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Rodeos probably emerged from friendly competitions of work skills among cowboys.
Although amateur and even junior competitions (through 4-H) highlight fairs throughout the West, rodeos constitute a professional sport, controlled by the Rodeo Cowboys Association. Regular events pit individual riders, rather than teams, against ranch animals—riding bareback bulls, steer-wrestling (from horseback), calf-roping (from horseback) and bronco-riding. Between these dangerous events, clowns and displays of roping skill create a lively rhythm. In addition to their individualism, rodeos are also highly masculine; although women competed as early as the 1920s, their participation in modern rodeos is generally confined to barrelracing (a precision-speed competition).
Rodeos, as a symbol of the West and a sport, can be found in small towns, Angola State Prison (Louisiana) and Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden. They figure in westerns to indicate both festive elements and the dangers of cowboy life.
Industry:Culture
Romanian immigration to the US began in the 1880s. Following independence from the Ottoman empire, the government of King Carol I ruled with a heavy hand, and worsening economic conditions meant that work was scarce. Most of the immigrants to America were landless young males, though some families went as well. Many Romanian Jews also fled to escape persecution, settling into the larger Jewish community in New York City, NY; other Romanians moved west to centers like Chicago, IL and Detroit, MI, in search of work. Romanian refugees also came to America during the Cold War, and others fled following the collapse of the Ceaucescu regime in 1991. The most famous Romanian American is probably the Olympian gymnast Nadia Comeneci, who emigrated in the early 1990s.
Industry:Culture
Roughly 1 million gypsies live in the US. Although present since colonial days, immigration is difficult to follow because many arrived under other national quotas; gypsies only became an “officially” recognized minority in the 1960s. Many concentrate in urban centers of the Northeast, Midwest and West, but have expanded into urban areas in search of interstitial economic positions in commerce, repairs and entertainment.
Gypsies generally maintain strong social and cultural boundaries with outsiders, making them an object of mystery and suspicion, depicted in media as foreign rather than ethnic.
Industry:Culture
Rum, beer, whiskey and wine have flowed through American history from colonial trade and encounters with Native Americans to contemporary issues as diverse as health, criminality and connoisseurship. Cocktail parties, champagne dinners, smoky bars and the combination of sports, television and beer are all familiar contemporary American images in Hollywood or everyday conversation. Uses, meanings and marketing of these various forms of alcohol, moreover, have been strongly associated with the social construction of gender (especially masculinity), class, race, ethnicity morality and even regional identity or urbanity. Yet, despite the complexities of “The Alcoholic Republic,” the US has also witnessed strong sentiments for the control of alcohol consumption, based on religious and moral arguments. These sentiments have created bans at the local level and also led to the Constitution’s 18th Amendment (1919)—Prohibition—which made the ban national (and also reified anti-German sentiment in the aftermath of the First World War). Controls on drinking for those under twenty-one, taxes on alcohol and limits on alcohol sales still remain features of national interests in American spirits.
The end of Prohibition with the 11th Amendment (1933) proved a watershed in American attitudes towards alcohol, if only in the collapse of any consensus or overall control. In fact, taxes on newly legalized spirits provided needed revenues in the Depression, while new jobs and production rapidly re-established liquor as part of American life, eclipsing ongoing temperance campaigns. Nonetheless, roughly 30 percent of Americans choose not to drink.
Who drinks what, where and to what extent has also varied throughout American history. Rum gained early prominence in the triangle trade, linking the colonies with the Caribbean and African slavery. Whiskeys of various sorts accompanied westward expansion, while Bourbon (from Kentucky) and the mint julep became emblematic of the South. Imported wines, liquors and liqueurs have been marketed as badges of sophistication, while most beers became “workingman’s drinks” via local production and taverns.
While many local beer producers have disappeared, names of larger conglomerates— Anheuser-Busch, Coors, Pabst, Schlitz—memorialize the impact of Central European producers (even if American beer often seems a pale derivative of more robust, flavorful European varieties). Despite new premium brands and micro-breweries, beer faded as the country’s most popular drink in the twentieth century in favor of distilled spirits.
Although the Founding Fathers brought in casks of Madeira and American grape stocks, which saved European production after phylloxera devastated vineyards in Europe, wine generally has been a secondary product in the US, associated with immigrants and Mediterranean climates like California. Other states, apart from the West Coast centers, now produce quality wines based on American grapes (and more idiosyncratic varietals based on local produce like oranges). American wine production and consumption have soared in the early twenty-first century, moving from ethnic niches to cosmopolitan middle-class tables, although the US still ranks in the second tier of wine consumption globally.
Historically, Irish and British Americans, Italian Americans and Latino/Caribbean Americans have been identified as heavy consumers of alcohol, although ethnic associations have decreased over time (stereotypes continue, however). Religion, too, plays a factor since many fundamentalist Protestant groups (as well as Mormons) ban alcohol, while Catholics and Jews prove more tolerant. This also extends to ceremonies.
During Prohibition, wine for the Catholic Eucharist was a special category; in Protestant communions, however, one may find grape juice substituted for wine.
