[ 收稿日期] 2007..09..30[ 作者简介]郭贇( 1986..), 女, 内蒙古师范大学外国语学院在读本科生。

.. 2007年11月内蒙古师范大学学报.. (哲学社会科学版) Nov. , 2007..第36卷.. 第6期Jou rn al of Inn erMongolia Norm alU n iversity ( Ph ilosophy & Social Science) Vo.l 36.. No. 6美国人价值观及其成因郭贇(内蒙古师范大学外国语学院, 内蒙古呼和浩特010022).. .. [ Abstract] .. 美国是一个移民国家, 在其历史上共有两次持续时间较长的移民运动, 来自欧洲、亚洲、非洲和美洲的移民不仅带来他们的技术, 而且也将其文化带入美国社会, 这对美国人价值观和世界观的形成起了很大的影响作用。

追求平等自由独立和自我是美国人价值观的核心组成部分, 这些价值观的渊源既可上溯到清教文化, 同时, 独立战争中发表的美国..独立宣言对其形成也产生了深远的影响。

[ KeyW o rds] .. 美国; 移民; 核心价值观; ..独立宣言[ 中图分类号] D09 .. .. [文献标识码] A.. .. [文章编号] 1001..7623( 2007)S1..0404..03! ..American ValuesAmerica has been p lay ing an important ro le in ourw orld sinceWo rldWar II. A lthough its history is on ly about three hundred years long, it still has great effects on many aspects on o ther countries. Un likemost other people, America is primarily a nation of imm ig rants.Their ancestors em igrated from m any parts of theglobe. This great ly influenced the ideas and va lues onw hich American are based.1..Deve lopm ent o fAmerican Va lues. As an imm i..grated country, American values are different from oth..er countries. V arious ethn icit ies, d ifferent re lig ions and some other pecu liarities lead to different va lues.W hat. s more, the values a lso change in d ifferent t ime periods. So according to the time line, there are threema instream values in American society, w hich are Tra.. dit iona l value, Modern va lue, and Post- modern va l.. ue.# . T rad itionalVa lue. The time frame of tradition..al value is up to 1700s. Priests are themost influential people fo r those who hold th is belie.f They believe that hum an be ing is God. s creat ion in God. s image- bear.. er. So they are inc lined to preserve the past and obey the au thorit ies. They also think that hum an beings are created good, but gradually has fa llen and people have been separated from God by sin. So in o rder to recon.. cile to God by Jesus, they emphasize more onmora lityand have very str ict se lf- disc ip lines. They sincerely believe that God and h is w ords in the B ib le have de.. fined the ir morality. Genera lly speak ing, Traditiona l va lue is more conservative and h ierarch ica.l. . Modern Va lue. Modern value started from1875 and now is very common in American. They be..lieve in science and treat sc ientists as themost influen.. tial peop le. Comparing to Trad itional va lue, they th ink tha t hum an beings are just random chance beings, in.. stead of being created by God. So they w ant to improvethe past by the ir own th inking. On the o ther hand,they a lso dare to question the authority. Because inthe ir op in ions, know ledge is from what people discover but notwhatGod says. A s fo r them, chaos is humans.basic problem, and in order to so lve th is, theyw an t to pro long the ir life and se ize everyday. As to morality, they acknow ledge it as a hum an construc,t thereforepeop le can have their ow nmora lities.% . Post- modern V alue. Post- modern value be..g ins in 1960. It is a lso called Pop culture, becausesome rock stars lead the fash ion and influence peoplequ ite a lo.t For these people, they are inclined to ig.. nore the past and they don. t count on authority for ob.. ta in ing know ledge. They just w ant to know every thing & 404&from the ir own experiences. In the ir op in ions, every.. body is equa,l nom atter for a president or a hom eless person. They treat themselves as their own authorit ies, so they do no t need to obey o thers. orders. How ever they are somet ime pessim ist ic because they cannotknow everything absolute ly. A s to them, the basic problem is they do not have enough to lerance becausethey care too much abou t persona l stories and thinkthat certa in commun it ies can define morals.2..CoreVa lues. American society is basically foun..ded on the princ ip les of equality, liberty, pursu it ofhapp iness and pioneering sp iri.t American people re..gard these values very h ighly and cherish them as theirnat ional spirits.