The emphasis placed upon language as a medium of cultural transmission
rests upon a sound principle. For the idioms, particularly of a spoken
language, probably reflect more accurately the historical experiences of
a people than history itself. The basis of unity among most historical
peoples is linguistic rather than racial. The Latin peoples are a
convenient example of this fact. The experiment now in progress in the
Philippine Islands is significant in this connection. To what extent
will the national and cultural development of those islands be
determined by native temperament, by Spanish speech and tradition, or by
the English language and the American school system?

(3) Rivers in his study of Melanesian and Hawaiian cultures was
impressed by the persistence of fundamental elements of the social
structure. The basic patterns of family and social life remained
practically unmodified despite profound transformations in technique,
in language, and in religion. Evidently many material devices and formal
expressions of an alien society can be adopted without significant
changes in the native culture.

The question, however, may be raised whether or not the complete
adoption of occidental science and organization of industry would not
produce far-reaching changes in social organization. The trend of
economic, social, and cultural changes in Japan will throw light on this
question. Even if revolutionary social changes actually occur, the point
may well be made that they will be the outcome of the new economic
system, and therefore not effects of acculturation.

(4) The rapidity and completeness of assimilation depends directly upon
the intimacy of social contact. By a curious paradox, slavery, and
particularly household slavery, has probably been, aside from
intermarriage, the most efficient device for promoting assimilation.

Adoption and initiation among primitive peoples provided a ceremonial
method for inducting aliens and strangers into the group, the
significance of which can only be understood after a more adequate study
of ceremonial in general.

c) _Americanization as a problem of assimilation._--Any consideration
of policies, programs, and methods of Americanization gain perspective
when related to the sociology of assimilation. The "Study of Methods of
Americanization," of the Carnegie Corporation, defines Americanization
as "the participation of the immigrant in the life of the community in
which he li