What are some flatterring and unflatterring cultural norms we Americans have?

Question

I dunno what class this is for, but I'm trying to help my sister out. This is what her assignment says and well...it's sort of hard to think of cultural norms when you live it day to day.

"Your task in the introduction is to illuminate for our unsuspecting archaeologist the cultural norms we live by. Perceptions about our society differ - some flattering, some not-so-flattering- so a glimpse of our society and the myriad ideas it values is in order."

Answer 1

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I'll just list what comes to my mind. I'll try to avoid value judgments.

one of the things that we do that really stands out to some is how direct, friendly, chatty, informal and personal we can be to complete strangers. Americans definately smile a lot. smiling is essential for interaction. it's not that americans are happier it's that the social norm is to ACT that way when you want to be friendly. if you're in a bad mood you're more likely to 'wear it' than americans do. Americans are also a bit loud and tend to talk a lot in general. of course, this is relative, there are 'louder' cultures as well.

Also, one thing I notice as this is a definite clash with my iranian heritigage. Fighting for the bill. iranians always fight for the bill. with my completely american friends, if i fight for the bill, I get it 100% of the time without any resistance. this is unheard of in middle-eastern and asian cultures. it's also unheard of in the american south, where gentlemen still fight for the bill (I live in california however). Phsyical contact: the way I grew up, handshakes were considered overly formal, you hug people and kiss them on the cheek. in american you shake hands. in my chinese girlfriends family you usually make no physical contact whatsoever, and if you do, you do so awkwardly.

Also, family and friends. I freely acknowledge that my family is completely nuts, yet america focuses so much on individual achievement that close relations among family members are almost seen as being 'tied down' or not being strong enough to do everything on ones own. I've had many people tell me that in america people 'live to work, not work to live' (ok, four people told me, and they were all italian), and yeah I get the sense that hard work and long hours are well valued in our culture (but not as much as say Japan). Also, we tend to tip for a lot more things than other cultures do. We drink tap water at restaurants instead of ordering bottled water. We take home food from restaurants and often don't finish everything there (which is insulting in other cultures).

We tend to be lax about male-female roles and norms, and 'chivalry' is somewhat dead in this country or is viewed as sexist. we're a very casual country in a lot of ways, especially in how we dress, we dress much more casually than some other countries. Growing up iranian-american, I took it for granted that if you invite someone to your home you dress immaculately and make sure the house is spotless and have food ready for them regardless of whether it's one friend or twenty. but in america people just kinda stop by with no fanfare. there's not as much sense of 'this is my guest' and so on.

We tend to place a great deal of emphasis on cars. we love big things for some reason. especially obscenely big cars that look like UFO's (I call them penile extensions). our women wear a lot of make-up (this ones definately true, and I personally don't like it!). we tend to eat a lot of fast food and we don't eat together as a family often. indeed 'eating' isn't as big of a deal here and is usually rushed through and done in private. We keep pets indoors, this isn't kosher in some other cultres as it makes the house kinda dirty. we also walk with our shoes indoors, which makes the house dirtier.

anyway, that's my randomn little list. some of those things i like and some i don't. about a 50 50 split.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

lol This is great! I'm American but the funny thing is I see a lot of the things we as Americans do that I don't like (like the touching thing) and the shoes in the house, and I completely agree about the chivalry thing and it's horrible. I love guys who are chivalrous...it's sad that it's gone.

Answer 2

Thongs and the girls who wear them.

They can be both flattering and unflattering.

Answer 3

AMEN TO THAT, BROTHER!!
i love dem sexy thongs. i sit in the back of the class, so like whenever one of the chicks sits down, instant up!

Answer 4

Flattering- Americans are for the most part stil hard working, we put in the most hours in a work week and feel that you need to work before you play and you must work to earn. Most Americans try to practice equal right (now) and men and women no matter what race are supposed to be afforded equal opportunities thanks to the Civil Rights Movement. Unflattering-Americans can be money hungry and think that success is only measured by financial gain not happiness or health so much.

Answer 5

Some flattering norms are; most people are willing to help their friends and family if they can. Or as illustrated on this web site we sometimes like to help strangers if we can. During a crisis many Americans show solidarity with one another ex. 9/11. We pay taxes for socialism; public schools, streets(highways interstates), public transportation, and parks. America is among the worlds leading environmental conservation/preservation movement.
Negative norms we try to claim we are individuals who succeed on our own which means we don't give credit where its due. We are competitive which means people have to lose, and we are encouraged not to cooperate with each other or help each other out because we're trying to win a rat race. We are leading the world in destroying the environment and exhausting our natural resources. We are not as solid after a natural disaster as we are if we have an enemy to point the finger at. Ex. Hurricane Katrina. We don't use public transportation enough.