American Cultural Patterns Chapter Summary

I had a wonderful time doing my book report on “American Cultural Patterns: A cross-cultural Perspective”. The book is about observing American culture from an outsider's perspective, and comparing it to other cultures from across the globe. In this book, American culture refers to pattern and behavior of the mainstream. In this book, American culture mainly refers to white males for they make up the majority of America, however, it is not exclusive to them. This book is not about Americans changing the way of think when interactions with foreigners, but instead to learn and see their own patterns. The author does a good job on comparing how American cultural patterns compare with other societies, however, it is not about who culture is the …show more content…
The book states that Americans don't really like to get involved and try to avoid personal commitments to others. The book states that Americans live life with minimum social obligations, while others cultures really don't try to avoid it. One of the differences between American and other culture obligations is how they handle invitation. In America, it is not mandatory that a guest brings flowers or candy, however, in other cultures, it is a must that the guest brings something to offer. In America, gifts are customarily given on birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. Other than those days, American tries to limit the gifts that they give to try to avoid a meaning that might be constructed as a bribe or a request of reciprocity. The funny thing is, the reason why I don't like getting help or gift from others, is because I have a feeling like when someone gives you a gift or help, they would use that as leverage to get your help in the future. It pretty much aligns with the others description. However, I feel like I disagree with the other when he says that fear of reciprocity is the reason why Americans lack the sense of obligation to given gifts. I feel like fear of reciprocity is a human nature, so I believe that lack of given gifts is a thing that was learned as a custom rather than fear of