Ethnography of Latino Children in American Culture
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An ethnography looks at the origin, distribution, and characteristics of a particular race. This paper outlines the factors which need to be taken into consideration when preparing an ethnography of Latino children in American culture. Classical ethnographies have proved very poor vehicles for apprehending how reason, feeling, and will come together in people's daily lives (Rosaldo, 1989, p. 41). Classically, cultures stood as sacred images, having their own integrity and coherence that enabled them to be studied on their own terms from within, from the native point of view (p. 43). Over the years, cultural compartments have crumbled. The so-called natives do not inhabit a world fully separated from those who study it (Rosaldo, p. 45), but rather mingle with it. Before developing an ethnography for Latino children in American culture, the first step would be to define "American Culture", and American culture per se is difficult to define, since the American population is made up of people of many races, and even the subset of Latino Americans includes people from various Latino groups, each of which brings with it its own cultural identity. Mainstream American culture is basically that of a well-developed, industrialized Western society, but it is modified because of the diversity brought to it by the many immigrant groups living in the U.S. Many things which are taken for granted by most Americans, such as access to education and health care, were not available to La
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d less time in an environment conducible to American culturalization.
Poverty can restrict access to mainstream resources for some Latino children. The nature of socialization and culturally variable parenting is strongly influenced by socioeconomic conditions, and cultural forces interact with parental pressures, behaviors, and developmental processes that program the daily lives of children in different cultural communities (Delgado-Gaitan, p. 56). Cultural differences such as religion, moral values, recreation, and education are also reflected in childrearing practices, whereas the age, gender, and social behavior of children have influenced the process of socialization (Delgado-Gaitan, p. 56). All these factors must be taken into account in developing an ethnology of a particular group.
When all of the above factors are taken into account, it is still difficult to define "American Culture" as a specific entity, and also even to define a "Latino child". Without these it is impossible to develop an ethnology. Ethnologies were first developed for primitive cultures. Early ethnographies portrayed a "culture" sufficiently frozen to be an object of "scientific" knowledge (Rosaldo, 1989, p. 31). Though ethnography was once
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Latino American, Mainstream American, , American Culture, Mexican Americans, Guatemalan Americans, american culture, Culture American, Latino Americans, rosaldo 1989, Eds Cross-cultural, children american, latino children, children american culture, latino american, latino children american, Mexican American, ethnography latino, ethnography latino children, define american, daily lives, children spend, american families, terms native view, studied own terms,
Approximate Word count = 1607
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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