# . Equality. Equa lity is the basic be lief in Am er..ican values, just as the D ec lara tion o f Independence said, . A ll men are created equa,l that they are en..dow ed by the irC reatorw ith certa in inalienab le rights(. So in the ir eyes all people are equal and have the ir ow n values, and no one is born superior to anyone e lse.Once a baby is born, he begins to have va lue. Godcreates him, so he is un ique in this w orld. Even fo r a home less person, he is still in the same level as peop le w ith high status. God loves every person. He w ill notlook down upon som ebody on ly because o f h is status. They have their own understandings o f things that seem inequality: . Ourw ealth is unequaled, but Jesus taughtthat our faith shou ldm ake w ea lthm ean ingless(. In A.. merican h istory, there are many social movementsw hose aim is to get equa lity, such as the w omen. s movemen.t It w as started by three groups o f w omen,w ho thought wom en w ere discrim inated in the soc iety and w anted to fight for their equal rights. Thew omen.s movem ent gains m any rights and opportunities forw omen.How ever in the m id - 1990s, the number ofw omen in leadership in government and business corpo..rat ions is still very low. But w e can st ill see thatw omen. s position has been improved a lot since then.M ostAmericans dare to speak out all the ir ideas direct.. ly and need not consider about others. op in ions. Eve.. ryone is equa,l so everyone can do w hatever they w antto do, so w e can say that equality is one of the co revalues in American cu lture.. . L iberty. The second core value of America isliberty, which is also the basic point in the Declarationof Independence and American history. Since Christo..pher Columbus discovered the new land in 1492, A..merican people have been suffering a lot from colonialrule for nearly 300 years, how ever they never stoppedthe ir struggle for liberty dur ing th is period of time. A f.. ter America gained independence from colonial rule,liberty is still a nat iona l pursu it for American people. The C iv ilR ightsMovem ent and Free SpeechMovementbo th demonstrate this po in.t Lega l seg regation endingin the South, theU. S. sign ing a peace treaty in 1973,and peop le getting freedom o f speech are a ll ach ieve.. ments ofAmerican people. s pursu it of liberty.% . Independence and Ind iv idua lism. For mostpeop le, independence and individualism are the firsttwo w ords that com e into theirm inds when they ta lk a.. bout Am er icans. The one va lue that nearly every A.. merican w ould agree upon is indiv idual freedom.Whether you ca ll it ind iv idua l freedom, ind iv idua lism, or independence, it is the corn of American va lues. It influences nearly every aspect of the ir society. Theconcept o f indiv idualism also affects the type o f govern.. ment somuch that ind iv idual rights are also guaranteedin the United States Constitution. . These rights are so protected in our judic ial system tha,t even though A.. mericans may compla in that crim inals somet imes ) getaw ay w ithmurder, . most people believe it is better tofree a few guilty persons than to imprison one personwho is innocent(.Most Americans have their own persona l spacesand usua lly they do no t w ant o thers to get involved in the ir personal affa irs. In genera,l most Am ericans ex.. press the ir ideas directly, w ithout too much considera.. tion. They care more about the ir ow n fee lings insteado f o thers. opin ions. In add ition, Am er ican people pre.. fer to re ly on their own efforts. They are inc lined to create everyth ing by themselves, so they high ly valuese lf- reliance. O f course it. s different from what w eca ll selfishness. It is an expression o f equa lity, liber.. ty, and independence and the reason w hy Americanpeop le care so much about th is is just the ir pursuit o f equa lity and liberty.Privacy is also of great sign if icance to Am er icans.The indiv idual privacy may m ake it d ifficu lt to m ake friends. B ecause Am er icans respect their ow n privacy, they may not like to go to a person and say . he llo(.A lthoughm any Am ericans are much opener than Chi..nese peop le, they are st ill not so friend ly and hosp ita.. ble as Chinese.. . The pioneering spiri.t The pioneering spirit o fthe early imm igrants is also an important Americantrai.t A lw ays attracted to the new and fresh th ings, A.. mericans constantly move a lo.t They not only trave l& 405&郭贇/ Ame rican Value and Its Or ig infrom place to p lace in search for a better life, but a lso try to raise the socia l h ierarchy because they cherishthe American Dream so much.