Communication Between Cultures

arrivals with Germans, Irish, and other ethnicities that were fleeing the repressive

governance of monarchs, religious authorities, or economic privation. The result was

a social fabric flexible enough to enfold Catholics, Congregationalists, Methodists,

Lutherans, Presbyterians,^15 and a host of others and to unite North, South, East,

and West within a national framework.

These early Americans wanted to separate alienable rights (those that could be

voluntarily surrendered to the government) from unalienable rights (those that

could not be surrendered or taken away, even by a government of the people).^16

The fundamental American proposition became“life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap-

piness”for each individual, and those rights had to be secured against the potentially

abusive power of government. A common desire to escape religious authoritarianism

and monarchial rule also gave rise to what is referred to as the doctrine of separation

of church and state, which prohibits the government from supporting any single form

of religion and from preventing anyone from practicing his or her chosen religion.^17

This doctrine is frequently at the forefront of U.S. political activity when questions of

abortion rights, school prayer, and religious displays on government property are pub-

licly and passionately debated.

As noted previously, the people who established the initial settlements and popu-

lated the subsequent colonies integrated selected English values with a new set of

beliefs. Chief among these new ideals were individuality, a lack of formality, and effi-

cient use of time. Centuries later, these values endure. Individualism was perhaps

among the initial values to emerge in the new country. As McElroy notes,“The self-

selecting emigrants who left Europe for America manifested individualism by their

emigration. When they got on the ships, they were already individualists.”^18 This

sense of individualism also strongly influenced the nation’s early political formation.

The founders of the United States sought to establish a nation based on“political

freedom, personal liberty, rule of law, social mobility, and egalitarianism.”^19 A rich,

spacious land with abundant natural resources encouraged implementation of these

ideals, and personal liberty remains a hallmark of contemporary American society.

TABLE 5.1 Country Statistics: United States of America^11

LOCATION NORTH AMERICA

Size Size: 9 ; 826 ;675 km^2 ; third-largest country

Population >318.89 million (July 2014 est.); fourth-largest population

Ethnic groups White 79.96%, Black 12.85%, Asian 4.43%, Amerindian and

Alaska native 0.97%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander

0.18%, two or more races 1.61%

Note: About 16.6% of the total population is Hispanic of any race

or ethnic group (2013 est.).^12

Government Constitution-based federal republic

Language English 79.2%, Spanish 12.9%, other Indo-European 3.7%, Asian

and Pacific Island 3.2%, other 0.9% (2011 census data)^13

Note: The United States has no official national language, but

English has acquired official status in twenty-eight of the fifty states;

Hawaiian is an official language in Hawaii.

Religions Protestant/other Christian 51.9%, Roman Catholic 23.3%, Mormon

2.1%, Jewish 1.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other non-Christian 2.6%,

no religious identity 15.6%, no response 2.2% (2012 survey)^14

Cultural History: Precursor to the Present and Future 165

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