Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers a comprehensive map of the implementation of cultural canons that strive to enact specific behaviors in the individuals exposed to them. It examines the cultural conquest: how are normative cultural devices like obligatory language, political systems, social narratives, and other mores, implemented in spaces subsequent to military invasion, land seizure, or other annexation. Transnational American Studies inquiries regularly begin with the presupposition that "America" (and its transnationalisms) can be understood as cohesive units, or series of communities with contiguous and relational characteristics, that can be categorized. The book describes material culture from several disciplines, with particular focus on the institutionalization of specific cultural ideas as representative. It considers the theoretical conclusion of the patria/ patriot concept and its trans– and hyphenated subdivisions.