One Hundred percent Zero
One Hundred percent Zero
The underlining concept in Ralph Linton’s Article “One Hundred Percent American” ( page 27 of Anthropology ISBN 0-07-339754-7 ) portrays resounding truth about the realities within the current state of our over commercialized American experience.
In same fashion that cultures across the world originally collided to colonize America in the first place, it is no wonder that the best of breed items survived across the waters and persevered timelessly to engrain themselves as rich cornerstones of our modern civilization. These cultural “artifacts” have become the very building blocks that represent staples of American “over-”consumerism.
As it is written so eloquently in the piece on how we Americans “perform our ablutions in such splendor, … but not without foreign influence even then” this passage really struck me and set me back. It took me back recalling one of my favorite cultural dissertations; namely “The Primary Colors” by by Alexander Theroux where the author also makes jest of today’s high and “mighty” societies and their naivety on accuracy of self-recorded history; that if the truth were explored would transform many misguided egotistic cultural self-misconceptions. Many passages in Theroux’s three essays also drive concepts parallel to that of the ideas behind Linton’s work. For example, in medieval times in the Mediterranean the main blood artery to the brain of a special beach snail provided those ethnic peoples the most beautiful blue ever found in nature. These crustaceans would be harvested by the tens of thousands by the Romans to produce 1 ounce of the brilliant blue dye. This dye would later be used to stain the underneath of the royal robe of Caesar himself. This hunger for the most exotic of dyes for royalty has only grown bigger in today’s fierce fashion marketplace.
On the topic of color, in a recent class covering symbolic communication we were discussing about the evolution of language of a culture. We talked about the feasibility of perceiving a color before the language possessed the word(s) to describe it. This was likened to that of the “Which came first, the Chicken or egg” analogy. The answer is proven by the evolution of the word Orange. In Mid evil Europa, when staining glass no particular name was given to any color between Yellow or Red. Was it because that no differentiation in color was perceived? The answer to that is clearly “no” because in the process of producing a pure red, yellow is produced first when it was tainted and uneven not forming a Ruby Red those colors yellowed hues were known as “No Range” . Over the eons of language the term for those shades lost the “N” because of the annunciation and tongue of cross cultures eventually formed the new word ” ‘ORange ” later to solidify as “Orange” all the while all peoples saw the color itself.
Needless to say ( as I mentioned participating in class also ) ” I continued reading - waltzing with each rhythmic prose - unrepentantly excited in complete admiration of the Linton’s artistic creative license”! In reading onward it further compelled me to compare my daily lifestyle to that of each of Linton’s depicted items in order to foster a greater appreciation for the direct impact of foreign elements upon my life.
As Linton points out, portions of American heritage stem from encompassing the Greeks, the Egyptians, Mexicans, China and more. Displacing time constraints cultures themselves transcend generations to form local and global habitual behaviors like ripples in water thus defining our way of life today. There’s so much influence of external forces that it can be proven in the reality of America’s trade deficit reflects to us that we as Americans consume from other nations of the world more than we export to the sum of an estimated $1.74 billion per day since September 28, 2007! With an estimated population of the United States around 304,395,474, each citizen’s share of this cultural debt is $31,289.04. This expenditure alone displays our hunger and dependency on foreign cultures every day to the point that our desires run amok on our own expenses which have become hazardous to our own health but yet the need for those culture(s) influences is always there in order for us to completely define ourselves as American.
Linton goes on to discuss the Arab discovery of coffee, sugar from India, and cattle domestication from Asia Minor. These particular drivers of influence in fact impact me now as I write. I am in Starbucks sipping a Venti “Green Tea Frap” with raspberry syrup. These items also make me recall reading ” Pour Your Heart into It : How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time ” by of which I know even the founder Howard Schultz of Starbucks brought us “Frappuccinos” to Seattle then and finally the Globe. All from the simple meager streets of Paris in he early 80s in his business travels!!! And as for the taste of raspberries; my raging imagination projects me to 1500 A.D. at the Ohio valley fields where my foraging Cherokee grandmothers picked the very same berries for multi-use including nutritional, hair cleaning and artistically staining fresh garb hides! My spirit can only imagine!
As for our non-named mystery protagonist character ( who I will say for argument sake of this paper is me ) to preserve our precious American heritage, I am left with asking myself how do I understand how to differentiate or even individualize American heritage without disclaiming foreign external influencing factors. In deep self patriotic introspection, I am left with not much naked choice but in positioning my core values to deduce that I cannot define the very concept I sought in my quest to achieve but to humbly conclude that for the same reasons why historians call Democracy “The Great Experiment”. It is my belief that so very many external cultural influences have formed the environmental DNA fabric of every aspect of American’s way of life one way or another thus leaving the living American culture by itself practically zero of it’s own character definition! Like atoms to comprise our great “Melting pot” country so much so that I believe Americanism heritage is an idea of freedom and spirit of evolved united progress in human history. This will stand ( for now at least ) as my own ethnopological report’s findings.
In my professional past as an Artist and Psycho-GeoDemographic eMarketing Specialist, I have always been open and receptive to many diverse backgrounds that influence my work. I must say in conclusion I have found that my sensitive approach to cultural awareness within Artistry and Marketing have both exponentially gained already from my newly found added anthropologic perspective.
(note) references to sources of external books mentioned can be found here
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