CULTURE:
The United States is a multicultural nation,home to a wide variety of ethnic groups,traditions,and values.Aside from the now small Native American and Native Hawaiian populations,nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries.The culture held in common by most Americans—mainstream American culture—is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources,such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa.More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as both a homogenizing melting pot and a heterogeneous salad bowl in which immigrants and their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.
According to Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions analysis,the United States has the highest individualism score of any country studied.While the mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society ,scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes,affecting socialization,language,and values.The American middle and professional class has initiated many contemporary social trends such as modern feminism,environmentalism,and multiculturalism.Americans' self-images,social viewpoints,and cultural expectations are associated with their occupations to an unusually close degree .While Americans tend greatly to value socioeconomic achievement,being ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute.Though the American Dream,or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility,plays a key role in attracting immigrants,some analysts find that the United States has less social mobility than Western Europe and Canada .
Women now mostly work outside the home and receive a majority of bachelor's degrees.In 2007,58% of Americans age 18 and over were married,6% were widowed,10% were divorced,and 25% had never been married .Same-sex marriage is contentious.Some states permit civil unions in lieu of marriage.Since 2003,several states have permitted gay marriage as the result of judicial or legislative action,while voters in more than a dozen states have barred the practice via referendum.
FOOD:
Mainstream American culinary arts are similar to those in other Western countries.Wheat is the primary cereal grain.Traditional American cuisine uses ingredients such as turkey,white-tailed deer venison,potatoes,sweet potatoes,corn,squash,and maple syrup,indigenous foods employed by Native Americans and early European settlers.Slow-cooked pork and beef barbecue,crab cakes,potato chips,and chocolate chip cookies are distinctively American styles.Soul food,developed by African slaves,is popular around the South and among many African Americans elsewhere.Syncretic cuisines such as Louisiana creole,Cajun,and Tex-Mex are regionally important.
Characteristic dishes such as apple pie,fried chicken,pizza,hamburgers,and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants.French fries,Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos,and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed.Americans generally prefer coffee to tea.Marketing by U.S.industries is largely responsible for making orange juice and milk ubiquitous breakfast beverages.During the 1980s and 1990s,Americans' caloric intake rose 24%;[202] frequent dining at fast food outlets is associated with what health officials call the American "obesity epidemic." Highly sweetened soft drinks are widely popular; sugared beverages account for 9% of the average American's caloric intake.[204]
Sports
Main article:Sports in the United States
A college football quarterback looking to pass the ballSince the late 19th century,baseball has been regarded as the national sport; American football,basketball,and ice hockey are the country's three other leading professional team sports.College football and basketball attract large audiences.Football is now by several measures the most popular spectator sport.Boxing and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports,but they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing,particularly NASCAR.Soccer is played widely at the youth and amateur levels.Tennis and many outdoor sports are popular as well.
While most major U.S.sports have evolved out of European practices,basketball,volleyball,skateboarding,snowboarding,and cheerleading are American inventions.Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate Western contact.Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States.The United States has won 2,301 medals at the Summer Olympic Games,more than any other country,and 253 in the Winter Olympic Games,the second most.