Personal Space & Expression

In terms of body contact and personal space the United States shows considerable similarities to northern and central European regions, such as Germany, the Benelux, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. The main difference is, however, that Americans like to keep more open space in between themselves and their conversation partners (roughly 4 feet compared to 2 to 3 feet in Europe). Greeting rituals tend to be the same in these regions and in the United States, consisting of minimal body contact which often remains confined to a simple handshake. In 1966 Anthropolgist Edward Hall identified four different zones of personal space Americans like to keep around them:

• Intimate distance: extends roughly 18 inches (45.7 cm) from the individual and is reserved for family, pets and very close friends. Displays of affection and comforting are commonly conducted within this space. The only strangers an individual typically accepts within his or her intimate space are health care professionals.
• Personal distance: extends 4 to 5 feet (1.2 - 1.5 meters) is reserved for friends and acquaintances. A handshake will typically place strangers at least 2 to 4 feet apart, preserving the personal distance.
• Social distance: extends from about 4 to 12 feet (1.2 - 3.7 meters) and is used for formal, business and other impersonal interactions such as meeting a client.
• Public Space: extends more than 12 feet (3.7 meters) and is not guarded. Secret Service agents will commonly attempt to ensure 12 feet of open space around dignitaries and high ranking officials.

The toleration for body expression that deviates from the mainstream such as complete body tattoos or nudism is strongly linked to the sub-culture and location in which an individual may find him or herself. Generally speaking the United States tends to be less tolerant towards nudity than Western Europe, even in more tolerant areas such as California. As stated above the tolerance shown for personal expression such as cross-dressing, piercing, etc... varies greatly with location and sub-culture and may be completely appropriate in one venue while being taboo in another.  As a result a form of expression or behavior that might be completely acceptable in San Francisco's Castro District, might be offensive in a Wichita suburb. In early 2003 for example, the city of San Francisco and later the city of Portland allowed same-sex couples to express their mutual affection through the act of legally recognized marriage.  As these marriages deviated too far from the majority sentiment at the time, however, the issuing of gay marriage licenses was stopped through court order. These events in early 2003 illustrate the great differences in what is acceptable in different parts of the United States.

Social Classes

There is considerable controversy regarding social class in the United States, and it remains a vaguely defined intellectual concept with many theories. To this day social scientists have not devised exact guidelines for classes in the United States. Social scientists have developed class models on the socio-economic stratification of American society which feature more or less congruent theories. While many Americans believe in a three-class model that includes the "rich", the middle class, and the "poor", in reality American society is much more economically and culturally diverse. The differences in wealth, income, education and occupation are indeed so great that one could justify the application of a social class model including dozens of classes. A common popular approach to the economic and cultural diversity is belief in a large middle class that encompasses all households in between status extremes. Yet, this concept may be critizised for ignoring the relatively vast socio-economic differences found among those in between either end of the social strata. Sociologists Dennis Gilbert, William Thompson and Joseph Hickey as well as James Henslin have proposed class systems with six distinct social classes. These class models feature an upper or capitalist class consisting of the rich and powerful, an upper middle class consisting of highly educated and well-paid professionals, a lower middle class consisting of semi-professionals, a working class constituted by clerical as well as blue collar employees whose work is highly routinized and a lower class which is according to Gilbert is divided between the working poor and underclass.

Income & Politics

Income remains one of the main indicators of class, as it commonly reflects high educational attainment as well as a prestigious occupation. Today there remains a strong correlation, if not causation, between political activism as well as political representation and household income. Furthermore, a discrepancy in the political attitudes can be found among individuals residing in households with differing incomes.[1] During the 2000 election voter turn out among those in the top 26% with household incomes exceeding $75,000 were 27% more likely to vote than the average. Some rather controversial issues such as race were impacted by household income. With higher voter turn-out and affiliation with professional organizations and other popular political lobbies such as the AARP or NAACP, those with higher incomes were more likely to be represented in the political process with the government being more attuned to their needs.

Education also has an effect on voting record. Generally, the more educated a person is, the more likely he or she is to vote with those having graduate degrees being more likely to vote Democrat. While a rise in income generally increase the likelihood of a person voting Republican, many upper middle class professionals with post-graduate degrees are more likely to vote Democrat. The presence of upper middle class liberals as household with incomes exceeding $100,000 and those with graduate degrees were the only demographics where Ralph Nader won 1% of the vote. Even though those with post-graduate degrees only constituted 8.9% of the general population, they constituted 16% of all voters. This means that the most highly educated 16% of voters were expected to vote Democrat even though most of their similarly high paid but lesser educated counterparts did not.

Religion

Religion is a significant part of the culture of the United States. The United States is also one of the most religious of those countries considered to be "developed nations." According to a 2002 survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, the U.S. was the only developed nation in the survey where a majority of citizens reported that religion plays a "very important" role in their lives.

Most Americans adhere to Christianity. According to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey (discussed below), 80% of the U.S. is Christian and 15% do not adhere to a religion. Other religions comprise 5% of the U.S. population. According to the CIA World Factbook, the U.S. is 78% Christian and 10% no religion, while other religions comprise 12% of the U.S. population. In descending order, the largest identified religious groups are Protestant (52%); Roman Catholic (24%); Mormon (2%); Buddhist (2%); Jewish (1%); and Muslim (1%).

The United States was one of the first countries in the world to have a separation of church and state. Modeling the provisions concerning religion in United States Constitution after the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the framers ended up rejecting any religious test for office, and the First amendment specifically denied the central government any power to establish religion. The framers were mainly influenced by Enlightenment ideals, but they also considered the pragmatic concerns of minority religious groups who did not want to be under the power or influence of a state church that did not represent them.

