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What is the difference between acculturation and assimilation?

acculturation | assimilation |

As nouns the difference between acculturation and assimilation

is that acculturation is a process by which the culture of an isolated society changes on contact with a different one while assimilation is the act of assimilating]] or the state of being [[assimilate|assimilated.

acculturation

English

Noun

  • A process by which the culture of an isolated society changes on contact with a different one.
  • A process by which a person acquires the culture of the society that he/she inhabits, starting at birth.

    • Usage notes

    * Some social scientists reverse the meanings of enculturation and acculturation. Primary socialization is sometimes called enculturation, while secondary socialization is sometimes called acculturation.

    assimilation

    English

    (assimilation)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of assimilating]] or the state of being [[assimilate, assimilated.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1797, author=An English Lady, title=A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795,, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=--France swarms with Gracchus's and Publicolas, who by imaginary assimilations of acts, which a change of manners has rendered different, fancy themselves more than equal to their prototypes.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=1996, date=January 26, author=Bertha Husband, title=Double Identity, work=Chicago Reader citation
    • , passage=His work generally is full of assimilations and quotations from art that is not Mexican, and he's said, "Nationalism has nothing to do with my work.}}
  • The metabolic conversion of nutrients into tissue.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1908, author=Washington Gladden, title=The Church and Modern Life, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=We have great need to be careful in these assimilations ; some kinds of food are rich but not easily digested.}}
  • (by extension) The absorption of new ideas into an existing cognitive structure.
  • (phonology) A sound change process by which the phonetics of a speech segment becomes more like that of another segment in a word (or at a word boundary), so that a change of phoneme occurs.
  • (sociology, cultural studies) The adoption, by a minority group, of the customs and attitudes of the dominant culture.

    • Related terms

    * assimilate

    Anagrams

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