culture contact

Contact between peoples with different cultures, usually leading to change in one or both systems. Forms of culture contact traditionally include acculturation, assimilation, and amalgamation. Acculturation is the process of change in material culture, traditional practices, and beliefs that occurs when one group interferes in the cultural system of another, directly or indirectly challenging the latter to adapt to the ways of the former. Such change has characterized most political conquests and expansions over the centuries. Assimilation is the process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnicity are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society—though not always completely. In the U.S. millions of European immigrants became assimilated within two or three generations; factors included the upheaval of overseas relocation, the influences of the public school system, and other forces in American life. Amalgamation (or hybridization) occurs when a society becomes ethnically mixed in a way that represents a synthesis rather than the elimination or absorption of one group by another. In Mexico, for example, Spanish and Indian cultures became increasingly amalgamated over centuries of contact.

Learn more about culture contact with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Contact means to touch physically or to communicate with.

Contact may also refer to one of the things below.

In social interaction

• Social contact, a person known to an individual, possibly on a different basis than friendship
• vCard or hCard, in address books, a contact is the name, address, phone number, and other pertinent information
• First contact (anthropology), between different cultures
• Amateur radio contact, an exchange of information between two amateur radio operators
• To actually touch in some way, be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual

In science and technology

• Contact mechanics, a mathematical approach for calculating the stresses and deformations when two objects are pressed against each other
• Contact process, a method for producing sulfuric acid on an industrial scale
• Active component of an electric switch or electrical connector
• Contact (mathematics), the idea of curves (for example) touching
• Optical contacting, a process in which two highly polished surfaces are permanently or temporarily joined without use of any adhesive
• Radar contact, the display of a single radar return from an object as a result of one radar sweep. (Compare with track)
• Contact paper, in photography, used to print negatives without enlargement
• The Contact Conference, an annual interdisciplinary scientific conference

In professional terminology

• Contact (law), in Family Law, deals with the right of parents or other significant persons to meet with and relate to a child
• In military parlance, a contact is an encounter with the enemy that results in an engagement. Especially common in Britain and British-trained or derived former Commonwealth armed forces

In healthcare

• Contact lens, a corrective, cosmetic, or therapeutic lens
• Contact massage, massage that is done by hands or special electronic aids

Companies and organisations

• CONTACT USA, a Crisis Hotline
• Contact Air
• Contact Energy, an energy company in New Zealand

Media

Albums

• Contact (Fantastic Plastic Machine album), an album by Fantastic Plastic Machine
• Contact!, an album by Eiffel 65
• Contact (Silver Apples album), an album by Silver Apples
• Contact, an album by The Benjamin Gate
• Contact (Thirteen Senses album), an album by Thirteen Senses
• Contact (Indo G album), an album by Indo G
• Contact (Minori Chihara album), an album by Minori Chihara
• Contact (7for4 album), an album by 7for4

Songs

• "Contact", a song by Thirteen senses from the above album
• "Contact", a song from the broadway version of the rock opera Rent
• "Contact", a song by The Police from their 1979 album Reggatta de Blanc
• "Contact" (song), by the French rock band Kyo.
• "Contact" (Phish song), an early Phish song

Other media

• Contact (musical), a dance musical
• Contact (novel), a science fiction novel by Carl Sagan
• Contact (film), a movie based on the book
• Contact (Macedonian film), a 2005 Macedonian movie starring Nikola Kojo
• Contact (video game), a Nintendo DS game
• Contact (Dance), a dance production by Paul Mercurio
• Contact (The Culture), in novels by Iain M. Banks, the Exploration (and sometimes military) corp of the Culture
• Contact (game), a word-guessing game
• Contact is English for Contacto, a publication of the British Interlingua Society

Other

• Contact sport

See also

• 3-2-1 Contact