Assimilation: The absorption into a culture and being rendered similar (latin assimulare, "to make similar"). Originally, in the social sciences, this was thought of as a one-way process by which outsiders (usually immigrants) gave up much of their own culture and took on the characteristics of the dominant culture. Later research, however, suggested a process of reciprocal changes between host and immigrant communities. Nevertheless, in common usage, it still connotes replacing the old ways, especially the ways of marginalized people, with those of the dominant or mainstream culture.

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