American Values

American 15 Core Values by Williams and Assignment Explained (see below)

For this assignment, you will be exploring Online exhibits at the Smithsonian Institute.

Select a Museum (not an art gallery, portrait gallery, Zoo, or Garden) from this link: Our Museums, Galleries, and Zoo (Links to an external site.)

Regardless of the site you choose, you will need to:

1. You are going to have to find 15 different objects in the Smithsonian Museum.
   1. They can be all from one museum or from different Museums.

There must be one object that illustrates each of William’s American Core Values in  Cerulo, K. A. (2008). Social Relations, Core Values, and the Polyphony of the American Experience. Sociological Forum, 23(2), 351–362 (Links to an external site.)

• For each object:
  • Put the URL of the object
  • Cut and Paste an Image of the Object
  • Explain 2 specific things you learned about the object from the Smithsonian write-up 
  • Explain which American Social Value it represents and why.

Type up your submission (with a reference page for your exhibits). You should have about 1/2 – 1 page for each object.

Submit a PDF of your responses. It should have a cover page and an identifiable filename.

American 15 Core Values by Williams

American 15 Core Values by Williams

This list was developed by a Sociologist, Robin William (not the comedian) in the 1970s. Think about which are still relevant today and which ones you feel are not.

Williams List of Central American Values

1. Achievement and Success as the primary goal of every individual.
2. Activity and Work, with little emphasis on leisure and a disdain for laziness.
3. Moral Orientation, including the absolute judgments of good and bad or right and
4. Humanitarianism realized through philanthropy and aid to those in need or crisis.
5. Efficiency and Practicality as demonstrated by seeking the fastest and least costly means of achieving a goal.
6. Process and Progress—a belief in future development and technological advancement.
7. Material Comfort, sometimes articulated as ‘‘the American Dream.’’
8. Equality in its most abstract form—as an ideal rather than a policy.
9. Freedom expressed by emphasizing the rights of the individual over the state.
10. External Conformity, meaning that one strives to be a ‘‘team player’’ and does not ‘‘rock the boat.’’
11. Science and Rationality as the primary vehicles by which to master the environment for material benefits.
12. Nationalism and the belief that U.S. values and institutions are the very best in the world.
13. Democracy based on personal freedom and equal opportunity.
14. Individualism or the emphasis on personal rights and responsibilities.
15. Racism and Group Superiority or the edification of a white, Anglo-Saxon, or northern European racial background.

Karen A. Cerulo. (2008). Social Relations, Core Values, and the Polyphony of the American Experience. Sociological Forum, 23(2), 351. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2008.00065.x

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