Inclusive Acculturation:
From Assimilation to
Multiculturalism
Dr. Marcelo Diversi
Department of Human Development
Washington State University Vancouver
Bronfenbrenner’s
Ecological Theory
Acculturation of Indigenous Peoples
in the Americas

From approximately 8 million in 1600s to 2.5
million indigenous people in the U.S. in the
present
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&qr_name=ACS_2009_5YR_G00_DP5YR5&-ds_name=&-_lang=en&redoLog=false&-format=

For a powerful inside view of indigenous
people’s acculturation reality, see Aaron Huey’s
talk and images on America’s Native Prisoners of
War:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aaron_huey.
html
“Kill the Indian, save the man…”

“A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one,
and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous
factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the
sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race
should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”
U.S. Captain Richard H. Pratt (1892)
Source:
Official Report of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of Charities and Correction
(1892), 46–59. Reprinted in Richard H. Pratt, “The Advantages of Mingling
Indians with Whites,” Americanizing the American Indians: Writings by the
“Friends of the Indian” 1880–1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1973), 260–271.
Central Question Underlying
Acculturation

US and THEM
Human Kinds
David Berreby’s Us and Them: The
Science of Identity
 Evolutionary adaptation pressures led to
our tribal minds
 Evidence from the mind sciences

“We found several sick and famished
Indians, who begged hard for mercy
and for food. It hurt my feelings;
but the understanding was that all
were to be killed. So we did the
work.”
Settler, Oregon, 1857,
according to
John Beeson, in A Plea for the Indians (1857;
reprint: Ye Galleon Press, 1982)
“Keiko was not one of our
kind but nonetheless he was
still one of us”
Associate Press, “Oregon Bids
Farewell to ‘Free Willy’ Star,”
February 21, 2004
Human Development
Nature
Biological Processes
Nurture
Cognitive and
Socioemotional
Processes
Time
History
Human Development
Evolutionary Forces
adaptation
Domination
Cooperation
naturenurture
genotype
(how) The Mind (works)
Individual dev.
phenotype
Society
Sociology of Development
Race, Gender, Sexuality, SOCIAL CLASS, belief systems
Politics
Ideology
Power
Us X Them: Instantiations and
Lived Experience
Why are some children our problem and
some aren’t?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSrtre8m0

Developmental Challenges of Low
Social Status
Physical Health
 Mental Health
 Preparation for adulthood
 Education
 Identity

Inclusive acculturation as positive
development
Humanizing experiences of “difference”
 Validation of ecological diversity against
shallow celebrations of diversity (e.g.,
color blindness movement, Heroes and
Holidays approach)
 Enriching intergenerational relations

Acculturation Models

JEAN PHINNEY’S MODEL
High
Connection
With Host
Culture
Low
Assimilation
Biculturalism
Marginal
Separation
High
Low
Connection with
Culture of Origin
Bringing it all back home

Developmental challenges of youth and families
pegged as them

Expanding the sense of us

Pedagogies that exercise the mind in
perspective-taking and the politics of knowledge
production

Social justice requires high cognitive functioning