Assimilation vs. Acculturation

Main Difference

The beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, are known as culture and that are transmitted from one generation to another as they are recognized as the essential values one should know while living in that particular society. As soon the child is born, he/she starts knowing about the culture from the people living in that society. Assimilation and acculturation are the two widely used words in the field of sociology, they both are regarding the deviation is person or person’s culture, norms, languages and other. Cultural modification of an individual, group, or people as a result of prolonged contact with the people of other culture is known as Acculturation. This deviation or change in culture is the merger of two of the cultures. On the other hand, Assimilation is the process when the minority adopts the majority’s culture. When a person from minority group is indistinguishable from the majority, then it is called the full assimilation as this term is used for the cultural adaptation of minorities. In acculturation people retain with their original culture and gets adapted to the some of the features of the new culture, whereas in assimilation minority loses the original features of their culture and adapts the new culture, even to that extent that it gets indistinguishable from the majority living in the society.

Assimilation vs. Acculturation — Is There a Difference?
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Difference Between Assimilation and Acculturation

Assimilation vs. Acculturation

Assimilation is the process when the minority adopts the majority’s culture, whereas cultural modification of an individual, group, or people as a result of prolonged contact with the people of other culture is known as acculturation.

Assimilation vs. Acculturation

In acculturation people retain with their original culture and gets adapted to the some of the features of the new culture, whereas in assimilation minority loses the original features of their culture and adapts the new culture, even to that extent that it gets indistinguishable from the majority living in the society.

Assimilationnoun

The act of assimilating or the state of being assimilated.

Acculturationnoun

A process by which the culture of an isolated society changes on contact with a different one.

Assimilationnoun

The metabolic conversion of nutrients into tissue.

Acculturationnoun

A process by which a person acquires the culture of the society that they inhabit, starting at birth.

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Assimilationnoun

(by extension) The absorption of new ideas into an existing cognitive structure.

Acculturationnoun

the adoption of the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture;

the socialization of children to the norms of their culture

Assimilationnoun

(phonology) A sound change process by which the phonetics of a speech segment becomes more like that of another segment in a word (or at a word boundary), so that a change of phoneme occurs.

Acculturationnoun

all the knowledge and values shared by a society

Assimilationnoun

The adoption, by a minority group, of the customs and attitudes of the dominant culture.

Acculturationnoun

the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive structure

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Assimilationnoun

the state of being assimilated; people of different backgrounds come to see themselves as part of a larger national family

Assimilationnoun

the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

Assimilationnoun

the process of absorbing nutrients into the body after digestion

Assimilationnoun

a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound

Assimilationnoun

the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive structure

Assimilationnoun

in the theories of Jean Piaget: the application of a general schema to a particular instance

Comparison Chart

AssimilationAcculturation
Assimilation is the process when the minority adopts the majority’s culture.Cultural modification of an individual, group, or people as a result of prolonged contact with the people of other culture is known as acculturation.
Adaptation
In assimilation minority loses the original features of their culture and adapts the new culture, even to that extent that it gets indistinguishable from the majority living in the society.In acculturation people retain with their original culture and gets adapted to the some of the features of the new culture.

What is Assimilation?

It is the terms used for deviation is culture of minority with respect to the majority. In assimilation minority loses the original features of their culture and adapts the new culture, even to that extent that it gets indistinguishable from the majority living in the society. Assimilation can either be a slow change or a gradual process, and the minority loses the main cultural features like language, food and customs. The process of assimilation is known as the one way process as it is said that minority adopts majority’s culture and when it gets to its fullest in adaptation and gets indistinguishable from the majority person or persons it is known as full assimilation. But actually the assimilation is a two-way process, it also has influence on the majority’s culture but that remains unnoticeable as it might be that minor so that it could be avoided. In a common mindset, the process of assimilation takes place in the forced coexistence or as the result of conquests. The best example of assimilation is the migrants adopting the majority’s culture deliberately or undeliberately to get mix with them and to remain indistinguishable from the natives.

What is Acculturation?

Cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture is called acculturation. It usually happens when individual in infancy gets exposure to more than one culture or an individual has prolonged contact with the people of other culture while living in their society. For instance, a refugee or immigrant living in the society can acquire, adapt or borrow traits from another culture or the people living in that particular society can even be get cultural influence by the immigrants. In acculturation one gets blend of both the cultures he witness while living in the society. The other common example of acculturation is of the individual who went in any other country for educational or work purpose for a short time of 1-2 years , he/she is seen with a clear change in dressing, way of thinking and other by the people of his own society.