Cultural Diffusion And Imperialism Cultural Studies Essay

World has now become a planetary small town. By planetary small town what we mean is that everything is available to every individual through the procedure of free information flow ( Ascher, 2010 ) . Globalization has brought everything closer and that has happened through cultural diffusion. Now to understand what cultural diffusion is, we foremost have to hold a just thought over what is diffusion. Second there is good defined procedure through which a civilization is diffused in other civilizations and makes it grade.

This civilization diffusion affects international concern to the nucleus because when we say that globalisation have made its presence felt in the planetary economic system, we see that it is at that place because of civilization diffusion in different ways. This has besides lead to come kind of cultural imperialism which we shall discourse in length in paragraphs to come.

Culture diffusion happens when non stuff and material civilization travels to another civilization ( Wise, 2008 ) . How this happens is a million dollar inquiry which needs to be answered right and to the point.

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To hold a profound cognition over how it happens we go to the rudimentss of it which is civilization fireplace. Now civilization fireplace is a topographic point where civilisations foremost began and so they spread to different countries. Nowadays civilization fireplaces are considered to be in those states which are good developed and whose civilization gets diffused to other developing states because they have to be in tandem with each other so to hold a good and feasible trade.

If we talk by sing the present universe and international trade, we see that this cultural diffusion has spread many cultural passs wherever they got a opportunity to acquire diffused. Sometimes this spread is so rapid that no 1 can happen out its beginning, timing and spread. There are two different ways in which a civilization is diffused to another civilization ; one is socialization and another is Assimilation ( Howes, 1996 ) . Both are the ways in which civilization is diffused in another civilization. In socialization what happens is that some cultural traits of strong civilizations are being taken up by weak civilizations like in ancient times we see that Spain had some cultural traits which are taken from Aztecs. Similarly if we see illustrations in the modern universe we observe that a really common recognizing 'hello ' is besides a cultural trait which is being taken by many civilizations as a salutation by default. Why that happened so? Because it has its roots in western universe and as West dominated for the last two centuries, all the trade, regulations and policies were being written and implemented by Western states which influenced weak civilizations to follow the salutation and many other things which now we call globalisation.

On the other manus, another manner in which a civilization can be diffused is through assimilation. In assimilation what happens is that civilizations are intertwined with each other in such a manner that it is difficult to separate between where its beginning had been. Lashkar-e-taibas for illustration when Arabs came to Indian Subcontinent, the Indians had nil than a piece of fabric worn up to their articulatio genuss with an unfastened jacket as their waistcoats but Arabs brought a new civilization of a full length suit of fabric covering whole organic structure. Now after centuries the Mongols and the warriors from Afghanistan brought minor alterations to the original frock which made people easy to transport, walk and most of all made it best garb which can be used for combat intents besides. End consequence was that the whole thing got assimilated with each other so rapidly that there was small difference left between what people wear in Arabian states chiefly the indigens of Arab Emirates and the people wear in subcontinent. It specially pertains to the dressing of work forces.

Other thing which effects diffusion is the cultural barriers, clip and distance hold and in conclusion physical barriers ( Rauth, 2004 ) . Cultural barriers includes things which are non acceptable to other civilization at any cost for illustration Mc Donald came up in India with its different Burgers chiefly in beef but as Indians hold cow as sacred, they do non travel for it so Mc Donald have to present veggie Burgers alternatively of beef as local cultural barrier ne'er allowed any assimilation or acculturization to take topographic point. In clip and distance hold, diffusion is hampered because clip and distance which it would take to make another civilization would be more and so would go less ineffectual for illustration Eskimos who live at poles, their civilizations and manner of life is different from us and still they are yet to hold civilization diffusion ( Howes, 1996 ) . Time and distance hold is slightly linked with the physical barriers besides which besides helps in doing things bad for cultural diffusion to take topographic point for illustration the terrain which is really tough to go through would evidently do things worse for people to go hence doing it difficult to spread a civilization or likewise a crisp conditions alteration would besides make a physical barrier for civilization diffusion to take topographic point as it would be hard to take things from one civilization to another as civilization traits differ from each other or non even shut to each other.

That civilization is diffused either in expansionary diffusion or relocated diffusion ( Said, 1994 ) . We have seen that expansionary diffusion have taken topographic point in most of the topographic points in universe where West civilization is being adopted by the elite and now it is being transmitted to the lower terminal of the population. This kind of diffusion is known as hierarchal diffusion in where the spread of a new civilization takes topographic point from top to bottom. Example of this is the java stores like star vaulting horses, which had no construct in south Asia but they are brought by Westerners who came here for concern intents. They foremost inculcated the tendency in elect and now it is being adopted by every individual as it have has transformed many old booths for betel foliages and coffin nails into java stores. Similarly blackberries ; many corporate clients have this appliance in their custodies which is pulling other upper in-between category people to hold it excessively so to hold some satisfaction. Other types include resettlement diffusion which happens when people take their inventions with them to a new topographic point like for illustration Jews. Jews in Europe were truly good in scientific cognition and due to their shrewdness they were being victimized and were sent to concentration cantonments. When after the universe war they relocated themselves in different parts of the universe, they went with their cognition and inventions which brought a batch of prosperity around the Earth. Another illustration of it can be AIDS which spread through resettlement diffusion as disease is carried by one individual who migrates to another society with holding a different civilization.

Now as diffusion is discussed at length, we now see that whether cultural imperialism can be established through cultural diffusion? Yes to some extent I would hold to it because in international concern when there is trade and goods flow from one topographic point to another, it non merely takes a new merchandise across the boundary lines but besides takes its civilization to another topographic point. In other words degree of diffusion depends on the factors discussed above and besides on a civilization being strong as to the civilization where it is being diffused as being weak ( Hobson, 2010 ) . Like for illustration the tendency of suits around the universe, from where it came? It came and assimilated in our civilization because it was being followed by a strong civilization or in cultural fireplace which is American and Europe and from there it diffused to all parts of the universe. Work force 's formal suiting 's, as we all know, have such an importance that now if a south Korean concern baron demands to make a trade with his Indian opposite number to open up a micro chip mill in Delhi, they would be following their ain concern regulations and formalities but their garb would be formal and would follow the strong civilization 's frock codification which is to hold a formal frock suit. Furthermore the insouciant frock in China, a decennary ago was non denims and a tee shirt but now they have taken the affect of American civilization as it diffused into their society but why? Because more than 70 per centum of China 's trade is bound for America so Chinese have adopted some patterns of American civilization which shows us that yes there is diffusion of civilization but that does non turn out cultural imperialism at any point ; people went towards tee shirts and denims because they were easier to manage, harmonizing to the immature coevals, as comparison to traditional campaign suits for work forces and traditional Chinese for adult females. Apart from this, cultural diffusion does non reflect cultural imperialism for illustration whole universe is following more or less same accounting rules so the regulations of debit and recognition are same so to connote that it is a merchandise of a peculiar state or it is a portion of any civilization would be a gross error. Yes it 's true that methods of accounting were foremost brought up by Chinese but important alterations were made throughout.