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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,068,476 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton
Yes, regional differences certainly do exist. I'd honestly say, as someone who's grown up in the northern U.S. (mainly New England), although Canadian culture always seems a bit "off" to me, and living in Britain was certainly different, both are a lot less alien to me than Southern culture.
No one is saying they don't exist at all.
I agree that yes, 50 years ago you could probably go to the South and it would seem really foreign. But the places like that these days are far and few between.
I agree that yes, 50 years ago you could probably go to the South and it would seem really foreign. But the places like that these days are far and few between.
I have been thinking of this thread for a while Trimac and I think you raise a very good point. There does seem a lot of "sameness" from one end of the country to another. And many of the differences that I could think of had to do with climate or the rural-urban divide. In other words the few differences are not very suprising.
But on the other hand, as an American I could not name many regional differences in your country either. I mean how different is Perth from say Melbourne or Sydney really? You probably know the many subtle differences of Australia that we Americans do not.
Just as we Americans see subtle differences from one part of our country to the next. I travel alot to Pennsylvania and I noticed differences from my New York State right next door but sometimes I am not even sure exactly what they are! Pennsylvania seems very familiar but also different.
"The differences between a farmer from rural Cornwall and the Lake District will be more noticeable: indeed it might be hard for each other to understand each other at first. We're talking over 1000 years of differences compared to the 200, and in many cases 100 or 50 years, in the US."
That 1000 years of difference wouldn't be any more noticeable to the average American, than the difference between a Miamian and a Bostonian would be to a foreigner in the US. A century of migration from Mexico to South Texas and the difference between Chicano culture and Southern American/Scottish culture would be more noticeable than the 1,000 or so years of difference between The Lake District and Cornwall.
It's kind of hard to make the claim that so-and-so's culture is separated by a millennium of cultural differences, or just a century, or half a century, especially in our fast globalizing society. It's also hard to reckon whether if you want to claim, when one group migrates from one area to another, does it carry its 100-year old traditions with it? It's 400 year old ones? It's 2000 year old ones?
For instance, in New York City, many rare languages spoken by small immigrant communities are still found that are lost or nearly lost in their "homelands". If these language communities are totally extinct in their "homeland" but survive in Brooklyn, does it mean now that the Big Apple is heir to the entire history of that community?
The Assyrian Church of the East is considered one of the oldest that separated very early on from the other churches and denominations and is the oldest one to have separated from the other branches of Christianity, during the first council of Ephesus. So, it essentially has been it's own church for over a millennium and a half. Later on, in the recent years of the 20th century, it was nearly destroyed, fragmented and its surviving members were driven from their homelands in the now Muslim area of the Middle East, where they have lived for the first and second millennium, and sought refuge in the US. The Assyrian Church of the East is now headquartered in Chicago and so is diasporic. Now, doesn't that count for something that the United States is heir to one of the earliest branches of Christianity, as well as some of the newest denominations to arise?
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,068,476 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by LINative
I have been thinking of this thread for a while Trimac and I think you raise a very good point. There does seem a lot of "sameness" from one end of the country to another. And many of the differences that I could think of had to do with climate or the rural-urban divide. In other words the few differences are not very suprising.
But on the other hand, as an American I could not name many regional differences in your country either. I mean how different is Perth from say Melbourne or Sydney really? You probably know the many subtle differences of Australia that we Americans do not.
Just as we Americans see subtle differences from one part of our country to the next. I travel alot to Pennsylvania and I noticed differences from my New York State right next door but sometimes I am not even sure exactly what they are! Pennsylvania seems very familiar but also different.
That's why I find the monotony here so maddening: especially in the sparsely populated, remote Western half of the country. You can drive for hours and the landscape doesn't change.
I find the US more interesting because it's more diverse, 50 states is cool instead of just 6, and there are some regional cultures. I just think the differences are sadly, getting less and less.
But I will return to the US again one day to properly explore that great land, not just skirting the interestates, focusing on the cities and tourist spots, as I did with the Trek.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,068,476 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stumbler.
It's kind of hard to make the claim that so-and-so's culture is separated by a millennium of cultural differences, or just a century, or half a century, especially in our fast globalizing society. It's also hard to reckon whether if you want to claim, when one group migrates from one area to another, does it carry its 100-year old traditions with it? It's 400 year old ones? It's 2000 year old ones?
For instance, in New York City, many rare languages spoken by small immigrant communities are still found that are lost or nearly lost in their "homelands". If these language communities are totally extinct in their "homeland" but survive in Brooklyn, does it mean now that the Big Apple is heir to the entire history of that community?
The Assyrian Church of the East is considered one of the oldest that separated very early on from the other churches and denominations and is the oldest one to have separated from the other branches of Christianity, during the first council of Ephesus. So, it essentially has been it's own church for over a millennium and a half. Later on, in the recent years of the 20th century, it was nearly destroyed, fragmented and its surviving members were driven from their homelands in the now Muslim area of the Middle East, where they have lived for the first and second millennium, and sought refuge in the US. The Assyrian Church of the East is now headquartered in Chicago and so is diasporic. Now, doesn't that count for something that the United States is heir to one of the earliest branches of Christianity, as well as some of the newest denominations to arise?
That's an interesting point of view, certainly with some validity.
I agree that yes, 50 years ago you could probably go to the South and it would seem really foreign. But the places like that these days are far and few between.
Well, that's the world today.
You can say the same thing about everywhere. The world's been corporatized and kind of turned into one big McDonalds/Wal-Mart.
That's not just America. The differences are blurring everywhere.
I really don't think they'd be all that different. I bet that all three of them would have their political outlooks largely determined by national - not local - forces. If they belong to political parties, I bet those parties would be either Republican or Democrat, regardless of the state they come from. I bet that when they think about financial planning for the future, they think about national programs like 401(k)s or Social Security/Medicare, or Roth IRAs, or so on. I bet they'd all speak American English. I bet they'd mostly watch TV from the same slate of national TV channels. And so on...
Well of course there are commonalities that come from living in the same country. People in London and Wales have things in common also, but have regional cultures separate from each other. Same thing.
But having lived in 3 of those states, and visited the 4th a couple times, I can tell you that people are very different in all of those places. As far as social interaction, cultural norms/preferences, etc. Even something like driving habits and courtesy, which reflect on social values, are tellingly different in every one of those states.
It's hard to say. Going into a Subway restaurant in Columbus, Ohio feels the same as going into one in Portland, Oregon. But the way people act, and the culture, I find is quite different once you get used to it in many ways, some more subtle. Sure people all over the US (and world, unfortunately) watch Jersey Shore, but no matter how globalized things become, I think there will always be those differences that remind you you're far away from home.
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