Alcohol is viewed as a special danger for vulnerable, innocent youth, leading to legal penalties for providing liquor to them. Nonetheless, the temptations of drinking are part of teenage culture at schools and in social life. Various sweeter, fruitier and lighter combinations—wine coolers, flavored wines, blush wines—even cater to younger drinkers (or appeal to perceptions of a feminine market).
Imagery and marketing complicate any analysis of consumption or establishment of a clear culture of consumption. African American neighborhood organizers, for example, complain of bill-boards and advertisements targeting young blacks with the glamour of cigarettes and specialized niche brands of malt liquor. Liquor stores, especially if owned by immigrant entrepreneurs, have become flashpoints of urban confrontation. Native Americans, too, have faced long and eviscerating struggles with alcoholism and related inherited conditions (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) that mark the continuing impact of alcohol as a weapon settlers used to undermine the tribes. In these cases, and others across class and gender lines, while drinking itself may not be seen as a problem—and, indeed, may be seen as a part of conviviality and sophistication—loss of control is treated as a shameful condition. This affirms a general moral identification of alcohol with evil.
Media, sermons and other discourses may translate this judgment into images of adolescents open to risky sexual behavior, decaying winos (generally shown as male), abusive fathers or quiet, despairing housewives drinking behind closed doors. These negative portraits are the stuff of Hollywood depictions of excessive use from, for example, the Lost Weekend (1945) or Days of Wine and Roses (1962) to Barfly (1987) and Leaving Las Vegas (1995). Nonetheless, Hollywood has shown its own American schizophrenia as these searing portraits meet other images of sophistication or the sociability of bars and celebration. Television, where advertising is limited to beer and wine, has worked with the government to censor messages about alcohol and drugs (especially in teen-directed shows). Yet, as in cigarette propaganda, condemnation is undercut by talking frogs (Budweiser), sparkling images of wine and chit-chat, and offscreen intertexts of stars and parties. Celebrities checking into the Betty Ford clinic to “dry out” compete with images of good times, reinforcing America’s conflicting attitudes.
Alcoholism in the United States is associated not only with health risks, but also with abusive behaviors and accidents, especially when alcohol and automobiles mix. This has spawned home-grown approaches to combating alcohol, like the self-help program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and other grassroots groups, meanwhile, have fought for more severe punishment of drunk drivers. These campaigns have become complicated by both the general acceptance of the presence of alcohol and debates over alcoholism as a disease or disability.
Outsiders in the US may be bewildered by the variety of controls on beverage sales.
Grocery stores in Florida and California sell wine and beer, but in Pennsylvania one must go to separate state-licensed distributors. Other states provide patchworks of “wet” and “dry” counties, where the nearest distributor may be miles away. Many liquor stores, moreover, are closed on Sunday, and some states control alcohol sales in times that might be associated with church-going, late at night or on election days. Licenses for the sale of alcohol in public establishments also vary; restaurants without licenses may allow a BYOB (“bring your own bottle”) accompaniment. In all, these rules embody the uneasy attitudes of morality respectability, health and taste that American society embraces when the cork is pulled.
Industry:Culture
Salsa’s origins are fluid, but scholars say the term started circulating in the 1960s to describe the new Latin musical styles New York City musicians created by fusing a “broad range of musical genres, instrumental combinations, and cultural influences.” Latin Beat magazine says musicians used to call out “salsa!” (hot sauce) during really hot jams. While most consider Cuban son montuno as salsa’s primary inspiration, New York salsa musi-cians also incorporated other elements such as Afro-Cuban percussion instruments, be-bop, Dominican merengue, bata drums from the ritual music of Cuban santeria and stylistic features from Puerto Rican bomba and plena music.
Industry:Culture
Sanctioned—theoretically—by the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights, the militia movement in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has primarily attracted die-hard, right-wing patriots. They support the right to bear arms and have a strong distrust of government; militias are especially strong in the West. Many advocate a white nation, excluding people of color, Jews and homosexuals. The militia movement has manipulated the media successfully in incidents like Ruby Ridge, where federal agents killed the wife of a militia activist. They have also used small media, including video and the Internet to further their mission and recruitment, from bomb-making manuals to political statements.
Industry:Culture
School boards govern the nation’s public and private schools. While each state has its own board of education for public schools, most educational decisions are handled at the local level by appointed or elected boards of education. School boards make policies and decisions concerning educational standards, bond issues, teacher salaries, accreditation issues, equity issues and compliance with federal, state and local regulations. They may also make decisions regarding textbook selection, censorship, expulsion and personnel decisions. The National School Boards Association’s mission statement asserts that “local school boards are the nation’s pre-eminent expression of grass roots democracy and that this form of governance of the public schools is fundamental to the continued success of public education.” In the late twentieth century urban school boards often found themselves caught in conflicts with city governments and with demands of programs and parental aspirations exceeding revenues.
