The 100 percent American

Rationale This activity helps students to become aware of two historical phenomena: the process of syncretism, or cultural borrowing,
by which a host society adopts and adapts to itself elements or materials from another culture; and contemporary globalization.
Finally, and perhaps most important of all, it stimulates them to think about the US’s ethnic and cultural diversity.

Introduction: We see or use daily the items listed below. Where do you think they originated? What culture or region of the world do
you think invented or discovered each item? THIS IS NOT A TEST. USE YOUR BEST GUESS.
1. The bed 16. Paper
2. Cotton 17. Printing Press
3. Linen 18. Coins
4. Silk 19. Porcelain
5. Slippers/moccasins 20. Steel
6. Bathroom fixtures 21. The table fork
7. Pajamas 22. Coffee
8. Perfumed soap 23. Chocolate
9. Neckties 24. Sugar
10. Khaki chino trousers 25. The orange
11. The design of modern shoes 26. Cantaloupe
12. Tanned leather 27. Black pepper
13. Glass 28. Alphabetic characters
14. Rubber 29. Baseball
15. Umbrella

Directions: Please read the following essay carefully.

The solid US citizen awakens in a Scandinavian modern-design bed sold by IKEA on a pattern that originated in ancient Egypt and
was modified several times over throughout northern Europe during the past 500 years or more. He throws back covers made from
cotton, which evidence suggests was independently domesticated in four separate regions of the Earth—India, Africa, Mexico, and
South America. Or perhaps his covers are made of linen, a fabric produced as early as the 5th millennium BCE (4000s) in Egypt, or
silk, which originated in pre-dynastic China well before 1600 BCE. All of these materials were manufactured by spinning or weaving,
processes already employed in Mesopotamia and Anatolia (present-day Turkey) as early as 8000- 7000 BCE. Whatever the fabric, the
covers were produced in a factory in Guangzhou, China.

The good citizen slips into moccasins, the origins of which go back to glacier-covered Eurasia of the last Ice Age and were worn by
the earliest Native American migrants into North America. He goes into the bathroom, where the fixtures are a mixture of European
and American inventions of the 19th century. He slips off his pajamas, a loose-fitting garment worn by the peoples of medieval Iran,
Afghanistan, and surrounding regions and known in Persian, or Farsi, as a pay jama. Presumably brought to India by the Mughals, it
was subsequently adopted by the British colonizers, who resided in the Muslim, or northern, regions of India and became a popular
fashion in far-away England. The citizen’s pajamas, which were manufactured in a factory outside of Bangkok, are purple in color, a
dye that the ancient Phoenicians traded throughout the Mediterranean.

He then washes with a fragrant soap, the origins of which go back at least as far as Babylon (modern day Iraq) of around 2800 BCE.
He proceeds to shave, a rite that seems to have originated in ancient Egypt. Returning to the bedroom, he turns on his Sony iPod
speaker dock and listens to jazz, which traces its roots to rhythms from West Africa brought to the Americas by slaves. He dresses
himself in clothes can be traced, at least in their general form, to the Eurasian steppes, but those khaki-colored chino trousers he puts
on had their origin in mid- 19th -century uniforms originally worn by Indian soldiers, in the colonial armies of British-ruled India. His
English-style shirt, which he purchased at Wal-Mart, is stamped “Made in China.” He ties shoes made from skins tanned by a method
whose origins are lost in history, but the earliest known example of tanned leather was found in present-day Pakistan, in the unearthed
remains of a village that flourished between 7000 and 5500 BCE. His shoes are cut to a pattern that is very much the same as that of a
pair of shoes recently discovered in Armenia that are 5,500 years old—the oldest pair of shoes yet discovered. He ties around his neck
a strip of brightly colored cloth that originated in the neckerchiefs worn by 17th -century Croatian soldiers. This particular silk tie,
however, was manufactured in Vietnam.

