A review on the early The American Journal of Sociology

Abstract

This mixed method research accomplished a literature review about acculturation on the earlier The American Journal of Sociology. The word acculturation scarcely appeared. However, topics related to acculturation were usual, i.e., race, immigration, colonial, intercultural influence, and still gender. Assimilation, multicultural and fusion works appeared, and the pervasive was the multicultural model. The research found out that the multicultural model was grounded in the 19th century. Multiculturalism had its roots on the liberal WASP culture. As Herbert Spencer, the journal often praised minimal intercultural contact in order to achieve maintenance and cultural diversity. The pervasive attitude wanted cultural adaptation with cultural maintenance, and, at the same time, it vindicated the WASP cultural superiority. Integration of differentiated categories of thought, races, genders, and migrants were organized mainly by progress, competition, and social dominance narratives, and it impaired the culture of the separated but equal.