Industry:Culture
SCLC was founded in 1957, emerging out of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which had successfully orchestrated the bus boycott. Led by Martin Luther King, Jr. as president, until his death in 1968, and by Ralph Abernathy, SCLC advocated non-violent resistance to segregation and racial oppression. In 1960 it helped establish a student organization, the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which would challenge the parent organization’s philosophy of non-violence and embrace Black Power. Until the mid-1960s the influence of SCLG was felt in all the cities of the South; but it was unable to have similar success in northern cities like Chicago.
Industry:Culture
Scouting programs are service and recreation organizations that nurture character development, respect, self-esteem and patriotism in young people. Both the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), organized in 1909, and the Girl Scouts of the United States (initially American Girl Guides), organized in 1912, replicated English programs created by Boer War hero Lord Robert Baden-Powell. An amalgamation of Christianity, Kipling’s Just So Stories, military culture and Native American folklore, scouting developed in tandem with other youth and social-reform movements.
Membership figures soared during the first half of the twentieth century when scouts were involved in wartime projects. During the Second World War scouts sold war bonds, distributed defense housing surveys, kept victory gardens and worked with the Red Cross. Since the 1960s both groups have tried to keep pace with societal changes while preserving founding ideals. Seen as exemplars of white middle-class American values, both organizations have worked to adapt their programs to different geographical areas and time periods. Both have been celebrated and lampooned in media representations of scouts and scout leaders.
Recent controversies concerning references to God in the BSA oath, accusations of homophobia in both organizations and ongoing debates about single-gender groups are the subject of discussion in the media. However, both groups boast healthy membership numbers (5 million Boy Scouts and 3.5 million Girl Scouts as of 1990) and have launched national campaigns against child and drug abuse, crime and illiteracy in addition to more conventional scouting activities such as hiking, camping and environmental conservation.
Industry:Culture
Sears Roebuck tells us one story As this emporium, incorporated in 1893, spread outward from Chicago, MI, its illustrated catalogs became a mass medium of consumption in rural areas, outlying towns and among individual households of the working and lowermiddle classes. By 1895 the catalog reached 532 pages, offering dry goods as well as hardware, appliances and even pre-fabricated housing. Sears, like J.C. Penney’s and Montgomery Wards, overcame dislocations in space to unify America as a nation of consumers. Yet, by the 1950s, sales by mail and through order centers competed with their own department stores, especially as they anchored malls supplying suburban home-owners. Later, these companies themselves, built on mass marketing and economies of scale, faced competition from warehouse and discount sales, leading to crises for all these retailers. Restructuring to define their consumption niches, Sears and Penney’s let their catalogs die in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, another story of catalogs took shape around American mobility in the upper middle class. Department stores like Dallas’ Neiman-Marcus and specialty entrepreneurs such as L.L. Bean and Eddie Bauer in outdoor clothing appealed to more sophisticated clients who were not outside American consumption, but dispersed through it. Book-of-the-Month clubs and spin-offs reinforced associations of culture and distribution of goods within imagined “communities.” Through the 1970s and 1980s, this upscale marketing by mail exploded, combining glossy pictures and stylized captioning, ready telephone access, credit-card purchasing and targeted mailing. These catalogs responded to diverse upscale neighborhoods where aspirations differed from household to household. Moreover, they responded to new dislocations in time in two-career households where 24-hour accessibility from home facilitated consumption as an interstitial activity Thousands of catalogs today seem to reflect American diversity Some transcend their connections with mall retailers. Neiman Marcus’ Christmas extravaganza has become a regular news feature, while Victoria’s Secret has become a part of American dialogues of heterosexual romance and sensuality including a television spin-off, Veronica’s Closet (1997–). Another catalog, based on the adventures of a fictional J. Peterman, became a regular feature of the long-running sitcom Seinfeld. Catalogs also transform geography: L.L. Bean has turned its Maine home-town into a mercantile center, and museums extend their recognition and support through sales of high cultural artifacts. Others create different imagined communities: National Public Radio offers culture with an attitude, from T-shirts to video collections. These catalogs nonetheless accumulate in mailboxes and on coffee tables with other catalogs that reinforce consumptive identities (Marlboro cigarette gear or a Mercedes-Benz owner’s catalog), ethnicity or even life cycles—birth is greeted in middle-class zip codes by catalogs offering advice, products and status insecurity about the baby’s “right start.” Clothes, gifts, art and food all have been depicted, described and distributed in a booming industry that reminds Americans of what is missing in the midst of affluence.
Yet, through barriers of access and credit, these sales also reinforce divisions within American life—mailings by zip code and usage constantly divide potential customers from those outside specialized consumer worlds. Television sales networks prove more inclusive, while stressing the same features of visual imagery and descriptions that identify the consumer as well as the product: one is told who one will be as a consumer and how to show off products as well as use them. Internet sales and virtual catalogs also compete for the higher-end consumer, with an immediate responsiveness (to questions and targeting) that mail cannot offer, advancing some Americans from a world of malls into a world as a virtual mall in which potential products are always at hand; for example, historic Sears once again offers long-distance sales through its web-site.
Through mass media and the Internet, moreover, this historically American pattern can be reinterpreted more easily on a global scale, threatening to leave the catalog as a final relic of the age of print.
Industry:Culture
