T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

professions or Irish proclivity for politics". (GreeleyBut in the context of modern American life it isdifficult to identify such traits existing at the level ofpopular consciousness of each and every ethnic community thatremains organised in American public life. Milton Gordon oncetalked about the acculturation model as an alternative to themelting pot. Ethnic groups, according to him, had been adoptingthe values of the host culture and were being integrated intothe host society in so far as their secondary relations wereconcerned. But in their interpersonal qroup-relations, theypreferred to stay withln their own community and uphold theirown ethnic sub-culture. The other alternative to melting pot isthe 'stew-pot' model proposed by Vlrgil Elizondo. Asthe Ingredients In a stew maintain theirdistinctiveness despite belnq affected by theflavour of others, so also do ethnic groups retaincer:ain pecuiiar aspects of their own culture evenafter adoptlng more or less the American llie style(Greeley 1981,150) .Almost all ethnic groups, after two or three generations,have accepted the Anglo-Amerlcan culture as the officialpattern of the country and enthusiastically participate in theeducational, occupational and political mainstream. All thesame, they retain their own native cultural heritage within the~n-group. Thus the assimilation of the immigrants into the host