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Cultural Borders/Borderlands in the United States. Social Sciences

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Cultural Borders/borderlands in the United States.
[Typed, double-spaced, proofread and spell-checked, with page numbers inserted. No title page needed, but include your name, course number, assignment and paper title, and date at the top of the first page. Suggested length: 1000 words.]
Scholar Debra Lattanzi Shutika (2011) focuses on Mexicans from Textitlán, Guanajuato and immigrants in Kennett Square, PA. Although she argues that her work goes “beyond the borderlands,” I suggest that the borderlands concept is nonetheless useful even in the US American heartland. In Latino Heartland, Sujey Vega (2015:7) refers to borderlands concept as a physical and metaphorical “apparatus that peels away the economic, racial, gendered, and historical borders that created difference, sustained distance, and inspired unique exchanges between peoples.” Luis Alberto Urrea (1993:9), for example, writes, “There are many Mexicos; there are also many Mexican borders….” And on Tama, Iowa, Doug Foley notes, “The boundary between white and Indian culture is often distinct and antagonistic but hardly impermeable. People from both races live in this complex racial borderland that partakes of both cultures” Foley (2003:7).
First, symbolic or cultural borders or spatial divides cut across and between communities here in deep Ohio, thereby creating cultural borderlands, or as Campbell and Kean put it (1995:221), “Boundaries can be real, physical forces, but also used to represent a wider range of psychological or social determinants that shape and construct youth [and others] within the larger cultural framework.” Second, one could argue that Mexican immigrants to Kennett Square (or Butler county), figurative and literally, remain in a cultural borderland (or “south of the border”). In Kennett Square, they are partly integrated into the mushroom and consumer economy; people buy homes in the US while continuing to build homes in back home. They are also resented and excluded by the majority Anglo population (Lattanzi Shutika 2011).
Third, many remain spatially and culturally divided from the dominant population.
For this ethnography assignment I would like you to do the following:
-Ethnographic Description: Find what you think as a significant cultural border(land), visit it, observe social interactions and avoidance, and describe this area as best you can. [Make sure you know the difference between “border” a physical or metaphorical line and “borderland,” the larger “space” created by borders.
-Analysis 1: What are the key things that you observe and how can you make sense of them? How can you try to explain what is going on “culturally”? Be sure to discuss and analyze the “border” or “borderland” you have visited and observed.
-Analysis 2: Relate what you have observed back to course readings. How do these books and articles help you to think about the space you have visited and observed?
-Reflection: You can get more personal here. What do you think of all of this? How did you feel while visiting and thinking about this heterogeneous culture space? What does this exercise teach you about cultural diversity in the US? How can you think about this anthropologically?

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Cultural Borders/Borderlands in the United States
Ethnography enables an individual to understand a given people's culture and their associated social dynamics. It may involve an anthropologist residing in a secluded ethnic community for a specific time frame in order to understand their cultural way of life. Besides, ethnography gives a researcher quick access to people's cultural practices. In this regard, the researcher gets first-hand information about the people within a particular social context. However, ethnography is a time-consuming method. One must sacrifice much time and spend with the group to research, observe, and learn the community of choice. Thus, the moment can be a bit challenging and may require careful planning for a successful outcome.
The United States and Mexico have developed political, social, and cultural boundaries that bring division between the two states. Notably, the border has been recognized as hyperspace and cultural area. According to Stoddard (23), a cultural region is a zone resided by individuals with shared beliefs. From its initial role as a geopolitical border, it evolved to a socio-cultural border. Besides, the area is defined as a transborder social system. The social interactions happening at the border entails migration across the border, mostly from Mexico to the United States. Nearly 42.2 million pedestrians, 2.3 million bus passengers, 141 million passenger cars, 6 million tracks have been recently recorded to cross through the US-Mexican border in 2019 (Gramlich & Noe-Bustamante; Reuters Graphics). The border has proven to be penetrable, and thousands of illegal immigrants pass through the border each year. There are also thousands of refugees and migrant workers crossing the border each day.
The border has cultivated an active structure of financial transactions where citizens from both sides benefit. For example, the Maquiladora plants have offered jobs and incomes for the Mexicans and enhanced the American manufacturers' profit margins. Besides, the border population has provided readily available markets for American retailers. However, the infrastructure channels created to foster these authentic economic relations promote a broader series of dealings comprised of illegal imports into Mexico and the smuggling of goods and migrants into the United States.
Regardless of the present fusion of cultural and social impacts on the border, the outcomes revolve around organic bi-national, bi-cultural, and bi-lingual Mex-America regions. Notably, there are three different cultures at the border, including Chicano, Mexican, and Anglo. In this regard, the concept of a uniform Anglo culture has been an abstraction because of the multi-ethnic personality of the non-Hispanic population in the United States. Similarly, there are significant variations between Chicanos in California, Hispanics in New Mexico, and Tejanos in Texas. They are also distinguished from the Mexican inhabitants from the regions.
The difference between Mexicans and Chicanos is critical because Chicanos can offer a natural bridge between the Mexicans and the Anglos due to the existing diverse cultures. Chicanos have little stress on US-Mexican relatio...
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