+ ..The Origins ofAmerican ValuesAmerican ma instream cu lture is deve loped fromw ha t is know n as .WASP( culture, w hich isWh iteAnglo- Saxon Protestan.t So generally speaking, thereare tw o ma in factors that affect Am erican va lues qu ite much, and they are the imm igra tion o fPuritans and the Dec laration o f Independence.1..The Imm igrat ion of Puritans. In 17 th century, agroup of people thought that the Church ofEngland w astoo Catho lic and they w anted to purify the Church.How ever the ir be liefs w ere heret ica l to the Church of Eng land, so they had to leave there because they w erere lig iously persecuted. In 1620, one hundred and two people reached North Am er ica and began new life there from then on. They hoped to bu ild a city upon a hillan ideal commun ity, w hich w as equa,l free, and w ith..out persecution. A fter they came, they strugg led very hard to surv ive in the comp lete ly strange env ironm en.t N ow adays Puritans are no longer in ex istence there,but the ir legac ies are still show n in Am erican soc ietyand va lues. W hat. s more, they estab lished a string of into lerant moralism. They be lieved that governmentsshou ld enforce God mora lity. The Puritans have leftrich culture heritage to futureAmericans. So theAm er.. ican va lues such as ind iv idua lism ow e very much to the Puritan be liefs.In American society, peop le think h ighly ofAm er..ican D ream: It is the be lief that any individua,l no matter how poor, can ach ievew ealth and fame through diligence and v irtue. It symbo lizes the American belief in equalizing o f opportunity. Besides th is, American Dream a lso affects people. s hard w orking ideas. Theyall believe that d iligence and efforts are the key to get success. Anyone, no m atter what h is status is, can succeed by hard w orking. This is also a reason w hy A.. merican peop le cherish time so much. They like to fillthe ir life w ith w ork and never w aste time, and some peop le even fee l gu ilty w hen they have noth ing to do. What. s more, imm igration also brough t Puritan..ism intoAmerica, wh ich has shaped American people.s worldv iew and philosophy a lo .t A lthough it does not make America a complete Christian nation, it still changes people. s va lue.2..The Dec laration of IndependenceThe Declarat ion o f Independence w as mainly draf..ted by Thom as Jefferson and adopted by the C ongresson Ju ly 4, 1776, when the people of 13 English co lo..n ies in North America w ere fight ing for their freedom and independence from the Br itish co lonia l ru le. The documen t dec lares that a ll m en w ere equal and that they w ere entitled to have some unalienab le rights such as life, liberty, and the pursu it of happ iness. On onehand, it show s Am er icans. common characters in pur..suit of equality, liberty, and happ iness; on the otherhand, it guarantees Am ericans. pursu its and rights ina government leve.l So w e can tell that the Declarationo f Independence has shapedmost of theAmerican coreva lues., ..Conc lusionAm erica is an imm ig rated country, so peop le. sva lues are diverse, w hichm akes th is na tion havem anyun ique features. A s to its orig ins, the imm igrat ion cul..ture has shaped the country. s developments as w e ll aspeop le. s values, and at the same time the Declarationo f Independence show s and guarantees peop le. s valuesand r igh ts.[ 参.. 考.. 文.. 献][ 1] .. L loyd E. Kw ast. Understand ing Cu lture[M ]. Ju lian Pub..lisher, 1998.[责任编辑.. 张晋海]& 406&郭贇/ Ame rican Value and Its Or ig in。