Propositional Culture: A View from the Margins -- Part I

The Marginal Man

It is in the mind of the marginal man that the conflicting cultures meet and fuse. It is, therefore, in the mind of the marginal man that the process of civilization is visibly going on, and it is in the mind of the marginal man that the process of civilization may best be studied.¹

During the course of a lecture in one of my university spanish classes, my professor of spanish literature, the late Eliverio Chavez, introduced us to the work of sociologists Robert E. Park and Everett Stonequist and their Marginal Man Theory. Briefly, as a result of migration, the Marginal Man, who need not be of mixed-ethnicity, is an individual who, for some reason, must find a way to live in two (or more) diverse cultural groups.²

Whereas Park and Stonequist applied their concept to the results of migration, in his own work, Dr Chavez applied the concept to the results of colonization, specifically the colonization following the annexation of the southwest by the United States.³ For purposes of this particular lecture, Dr Chavez focused on the experiences of third or fourth generation family members — that is, the third and fourth generations following the annexation of the southwest. The first two or three generations live in rather insular communities, still speaking predominantly at home and among extended family and friends their native language, they still listen to radio and watch television, read books, magazines, and newspapers in their native language.⁴ If possible, they will watch movies in their native language also.

By about the third or fourth generations, the process of assimilation has taken significant hold. Children in these generations will begin to make “out-group” friendships, and may struggle with the native language, if they learn it at all, and usually only in order to communicate with older relatives — grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles. As members of those generations pass away so will one of the main reasons for maintaining facility with the family's native language in the first place. This generation experiences something of a double life, fully invested in two diverse cultures, feeling (for example) neither “american” nor “mexican”, but expected, depending upon circumstances, to be either — on demand. With respect to the two cultures, this is a marginal existence. The marginal person’s inner life is experienced as a crucible, in a sense. I say in a sense because unlike a true crucible, there is no truly, fully formed product emerging. If anything, the marginal man is a living instantiation of a Hegelian dialectic, living in a never-ending process of synthesis:

Studies have suggested that a bicultural existence produces an identity neurosis in which marginal man suffers from emotional conflicts engendered by the impact of dual-cultural membership, especially by factors related to culture conflict. The neurosis is intensified when the marginal person attempts to assimilate to the dominant group and meets with rejection, and the condition reaches its apex when the marginal individual is also rejected by the subordinate group. The latter rejection often occurs when the minority group perceives the individual as a sellout, a vendido who has repudiated the values of the subordinate group. Thus, the marginal person lives on the margin or two or more cultural societies without achieving total integration in either of the sociocultural groups.

The theory of the marginal man was introduced by Park and elaborated by Stonequist. In his exposition on the theory of the marginal man, Stonequist outlined the etiology and development of this identity neurosis. He defined a Life Cycle in which the marginal individual progresses through three principal stages. First, there is an “introduction” to the marginal situation which is usually a subconscious state of unawareness. Second, the individual enters a state of “crisis” in which [he] is aware of the cultural conflict. Finally, the marginal man advances to a stage called “adjustment” in which he attempts to cope with his identity crisis.

Stonequist presented various psychological adjustments which function as an alleviation of the mental and emotional disorder that marks the marginal individual. First, [he] can attempt to assimilate to the dominant group; however, this process is usually accompanied by a repudiation of his native culture and an identification with the admired and envied majority group. In addition, this solution is often characterized by feelings of self-hatred and self-rejection based on a discrepant perception of the parental culture. Another possibility is to assimilate to the subordinate group. This is often the case when the minority member is resentful of the discrimination and oppression suffered by the subordinate group, and as a consequence, the individual reacts by rejecting the dominant. This rejection is usually a defense mechanism that is often characterized by hatred toward the dominant group. Another response to the identity neurosis is withdrawal and isolation, or removal from the social situation. This manifestation can be a temperate symptom such as social or an emotional detachment or it can be as severe as a pathological retreat from objective reality. On the other hand, physical removal from the social situation is difficult to achieve, except by escaping to another geographic area. With some marginal individuals the culture conflict does not appear to be resolved except for temporary periods in which the individual fluctuates between polar identities. Finally, the social situation can produce in some individuals a process of disorganization, a state of personal anomie that finds expression in delinquency, crime, suicide, and mental instability.⁵

Note Dr Chavez’s use of the word impact in the first sentence, suggestive of trauma.

