conversation over the years so I know quite a bit about it without ever having gone out of the way to study it.
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On May 03 2013 14:53 Hrrrrm wrote:Florida is one of the best examples of multiple varying cultures/identities even within a single state. Huge hispanic population in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and it's very liberal socially since there are a ton of different nationalities. You travel towards Central Florida and you start running into huge white evangelical populations and mega-churches. Continue north and you start actually getting into Deep South territory where you start seeing rebel flags displayed proudly on the back of pickup trucks with southern accents. I also forgot to mention Key West in the very south which is very unique on it's own, especially when Fantasy Fest is going on. I also forgot about the Indian tribes sprinkled through Florida as well. I could literally go on and on about how just Florida varies within itself, forget about having to compare it to another state.
You can't even clump Ft. Lauderdale with Miami, they are completely different :\ Also I wouldn't call Key West "very south"... they have a huge gay population, which the true south (north of Florida) would never tolerate.
Anyway, more examples of how cultures can vary on scales as small as cities!
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Texans definitely have a distinct culture that they are very proud of. Various mottoes and slogans (Proud to be a Texan, Don't mess with Texas, Everything's bigger in Texas) exist that propagate this mentality. I've lived here my entire life, and though I don't necessarily share the same feeling of pride that most of my neighbors do, I'd definitely say that our state has its own unique identity. Most Texans would get at least a little upset if they were considered to be just another one of those states from the south.
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I'm from South Louisiana, and I guess I'm biased when I say that states have their own cultural identity because I'm part of the whole Cajun culture with Mardi Gras, francophones, ect. I wouldn't really know if other states/Northern Louisiana have their own unique aspects to their culture.
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Of course the U.S. is not homogenous. Culture doesn't change drastically when crossing most state lines, but different regions are quite distinct. Consider cajuns or creoles that are historically french and located in the southeast around louisiana as contrasted with the southwest cowboy culture inherited from the hispanic gauchos of mexico that can trace their culture back to the indians and spaniards.
An even simpler example would be sports. Hockey is reasonably big in the north in Michigan/Minnesota, but is not nearly so popular in the rest of the country.
One thing that some people might not know is that each state teaches its own state history as a course in early education, before high school.
Besides that, I can tell you accents can be significantly different from one region to another. It's not to such an extreme as in India or China, where different regions speak separate dialects that may be unintelligible to their neighbors, but it can be a source of mockery (good natured or not) when people travel cross country.
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I don't think it's really limited to each state, but particular regions. My philosophy teacher said California is the perfect example of a melting pot, and in Idaho you get people thinking Taco Bell is the real deal when it comes to Mexican food. Texas and the other southern states have their own culture, and the west and east coasts are very different from each other.
Phyren brings up a good point about the accents. There's some subtle to absolutely horrendous variations on pronunciations throughout the states.
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I don't live in the states but I know stuff like Detroit is motor city, LA is hollywood, texas is football?
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Yes, they definitely do. Take a walk around the UP of Michigan, it's like a whole different place even versus southern Michigan. I'd say that there are cultures within a state, but there are overarching state cultures as well.
I think even (for the most part) states are independent from region culture. I'm from Michigan, and if you ask people here, they'll tell you that people from Ohio are dickheads and that people are so much nicer in Michigan (and Ohioan's would probably tell you the same about people from Michigan).
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