Melting pot

Uncommon card · No. 121988

A melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, with the different elements "melting together" with a common culture or monoculture; an alternative being a homogeneous society becoming more heterogeneous through the influx of foreign elements with different cultural backgrounds. It can also create a harmonious hybridized society known as cultural amalgamation. In the United States, the term is often used to describe the cultural integration of immigrants to the country. A related concept has been defined as "cultural additivity". The melting-together metaphor was in use by the 1780s. The exact term "melting pot" came into general usage in the United States after it was used as a metaphor describing a fusion or mixture of nationalities, cultures and ethnicities in Israel Zangwill's 1908 play of the same name. The desirability of assimilation and the melting pot model has been rejected by proponents of multiculturalism (cultural mosaic), who have suggested...

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