Syncretism can be termed as a process of integrating two or more aspects dominant in societies with a goal of coming up with a clone which is generally acceptable by the overall society. These social aspects can incorporate issues such as religious practices, cultural practices, linguistics and even politics. Basing on American society settings, the ancient and diverse social and cultural practices in America have been integrated together to emanate with new practices (Anderson, 2005).
Political syncretism
Political syncretism has occurred in the US political arena through incorporation of races, which were initially discriminated political-wise. For example, in early nineteenth century, African-Americans together with Indian Americans were not allowed to vote or to involve themselves in political issues of the United States. Though they highly pressured for integration process, white Americans were not ready to accommodate their practices. Nevertheless, their views and concerns have been integrated in American political practices (Winter, 1993).
Were it not for syncretism process, the United States government would be divided into section where the black Americans and have their own distinct governing body separate from that of the whites. Unlike the current United States government, there would be racial politics which sideline each of the races.
Syncretism in entertainment world
One element which distinct a cultural practices from another is the existence of unique styles of music. Having a huge number of societies with different cultural practices, America has a diverse music styles which have been practiced by its citizens. Some of the music styles which could be linked with a certain society include country music, blues and reggae music. For the country music songs which were sung by cowboys, they were associated with American citizens originating from Texas region. Blues are songs which emanated from African-American society while reggae music is from Jamaican people. Such songs have been integrated to come up with new blends of songs such as rock and roll music commonly known as rock music.
Rock music has been diversified to come up with soft and hard rock music all of which have an aspect from each community. Were it not for the syncretism process, American music styles could not be diverse and advanced as they are today (Stewart & Rosalind, 1994). Every society would effortlessly struggle to dominate and challenge the other with unique music styles. This disintegration would offer each style a small audience segments in the overall American society.
Religious syncretism
One of the easily recognized forms of syncretism in the American societies is the partial integration of religious practices amongst themselves. For example, Christianity has highly dominated a significant fraction of American societies. Other minor religions especially those upheld by native Indian Americans were distinct and clearly from Christianity. Nevertheless, Christianity has incorporated some religious practices whose origins are from ancient Greeks and native Indian Americans. With absence of religious syncretism American societies would be dominated by diverse conflicting religious practices. Such cultural practices would create cracks among the American societies due to conflict of interest (Rheenen, 2006).
Apart from these forms of syncretism in American societies, integration of American societies to adopt a common language still exists. Being the dominant language in American societies, American English has incorporated various elements from African-Americans and Latin in originality. If such integration or syncretism process never existed in America, small communities with diverse language would be dominating the American society. Such diversity would act as a barrier in communication and integration of other cultural aspects such as trading and governance.
References
Anderson, J.E. (2005). Conjure in African American society, Westport, USA: Greenwood publishers.
Rheenen, G,V. (2006). Contextualization and Syncretism: Navigating Cultural Currents, William Carey Library,
Stewart, C., & Rosalind,S. (1994). Syncretism/anti-syncretism: the politics of religious synthesis, New york, NY: Routledge Publishers.
Winter, D.R. (1993). Ancient World: Reader, Missouri, USA: Lulu.com. Publisher.
