AP Syllabus focus:
‘Acculturation occurs when a group adopts aspects of another culture while maintaining parts of its original culture.’
Acculturation reshapes cultural practices by allowing groups to adopt selected traits from another culture while retaining meaningful elements of their own traditions, identities, and social structures.
Understanding Acculturation
Acculturation is central to how cultures interact, change, and influence one another. It occurs when individuals or groups come into sustained contact with a different culture and adopt certain traits while continuing to practice key aspects of their original cultural identity. This process varies widely across places, depending on power relations, migration patterns, social environments, and the willingness of groups to engage in cultural exchange.
Defining Acculturation
Acculturation refers to a process of cultural change that arises from prolonged contact between cultural groups.
Acculturation: A cultural change process in which a group adopts some traits of another culture while retaining distinctive elements of its original culture.
Acculturation differs from assimilation, where cultural traits are absorbed almost entirely, and from multicultural coexistence, where groups maintain identities without significant adoption of others’ traits. Acculturation represents a balanced middle position between cultural maintenance and cultural adoption.
After a cultural group adopts new traits, these can influence language use, food preferences, social norms, and public celebrations. The process operates at multiple scales, from individual households to entire communities.
Processes That Drive Acculturation
Acculturation emerges through various interactions that expose groups to new cultural traits. These processes include:
Migration, which brings groups into new cultural environments.
Trade and economic exchange, introducing people to different products, practices, and customs.
Education systems, where dominant or widely used languages and norms are taught.
Media and technology, which transmit cultural symbols across national boundaries.
Social mixing in urban areas, where diverse communities live and work in close proximity.
These interactions can occur peacefully and gradually or develop under pressures such as economic necessity or political constraints.
Selective Cultural Adoption
A core feature of acculturation is selective adoption. Groups rarely adopt all elements of another culture; instead, they choose traits based on practicality, compatibility with existing values, or social advantages. Examples may include changes in:
Dress and appearance, such as blending traditional clothing with widely used global styles.
Cuisine, where local dishes incorporate new ingredients or techniques.
Language, with bilingualism emerging through adoption of a second language for work or education.
Family practices, integrating new social norms while maintaining cultural rituals.
Selective adoption allows communities to remain anchored in cultural heritage while engaging in new forms of cultural participation.
Social and Spatial Patterns of Acculturation
Acculturation shapes both social behavior and spatial organization in ways visible across cultural landscapes.
This bilingual street sign in Little India, Singapore, demonstrates how acculturation shapes the linguistic landscape. The presence of both Tamil and English reflects the blending of heritage and national languages in public space. Such signage illustrates how cultural groups express identity through shared urban environments. Source.
Socially, acculturated individuals may blend linguistic practices, combine traditional and contemporary rituals, or negotiate hybrid identities. Spatially, acculturation appears in:
Ethnic neighborhoods where shops, schools, and cultural institutions integrate both heritage and adopted traits.
Bilingual or multilingual signage, reflecting linguistic adaptation while preserving cultural markers.
Places of worship that maintain traditional symbols but incorporate new architectural influences.
Public spaces, where festivals and celebrations combine traits from both cultural origins.
These spatial expressions demonstrate that acculturation is not only a social process but also a landscape-shaping one.
Acculturation and Power Dynamics
Power relationships significantly influence how acculturation occurs. Groups experiencing marginalization may feel pressure to adopt dominant cultural traits for economic or social mobility. Conversely, groups with strong cultural autonomy may adopt only a narrow range of traits while maintaining substantial linguistic, religious, or social practices.
Power also affects which cultural traits diffuse most widely. Dominant languages, technologies, or commercial brands tend to spread more easily, leading minority groups to adapt strategically while protecting core cultural elements.
Intergenerational Patterns of Acculturation
Acculturation often unfolds differently across generations. Younger generations tend to adopt new cultural traits more quickly due to their exposure to schooling, digital media, and peer networks. Older generations may maintain stronger adherence to traditional practices.
