Isn’t it curious how some traditional American characteristics like blue jeans or Coca-Cola products can be found in the most remote places, such as Himalayan villages or the French island of Bora Bora? Or how soccer is played in all parts of the world? Cultural diffusion and globalization explain these peculiar phenomena. While some believe that that these two notions have a negative impact on society, others believe they on the contrary have a good impact. Personally, I agree with the latter.
Cultural diffusion was defined in 1980 by American anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber as “the diffusion or spread of cultural material” (Kroeber, 1940). Since culture is a community’s way of life, cultural diffusion is the spread of ideas, beliefs, religions, languages, and technologies from one culture to another. It helps in explaining why for example a same artifact is found in two different civilizations.
Cultural diffusion has always existed. In the Middle Ages, The Crusades caused significant change in the Middle East, bringing European ideas and products to the region, although forcefully. However, The Crusaders brought back to Europe elements of the Arab culture. This exchange of cultural elements enriched both cultures. In the early 15th century, during the Age of Discoveries, the European explorers brought their own culture wherever they went and at times forced it upon the original inhabitants of the discovered land, like in the case of Northern and Southern America. Colonization is another example of forced cultural diffusion, the best example of which being Lebanon and its still prevailing French culture. Some of the best aspects of Lebanon today, including its democratic political system are due to the French colonization...
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...hat both of these processes should be monitored carefully as they are evolving rapidly, and one should keep in mind the negative aspect of these processes and their consequences and hence work to avoid them.
Works Cited
Al-Rodhan, N. Geneva Center for Security Policy, (2006).Program on the geopolitical implications of globalization and transnational security. Retrieved from website: http://www.sustainablehistory.com/articles/definitions-of- globalization.pdf
Barger, K. (2011). What is ethnocentrism?. Manuscript submitted for publication, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, .
Goldstein, M., King, G., & Wright, M. (n.d.). Diffusionism and accultration. Unpublished raw data, Department of Anthropology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, .
Mikdashi, M. (2012, February 12). What is cultural terrorism ?. Jadaliyya
During this era of global history from 632 to 1352 C.E, it is seen that the societies began to interact with other cultures leading to cultural diffusion which would have both positive impacts, such as new trade goods, on societies along with negative effects, such as being conquered, on these societies as well. The documents provided show these benefits and harmful factors of cultural diffusion during this global era. Documents one, two, four, and five show some of the negative effects of global interaction. Within this group document one, four and five shows how societies have a direct negative impact on each other. On the other hand document three and six show how global interaction can have a positive impact on societies.
But as true as this may be, many cultures have evolved. They've exchanged. They've interacted with other cultures, and by doing this they have been a part of cultural diffusion. But
The modern world is linked through networks of communication and exchange between peoples. These exchanges between regions has changed cultures, economics, and politics. Through time the cultural influence between regions has consisted of many factors and elements but comes down to the spread of religion and religious teachings , movement of peoples, technological and cultural advancements affecting trade and commerce. Beginning with the Middle Ages in the years 1100-1500 , Africa, Asia, and Europe developed and influenced each other in several different ways. Starting with religion. The birth of Islam in the Middle East rapidly spread throughout Afro- Eurasia. Islam was attractive to people who were uninterested in the requirements of Christianity and the Church.
When you go to the mall to pick up a pair of jeans or a shirt, do you think about where they came from? How they were made? Who made them? Most consumers are unaware of where their clothes are coming from. All the consumer is responsible for is buying the clothing from the store and most likely have little to no knowledge about how it was manufactured, transported, or even who made the clothing item and the amount of intensive labor that went into producing it (Timmerman, 3). In my paper, I will utilize the book Where Am I Wearing? by Kelsey Timmerman and the textbook Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by Kenneth J. Guest to examine globalization in the context of the clothing industry.
Following Steward, existing explanations of migration and cultural diffusion as explanations for the formation of cultural systems became inadequate. Thompson, argued that simply acknowledging that migration had happened was not enough to explain culture-systems but that the processes that propelled migration were important (Thompson 1958: 1). Leslie White, went on to propose that cultural systems functioned as a reaction of humans and their environment and as a result, the materials created, relate to the relationship to their environment via means of tools, techniques and symbolism (White, 1959:8).
Cultural diffusion is the method in which a characteristic or idea spreads from place to place. With diffusion there is always a place of origin, referred to as a hearth or node. Hearths appear when people are willing to try something new and have the necessary resources to do so. There are two types of diffusion: relocation and expansion. Relocation diffusion refers to the spread from one place to another through physical movement such as immigration. Expansion diffusion is the spread from one place to another in an additive process. There are three different categories of expansion diffusion: hierarchical, contagious, and stimulus. Hierarchical diffusion pertains to the spread of ideas through people of power to other people or place. Contagious diffusion is a fast spread from one place to another in a way that the flu is spread, from person to person. Lastly, stimulus diffusion is the spread of a certain concept but not the actual characteristic itself. Hierarchical diffusion is still among the most popular form of diffusion but is slowly being taken
The definition of the cultural imperialism in the Cambridge dictionary is simply as one “culture of a large and powerful country, organization, etc. having a great influence on another less powerful country." Yet to get the real and important meaning of cultural imperialism, we have to know more than its basic dictionary definition.
