Acculturation Among the Louisiana French

Abstract

The current obscurity enveloping the social process of acculturation challenges the analytical and descriptive skill of the sociologist. Louisiana, settled by a gradual infiltration of numerous and diverse European stocks, as well as a variety of distinct African types, offers an unexcelled laboratory for a study of this phenomenon. Of particular interest in this respect is the extent to which the white elements in this extremely heterogeneous mass have been absorbed into the French (mainly Acadian) culture of south Louisiana. Deiler, in a pioneering study of acculturation, demonstrated beyond all doubt the Germanic origin of many well-known Louisiana "French" family names. The assimilation fo the Spanish and Anglo-Saxons by this virile group was even more significant, since it took place in spite of official efforts to accomplish the opposite. A social survey conducted in 1934 in two Louisiana parishes having a large Acadian population revealed entire households of various ethnic elements other than French who nevertheless claimed French descent and spoke French by preference. This transformation of the heterogeneous diversity of ethnic elements into the homogeneous Acadian ethnic and cultural unity resulted largely from the presence of the following factors: (1) the intermarriage of the Acadian and French maidens with the masculine newcomers; (2) the dominance of the Acadian mother in child-rearing; (3) the influence of the Catholic priets; (4) the espirit de corps of the French-speaking people which engendered imitation; and finally, (5) the ways of life of the Acadians.