Group Affiliation

As the United States is a very diverse nation, it is home to numerous organization and social groups and individuals may derive their group affiliated identity from a variety of sources. Many Americans, especially white collar professionals belong to professional organizations, although Americans now tend to affiliate with these sorts of groups less often than they did in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, Americans derive a great deal of their identity through their work and professional affiliation, especially among individuals higher on the economic ladder. Recently professional identification has led to many clerical and low-level employees giving their occupations new, more respectable titles, such as "Sanitation Engineer" instead of "Janitor."  Additionally many Americans belong to non-profit organizations and religious establishments and may volunteer their services to such organizations. The Rotary Club and the Knights of Columbus are examples of such non-profit and mostly volunteer run organizations. Ethnicity plays another important role in providing Americans with group identity, especially among those who recently immigrated. Many American cities are home to ethnic enclaves such as a Chinatown and Little Italies remain in some cities. Local patriotism may be also provide group identity. For example, a person may be particularly proud to be from California or New York City, and may display clothing from local sports team. Political lobbies such as the American Association of Retired Persons not only provide individuals with a sentiment of intra-group allegiance but also increase their political representation in the nation's political system. Combined, profession, ethnicity, religious, and other group affiliations have provided Americans with a multitude of options from which to derive their group based identity.

Work

In the United States occupation is one of the prime factors of social class and is closely linked to an individual’s identity. The average work week in the US for those employed full-time was 42.9 hours long with 30% of the population working more than 40 hours a week. It should be noted, however, that many of those in the top two earning quintiles often worked more than 50 a week. The Average American worker earned $16.64 an hour in the first two quarters of 2006. Overall Americans worked more than their counterparts in other developed post-industrial nations. While the average worker in Denmark enjoyed 30 days of vacation annually, the average American only had 16 annual vacation days. In 2000 the average American worked 1,978 hours per year, 500 hours more than the average German, yet 100 hours less than the average Czech. Overall the US labor force was the most productive in the world (overall, not by hour worked), largely due to its workers working more than those in any other post-industrial country (excluding South Korea). Americans generally hold working and being productive in high regard and being busy as well as working extensively may also serves as the means to obtain esteem.

Relationship With Other Cultures

Americans tend to be less inclined to visit other countries than citizens of European and other Western nations. This partly results from intercontinental travel entailing further distances than Europeans. The average American worker has fewer vacation days than the average European (10-15 rather than the European average of around 20). America's vast size allows its citizens to go great distances, and see a variety of places, without leaving the country. For example, one can travel within the continental United States from a near-tropical climate (e.g. Southern Florida) to a mid-continental climate (Minnesota). California alone offers a large coastline, snow-capped mountains, prairies, and deserts within a single state. Lifestyles, food, and culture also tend to differ within the different regions.

Americans travelling in foreign countries are often stereotyped as loud, brash and insensitive to local cultures. Citizens of other Western countries may perceive Americans in general to be representative of a belligerent and insensitive superpower, while simultaneously and paradoxically being peaceful and thoughtful on an individual basis.

American Cuisine

Because the United States has long attracted immigrants from a wide variety of nations and cultures, it is no surprise that the cuisine of the United States is extremely diverse and difficult to define. One way of describing American cuisine is a synthesis of cuisines from around the world, a style of cooking that takes something from each immigrant community. On the other hand, American cooks have exported a great variety of dishes around the world, and in many ways American cuisine is just as recognisable and as popular as French, Chinese, or Indian. 

One important characteristic of American cooking is the fusion of multiple ethnic or regional approaches into completely new cooking styles. The cuisine of the South, for example, has been heavily influenced by immigrants from Africa, France, and Mexico, among others. Asian cooking has played a particularly large role in American fusion cuisine.  Similarly, while some dishes considered typically American may have their origins in other countries, American cooks and chefs have substantially altered them over the years, to the degree that the dish as now enjoyed the world over may even be considered archetypically American. Hot dogs and hamburgers are both based on traditional German dishes, brought over to America by German immigrants to the United States, but in their modern, popular form they are so altered that they can be reasonably considered American dishes.

Given the United States' large size it is not surprising that its cuisine is typified by distinct regional variations. The cuisine of the East Coast and Pacific Northwest, for example, makes use of fish and seafood to much greater degree than that of the Midwest, where corn and beef were long more readily available. To some degree, easy transportation of perishable foodstuffs has diminished these regional differences in recent years, but many Americans still associate certain foods with specific places, such as steak with Omaha; lobster with Maine; salmon with the Pacific Northwest; and crab and crabcake with Maryland.

American cooking has been widely exported beyond its borders. Tex-Mex, Creole, and barbecue restaurants can be found in cities all around the world, while fast-food burger bars and pizzerias are even more popular.

Though American cuisine has much regional variation, it is sometimes said  to be rather bland in taste. The Great Depression forced a standardization of the food industry to consolidate revenue. Through the war years, the combination of the GI rations and the advice of cookbooks in the ways to prepare the "standard cuisine." This cuisine came out of the new heart of the American diet, the Midwest. 

The homogeneity and predictability  of American cuisine began to change during World War II with the adaptation of Italian-American and Chinese foods. Spaghetti was served to American GIs during the war. While the American versions of Chinese-inspired foods were at first far from authentic—recipes included ingredients such as ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and cream of mushroom soup—they represented a new acceptance of less traditionally "American" foods. Much of the ethnic variety in modern American cuisine has its roots in developments that took place over the last half century.

The modern fast food industry developed largely out of American innovations, particularly through the early efforts of the McDonald's corporation . This has led to some controversy with the global spread of such chains, as perceived Americanization of cuisine in other countries is sometimes described with derogatory terms like McDonaldization.