I am not one to wear his heart on sleeve, but I live in the penultimate state, fluctuating back and forth between polar identities. As a personal observation, matters are worse in circumstances in which the two worlds come together at the same time and in the same place. If, as sociologist Charles Cooley has said, “I am not who you think I am… [but] who I think you think I am,” then how can I, at the same time and place, be who I think members of two diverse — and conflicted — groups think I am? This truly is a life-or-death question: in the last sentence of the above passage, Dr Chavez refers to suicide as one possible expression of the inability to make the necessary psychological adjustments. The fact is, further studies of marginal man theory confirm that marginal individuals exhibit distinguishable psychological characteristics.⁶

The difficulties for the marginal individual, described by Dr Chavez in the passage quoted above, especially the psychological afflictions, suggest that the relation between an individual and his culture is thick, that cultural distinctives are not easily adopted or cast off. One does not assimilate into a culture as one does the army; and one does not become a soldier simply by enlisting: the army makes one a soldier; and it is neither easy nor painless. Our cultural distinctives are almost as much a part of us as our hair color. I didn’t merely grow up in a hispanic community; I didn’t merely learn spanish. I am not just a white guy with a spanish surname. I am hispanic; and yet, as I turn 60, I am not, not really, not anymore. (I will say more about that in a forthcoming article.)

Now, the fact that one does not enter a culture as one does the military — or a bowling league, for that matter — does not mean, as I might be understood to claim, that one must be born into a culture. But it does mean that, regardless where one is born, one must be assimilated into a culture. Assimilation takes time, less so if one is born into it (if only because one need assimilate only a single culture), but more so if entire groups are to be assimilated into a new, dominant culture after having previously been born — and assimilated — into another one. The fact is, assimilation, when completed, should be something very much like a re-birth, or perhaps even a sort of resurrection. Living in the new culture will eventually require dying to the old one, hence the trauma experienced by the marginal person, who is almost literally, a man without a culture. It is for this reason that assimilation usually takes a few generations.

And frankly there is very little that the host (or dominant) culture can do about the difficulties encountered by the marginal person, very little that the dominant culture can do to make it easier.⁷ This includes apologizing for requiring assimilation, as well as recognizing the reality of culture in the first place, which I will address in the following article.

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Note: this is the first of what I anticipate to be four parts. Part 2 is here.

1. Robert Ezra Park, “Human migration and the marginal man,” American Journal of Sociology (1928), here. I am re-publishing this and the second part. I pulled them because I got bogged down in another project and would not be able to publish parts three and four in a timely matter. That time has passed.

2. See also, Eliverio Chavez, “The Relationship between Chicano Literature and Social Science Studies in Identity Disorders,” Céfiro: Enlace Hispano Cultural y Literario, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Spring 2003), 5-18 (available, free and in english, here). There is some overlap of concepts such as Marginal Men and Third Culture Kids, and it may be that the concept of Third Culture Kids is of greater utility, and that the phenomena described by Marginal Man theory can easily be subsumed under TCK theory. Both groups experience identity crisis, feeling rootless and restless, different from their peers, difficulty forming a stable sense of identity, and feeling connected to two different worlds, but not truly belonging to either. See e.g., David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken, Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds (Nickolas Brealy, 2017).

3. Dr Chavez was actually a professor of sociolinguistics, and taught in the Chicano Studies curriculum; teaching upper level spanish literature courses came with the territory.

4. For example, my paternal great-grandmother lived her whole life on the King Ranch, in Texas, and consequently never learned english.

5. Chavez, “The Relationship between Chicano Literature and Social Science Studies in Identity Disorders,” at 6 -7.

6. See Paul D. Star & Alden E. Roberts, “An Empirical Test of the Marginal Man Theory,” Sociological Abstracts 26 (1978): n. pag.

7. The problem is exacerbated when the need for assimilation is the result of conquest: unlike immigrants, conquered peoples do not seek to adopt a new culture or way of life; they are, therefore, necessarily resistant to it. It is for that reason that, for example, latinos and other hispanics, are called sell-outs: they have submitted to their conquerors. There is something to the claim that one hears by some hispanics of the southwest: “I didn’t cross the border; the border crossed me.” (Note: I am talking about descendants of those who lived in the annexed territories, not about anyone who has immigrated from south of the border — legally or not.)