disassimilation

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   catabolism (metabolism with the release of energy)

   • It shows that the brain is not important to the proper performance of the functions of assimilation and disassimilation—or those of organic life.
   • There is a white-black substance which when acted upon by the visible rays of light undergoes disassimilation and sets up nerve impulses that arouse in the brain the sensation of white.
2. 2

   The act of becoming less assimilated or integrated, particularly of ethnic groups.

   • Judging from the autobiographical texts of these three authors, Natives often mixed assimilation with a degree of disassimilation.
   • At this point, "a process of disassimilation begins. The arts, life, and ideals of the nationality become central and paramount; ethnic and national differences change in status from disadvantages to distinctions."
   • I see Jewish Renewal as a late twentieth-century articulation of what I called the second stage of disassimilation of American Jews, its constructive/ illustrative phase.

The neighborhood

• antonymassimilation
• neighbordisassimilate