AMERICAN CULTURES

REQUIREMENTS were REVISED
with the release of a new edition of the merit badge pamphlet during 2005

Additions are highlighted by bold underlined text.
Deletions are shown struck through in red italics, like this text.

Click Here for the OLD requirements

To see the NEW requirements without the changes highlighted,
Click Here

Choose THREE TWO groups that have different racial, cultural, national, or ethnic backgrounds, one of which comes from your own background. Use these groups to meet requirements 1, 2, and 3. Also complete requirement 4 and either requirement 5a or 5b.

  1. Do TWO of the following, choosing a different group for each:
    1. Go to a festival, celebration, or other event identified with one of the groups. Report on what you see and learn.
    2. Go to a place of worship, church, clubhouse, school, or other institution identified with one of the groups. Report on what you see and learn.
    3. Talk with a person from one of the groups about the heritage and traditions of the group. Report on what you learn.
    4. Learn a song, or dance, or poem, or story which is traditional to one group, and teach it to a group of your friends.
    5. Go to a library or museum to see a program or exhibit featuring one group's traditions. Report on what you see and learn.
  2. Imagine that one of the groups had always lived alone in a city or country to which no other groups ever came. Tell what you think the city or country might be like today. Now tell what you think it might be like if both the three groups you chose lived there at the same time.
  3. Tell about some differences between the religions and social customs of the three two groups. Tell about some ideas, or ways of doing things that are similar in the three groups, which are almost the same in both groups.
  4. Tell about a contribution made to our country by three different people each from a different racial, ethnic, or religious background such as black American, white American, native American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American, or any other background of your choosing. Their backgrounds may be religious, as well, such as Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc.
  5. Do ONE of the following:
    a.     Give a talk to your Scout unit troop or school class at school on how people from different groups have gotten along together. Lead a discussion on what can be done to help various groups understand one another better.
    b. Tell about some achievements of the United Nations accomplished by people of many cultures and beliefs working in one organization. Tell how the U.N. has dealt with some problems caused by conflicts between different groups.

BSA Advancement ID#: 17
Pamphlet Revision Date: 2005
Requirements last updated in 2005

Page updated on: November 18, 2021

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