Common intergenerational patterns include:
Second-language adoption by children for education and employment.
Hybrid cultural identities emerging from cross-generational negotiation.
Shift in food practices, where traditional cuisine remains at home while younger generations adopt global dining habits.
These patterns reveal how cultural change is uneven and dynamic within communities.
Cultural Identity Within Acculturation
Acculturation does not imply weakening cultural identity. Many groups maintain strong connections to heritage through rituals, language retention, storytelling, or involvement in cultural institutions. Even when adopting new traits, cultural groups can reaffirm identity through:
Revitalization of traditions, such as dance, music, or ceremonies.
Transmission of cultural knowledge through families, schools, or community groups.
Symbolic markers such as flags, clothing, and religious icons.
These strategies allow communities to balance new cultural influences with the preservation of meaningful cultural ties.
Acculturation and Cultural Landscapes
Acculturation contributes to landscape diversity by allowing multiple cultural influences to coexist within visible spaces. Cultural landscapes may include architectural blends, mixed-language environments, or hybrid commercial districts. These features illustrate how cultural diffusion reshapes environments while still reflecting distinct cultural origins.
Public festivals, markets, and community events often display acculturation through blended foods, music, clothing, and symbols in shared spaces.
This photograph of an ethnic festival in Rutland, Vermont, shows multiple cultural groups sharing a public space through music, food, and symbolic displays. Such events highlight how acculturation is expressed socially and spatially in community life. The additional detail of the specific location is beyond AP requirements but reinforces how acculturation shapes everyday environments. Source.
FAQ
Acculturation involves mutual or selective cultural exchange that occurs through sustained contact, often benefiting both groups. It generally reflects everyday adaptation rather than exploitation.
Cultural appropriation, however, involves taking cultural elements without permission or respect, usually by a dominant group. Geography examines these differences by analysing power relations and spatial patterns.
Rates of acculturation vary depending on:
Access to education and employment
Social integration opportunities
Host society attitudes
Strength of cultural institutions within the migrant community
Groups with strong support networks may adopt new traits more gradually because they have greater capacity to maintain their heritage culture.
Yes. Indirect acculturation can occur through media, digital interaction, or global consumer culture.
People may adopt traits such as food preferences, fashion, or language expressions from another culture without physically encountering that culture’s members.
Governments can shape acculturation through:
Language policies
Educational curricula
Immigration laws
Funding for cultural or religious institutions
Supportive policies may encourage balanced cultural exchange, while restrictive measures can pressure groups toward more rapid adoption of dominant cultural traits.
Communities may struggle to maintain heritage practices while adapting to new cultural environments. These challenges can include:
Intergenerational disagreements about cultural change
Loss of traditional language
Pressure to conform for economic mobility
Limited opportunities to practice heritage customs in public space
Maintaining cultural identity often requires strong family, institutional, or community support systems.
Practice Questions
Question 1 (1–3 marks)
Explain one way acculturation can influence the cultural landscape of a neighbourhood.
Mark scheme:
1 mark for identifying a visible landscape feature that may change (e.g., signage, food businesses, places of worship, architectural styles).
1 mark for describing how acculturation leads to the adoption of a cultural trait from another group.
1 mark for linking this change to a specific alteration in the neighbourhood’s cultural landscape.
Question 2 (4–6 marks)
Discuss how acculturation can produce both cultural continuity and cultural change within a migrant community. Refer to social or spatial patterns in your answer.
Mark scheme:
1 mark for identifying aspects of cultural continuity (e.g., heritage language use, traditional celebrations, religious practices).
1 mark for identifying aspects of cultural change (e.g., adoption of new foods, languages, clothing, or social norms).
1–2 marks for explaining how acculturation involves selective adoption of traits while maintaining meaningful traditions.
1–2 marks for linking these processes to spatial or social patterns, such as hybrid neighbourhoods, bilingual signage, or mixed cultural institutions.
1 mark for accurate terminology and a coherent, well-structured response.
