American culture is unique because it is formed and developed under certain conditions. The major factors contributing to the making of this new nation and the forming of a new culture are the hard environment, ethnic diversity (多民族) and plural religion, which is quite different from other nations in the world. What is more, these elements are still influencing the American culture.
The early immigrants who were English Puritans settled down in northeast part of America. From 1607 to 1892, frontiers were pushed further west. The frontiersmen (拓荒者) looked for a land of rich resources and a land of promise, opportunity and freedom. Actually they looked for a better life. So individualism (个人主义), selfreliance, and equality of opportunity have perhaps been the values most closely associated with the frontier heritage (遗产) of America.
In history, people from different countries in the world rushed to America three times. They brought their own culture to America and later on, different cultures were mixed together. Thus the unique American culture is formed, a common cultural life with commonly shared values. The fundamental American belief in individual freedom and the fight of individuals to practice their own religion is at the center of religious experience in the United States. The great diversity of ethnic backgrounds has produced religious pluralism (多元化); almost all of the religions of the world are now practiced in the United States.
Nowadays, we can see the continual influence of the three elements in the current American society. American family is typically parents and their unmarried children. Middleaged and elderly people generally do not live with their married children. The people in America have a very strong desire to start a new life in a new place. Quite a number of people change residences every year. The average American moves fourteen times in his lifetime.