"The emergence of the basic paradigm for early diffusion research [was] created by two rural sociologists at Iowa State University, Bryce Ryan and Neal C. Gross" and gained recognition when they "published the results of their hybrid corn study"(Valente and Rogers, 1995, paragraph 1 ) in 1943. Post World War II agriculture experienced a boom in "technological innovation" and "as a result…U.S. farms became business enterprises rather than family-subsistence units…concerned with productivity, efficiency, competitiveness, and agricultural innovations"(Valente and Rogers, 1995, paragraph 11 ). These concerns lead to many agricultural studies based on the diffusion paradigm developed by Ryan and Gross. In their studies, Ryan and Gross were able to show that diffusion was a "social process through which subjective evaluations of an innovation spread from earlier to later adopters rather than one of rational, economic decision making" (Valente and Rogers, 1995, paragraph 22 ). From this they developed the paradigm for diffusion research, consisting of four parts: "(1) the innovation-decision process for an individual farmer, including the sequential stages of awareness, trial, and adoption; (2) the roles of information sources/channels about the innovation; (3) the S-shaped rate of adoption, a curve that was tested as to whether it fit a normal distribution; and (4) the personal, economic, and social characteristics of various adopter categories (i.e., classification of individuals on the basis of their relative earliness in adopting an innovation)"(Valente and Rogers, 1995, paragraph 23) Gabriel Tarde, a French sociologist in the early 1900s, "identified the S-shaped curve of the rate of adoption of an inno...
As culture is being learned and transmitted from one generation to the next, there is the question as to how it is being learned? And does it change? Banking on the simplified definition of (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel, 2012) culture is learned through communication. This entails social interactions among people with common understanding of symbols, shared values and beliefs, and rules as a product of reciprocal information processing (Lustig, 2006).
Cultural-diffusion is different cultures mixing together, gradually. This diffusion can be with religion, technology, language, or anything else. Cultural diffusion happens anytime two cultures meet, and the Europeans and Indians meeting was not an exception. Some ways that cultural discussion happened is when the Europeans showed the Native Americans their technology. In addition, there was also cultural diffusion, because food from Europe was brought over to the Americas, and than food from the Americas were brought over to Europe.
There are different ethnicities, religions, and nationalities (Your Dictionary). One example that cultural diffusion relates to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo by the citizenship of the Mexicans who remained in the territory acquired by the United States. The Spanish language, the Mexican traditions and the Mexican culture spread through the U.S. The mixing of cultures in Texas developed new cultures like for an example the Laredo’s annual George Washington’s Birthday Celebration. The celebration is American- style mixed with the Mexican food and colonial gowns worn by men and women. Laredo embraced the diverse roots and the tradition of change that defines Texas (Ken Collier). An example of different languages is when the Spanish explorers turned the Caddo word for friend into tejas. Even to this day many people come to Texas to make it their own home while bringing in new customs and ideas. An example of cultural diffusion is the idea of political culture. Political culture is the shared values and a belief one has about politics to discuss the foundations and debates. Observers believe that the rising number of Hispanics will lead to a Democratic electoral majority in Texas (Ken Collier). Another example is the traditional political culture that can be seen in East Texas. Texas continues to change with different cultures coming and going. Immigration as well brings
From Korean Pop stars to dramas, South Korea has it going on. It seems that there is not one Asian country that has not had the Korean Wave, a Chinese term given to South Korea referring to the exportation of their culture, completely wash over it. What started as an Asian sensation, the Korean Wave is now beginning to spread globally, ranking South Korea as one of the top countries known for its exportation of culture. Between music, television, and video games, South Korea’s economy is rapidly increasing as the world continues to fall in love with its entertainment industry.
Cultural concepts are the outline of life. These concepts work with and complement each other. There are sayings such as “you are what you eat” and “you’re a product of your environment” These sayings only hold true if you believe you were put on earth to serve a purpose. There are some that believe your design for life has already been made and there are those that choose to believe the outcome of your life is what you make of it. Every choice you make redesigns your life’s path. I choose to believe in the saying “life is what you make it”.
Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people…Culture in its broadest sense of cultivated behavior; a totality of a person’s learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning (http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html).
Anthropologists define the term culture in a variety of ways, but there are certain shared features of the definition that virtually all anthropologists agree on. Culture is a shared, socially transmitted knowledge and behavior. The key features of this definition of culture are as follows. 1) Culture is shared among the members of that particular society or group. Thus, people share a common cultural identity, meaning that they recognize themselves and their culture's traditions as distinct from other people and other traditions. 2) Culture is socially transmitted from others while growing up in a certain environment, group, or society. The transmission of cultural knowledge to the next generation by means of social learning is referred to as enculturation or socialization. 3) Culture profoundly affects the knowledge, actions, and feelings of the people in that particular society or group. This concept is often referred to as cultural knowledge that leads to behavior that is meaningful to others and adaptive to the natural and social environment of that particular culture.