文化接触(culture contact)
因不同文化传统的社会互相接触而导致一方或双方体系改变的过程。分成三种类型：涵化（acculturation）、同化（assimilation）以及融合（amalgamation）。涵化是指当两个群体接触时，其中一个群体以直接或间接的方式，干预另一群体的物质文明、传统风俗、信仰等；这是几个世纪以来一民族以政治控制和军事征服等手段，对另一民族建立统治时所产生的特有现像。同化是指民族传统不同的个人或群体被融入社会上占支配地位的文化的过程；通常他们是移民或孤立的少数民族，虽然彻底同化很少见，但由於和主要文化进行接触并加入主要文化所形成的生活中，慢慢失去大部分原来的文化特色而接受新的文化，变化大到已经无法区分。例如在美国，数百万从欧洲来美国的移民，经过重新安置、学校教育及美国生活中其他因素的影响，在两、三代之内几乎完全被同化。融合则是两文化接触时，彼此的文化因素在混合过程中结合起来，而不是被消灭。例如在墨西哥，经过几个世纪後，西班牙人文化和印第安人文化已日益融合成一体。
English version：
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 takes place when one people 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 numerous 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 owing to 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, Spanish and Indian cultures became increasingly amalgamated over centuries of contact.