ANGLOKONFORMIZM JAKO NAJSTARSZA TEORIA ASYMILACJI
ANGLO-CONFORMITY AS THE OLDEST THEORY OF ASSIMILATION

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the development of the ideology of anglo-conformity in the colonial period of the United States of America. It should be emphasized that before the united and multicultural American nation, as we know it, came into being, the domineering position long had been held by strictly British views and values, especially in the colonial period. The Eastern coast of the United States became a major settlement centre for the British, which consequently led to the emergence of this new ideology of anglo-conformity being a benchmark against which (upper) social standing was measured. In the colonial period, assimilation was simply regarded as the process of incorporation of small ethnic groups by larger ones. The main feature of anglo-conformity is the rejection of immigrants’ own culture as well as language and replacing it with Anglo-Saxon culture. The process of Americanization through anglo-conformity was conducted by national institutions which assimilated newcomers to the North American land. Immigrants were forced to acquire new norms and values of the domineering group. Socio-cultural group known as WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) was the core of anglo-conformity. Members of WASP were of teutonic race identified with Anglo-Saxon ethnic groups rooted in Anglo-Saxon culture and belonging to Protestant church.

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