Before going out for breakfast, he glances into a mirror made of glass, a substance invented by the ancient Egyptians, improved by the
Romans, and perfected by medieval Europeans. If it is raining, he puts on overshoes made of rubber, a substance discovered and used
by Amazonian natives of South America long before Europeans arrived there. On the way out, he reaches for an umbrella, an
implement that apparently had multiple places of origin, such as China, South Asia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The name, however,
comes from the 16th -century Italian ombrella, or “little shade.” On his way to the restaurant, he stops to purchase a newspaper. The
newspaper itself is printed on a material that the Chinese developed as early as the 2nd century BCE, and it is produced by a printing
process that can trace its dual (and apparently independent) origins to 11th -century China and 15th -century Germany. He pays for the
paper with coins, an innovation from 7th -century BCE Turkey.

At the restaurant, a whole new series of items confronts him. His plate is made from fine porcelain, a form of ceramic developed in
China during the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE). Is it any wonder that tableware is called “China”? His knife is made of steel, a metal
perhaps first forged in Turkey about 4,000 years ago. His fork has origins as a personal eating device that go back to the 7th -century
Middle East. It made its entry into Western Europe shortly before 1000 CE, His breakfast hot beverage is coffee, which probably was
first drunk in Ethiopia well before 1000 CE. Yet this particular brand of coffee that he is drinking today was made from beans grown
in Colombia. It is flavored with Dutch chocolate made in Vermont from a bean that originated in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
(Mexico and Central America) but for this chocolate was grown in Africa. The sugar that he adds to his coffee comes from sugarcane
grown and processed in Florida, a crop that apparently originated in both Southeast Asia and India and was introduced into the
American tropics in the 16th century by European colonists. It was probably the Indians of South Asia who first learned to transform
sugarcane juice into crystalized sugar around the 5th century CE. Likewise, the cream that he adds to his drink comes from the milk of
a cow, an animal that was brought to the Americas by Europeans after 1492.

Accompanying the coffee is a large glass of orange juice, squeezed from a fruit that probably originated in Southeast Asia but was
widely cultivated in China by about 2500 BCE and spread out from there. His first course is cantaloupe grown in Mexico. This type of
melon was initially cultivated in ancient Persia, India, or Africa. (We are not sure where.) Next comes an omelet, which contains ham
from Germany and cheese from France and which he seasons with black pepper harvested along India’s southwestern Coast. After
eating, he reads the sports news, written in letters developed by the Phoenicians and further developed by the Greeks, Romans, and
early medieval Europeans. Here he learns that his favorite baseball team, playing a sport that evolved out of 16th -century English
rounders, beat its archrival, the Yankees (a term probably of Dutch origin).
Whereupon, he says aloud in a language that traces its distant roots to proto-Indo-European, which was spoken in the region between
the Black and Caspian seas over 4,000 years ago, “Thank goodness that I am a 100 percent American.”

Adapted from Ralph Linton, American Mercury (1937).

Debriefing, Part 1 After having read the essay, please return to the list of items and identify the known or presumed place of origin or
the earliest known place where evidence of each item has been found.
1. The bed 16. Paper
2. Cotton 17. Printing Press
3. Linen 18. Coins
4. Silk 19. Porcelain
5. Slippers/moccasins 20. Steel
6. Bathroom fixtures 21. The table fork
7. Pajamas 22. Coffee
8. Perfumed soap 23. Chocolate
9. Neckties 24. Sugar
10. Khaki chino trousers 25. The orange
11. The design of modern shoes 26. Cantaloupe
12. Tanned leather 27. Black pepper
13. Glass 28. Alphabetic characters
14. Rubber 29. Baseball
15. Umbrella

Debriefing, Part II
1. In 2-3 sentences, what have you learned about the every-day objects in this list?

2. In 1-3 sentences, what do you think was the author’s purpose in writing this essay?

3. What do the many different items mentioned in this essay tells us about American society and culture?

4. What do they tell us about the state of the world today?