In Piaget's theory, the process of incorporating new information into existing cognitive schemas without changing them.
From Latin 'assimilatio' meaning 'a making like,' from 'assimilare' (to make similar).
Assimilation is fitting new stuff into what you already know — like calling every four-legged animal a 'doggy' when you're little!
Assimilation policies disproportionately burdened women, who were expected to abandon native languages, dress, and kinship systems. Colonial and post-colonial assimilation frameworks often weaponized expectations of feminine domesticity.
Use with critical awareness of power dynamics. Acknowledge that assimilation strategies are not culturally neutral and often erase women's agency and knowledge.
["cultural integration","acculturation","cultural adaptation"]
Indigenous and immigrant women resisted assimilation by maintaining languages, ceremonies, and practices within families—an often-invisible labor of cultural preservation.
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