Crossing the Cultural Divide
How is culture affected by globalization?
As the world becomes more integrated, different traditions and ways of life are influenced by the outside world. For some communities, this can be a beneficial thing as opportunities develop, but there’s also the danger of losing specific cultures to an encroaching wave of Westernization.
Have you ever traveled to another country? Where did you go? Whether you went to Mexico, Belgium, or China, you might have noticed some things that you would find in your hometown, such as a McDonald’s fast food restaurant or Coca Cola in stores. You might hear music by Beyoncé on the radio or see people wearing Levi’s jeans. These are just a few examples of how culture is spreading and mixing throughout the world.
Culture is a set of values, practices, beliefs, interests, and customs shared by a group of people. That group can be a few hundred people living in a small town or millions of citizens of a country. In addition to spreading goods and services around the world, globalization exposes people to new ideas and experiences. In many cases, people adopt some of these new ideas, which can cause their own cultural values and traditions to change.
Globalization has opened the door to more interactions between cultures than at any other time in history. Some people believe that creating a global culture is good, bringing the people of the world together and helping all of us understand one another better. Other people are not so sure. They believe that globalization is causing the permanent loss of valuable local cultures and traditions.
CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION
Cultural globalization is the process by which one culture’s traditions, values, and ideas spread throughout the world. Often, it occurs through the sharing of language, arts, food, business ideas, technology, and pop culture.
For example, people in the United States enjoy listening to South African music and reading Japanese comic books. Have you ever looked at a manga book? India’s film industry, known as “Bollywood,” creates movies that are popular in India and other countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. American television shows are popular in Europe and other countries.
Clothing and fashion have also become globalized. Today, fewer people dress in national and regional traditional clothing. When was the last time you saw a Scottish man wearing a kilt? In many parts of the world, business professionals usually wear suits, while young people often dress in jeans and T-shirts, no matter where they live.
The Statue of Liberty has long been seen as an icon of welcome for foreign immigrants to the United States.
credit: National Park Service
Food is another example of cultural globalization. People in England eat Indian foods, while people in Argentina enjoy Japanese sushi. At the same time, American fast food chains have spread throughout the world. In particular, the worldwide expansion of McDonald’s has become a symbol of globalization.
After starting out as an American restaurant in the 1950s, McDonald’s first spread across the United States, and later across the world. Today, more than 36,000 McDonald’s restaurants thrive in more than 100 countries. Menu items such as the Big Mac are the same all over the world. Globalization has brought McDonald’s to billions of people. What do you think this means for people’s diets?
A TWO-WAY STREET
The United States’ long history of immigration has brought a constant stream of new ideas, cultures, and traditions into the country. It began with the first colonial settlers, from France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. It later expanded to include immigrants from China, Eastern Europe, Italy, Germany, Africa, and South America.
People have embraced ideas from other cultures, especially related to food. Italian, Chinese, French, Thai, and Mexican food are widely popular in many regions of the country. Moroccan, Korean, Vietnamese, Cuban, and Peruvian foods are all growing in popularity. In fact, according to one survey, 77 percent of Americans eat ethnic foods at least once a month, and more than one-third eat ethnic food weekly.1
Americans have also adopted customs and language from other cultures. Have you ever sung karaoke? This is a form of entertainment developed by the Japanese. Have you swung at a piñata at a birthday party? Piñata have been part of Mexican culture for centuries, after being brought to Mexico by the Spanish. Do you put your thumb up to signal “Okay?” That’s a Western custom now used by people around the world.
CAUSES OF CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION
What causes cultural globalization? How do the ideas and traditions of one culture spread to another? Traditionally, ideas and culture have expanded when people—explorers, tourists, or businesspeople—travel from one country to another. These visitors share their own ideas and customs with local people. They also bring back foreign ideas and culture to their home country.
Advances in transportation, technology, and communication have speeded up the exchange of ideas between cultures. It is easier than ever for people to travel to different countries and share culture with the people they meet. Even without physical travel, the internet, cell phones, and social media instantly connect people around the world. People can go online to learn about people and cultures across the globe. If you are going on vacation to another country, what’s the first thing you might do? Search the internet!
Traditional media outlets, such as television and newspapers, also spread cultural globalization. Today, news organizations often establish regional branches that expand a particular worldview to new regions.
Foreign words such as “taco,” “kindergarten,” “croissant,” and “café” are regularly used by people across the United States.
For example, the United States’ CNN and Great Britain’s BBC news organizations have international branches that spread Western perspectives around the world. After starting as a cable news network in the United States, CNN now reaches more than 200 million households in more than 200 countries and territories. At the same time, RT, a Russian news organization, and Al Jazeera, a Middle Eastern news organization, have Western divisions that offer their countries’ views on world events.
Hollywood movies and television shows are seen by millions of people around the world. These films and their portrayal of American life, values, and culture have a significant influence on culture around the world. Western celebrities reach a global audience of millions with pictures of their latest outfits or their opinions on current events and important causes.
RIPPLE EFFECTS
Cultural globalization has brought many benefits to people worldwide. For example, people have a deeper understanding and empathy for members of other cultures. Every day, people use the internet to learn about tribal cultures in Africa or to chat online with people from Indonesia. Schoolchildren in Africa can skype with an author living in England.
Yet while globalization increases our understanding of other cultures, it can also promote stereotypes. For example, many people around the world think that all Americans are rich. People who live in the United States know that is certainly not true.
Where did so many people get this idea? American movies and television shows promote the stereotype of the rich American. Televisions shows from the 1990s and today, such as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Dallas, and Gossip Girl, showcase the comfortable lives of wealthy Americans. What other popular television shows portray a lifestyle that belongs to only a very few people?
Critics of globalization also argue it threatens the diversity of individual cultures. Each culture has traditions, beliefs, and customs that make it unique and different from other cultures around the world.
As the world is linked together by technology and transportation, some of these differences are fading as people adopt practices and ideas they have learned from other cultures. The world’s largest and most dominant cultures are becoming larger and more influential, often at the expense of smaller, local cultures. In particular, critics are concerned that Western cultures, specifically American culture, are taking over the world.
Watch this video to hear why Chinese youth find Western culture attractive. How can sports and fashion continue to be part of the improvement of relations between countries?
China Youth PBS 2012
WESTERNIZATION OF CULTURE
What would the world be like if every place felt like America? For some people, this is a major concern, as Western traditions and customs are being adopted worldwide. Large American companies have opened stores and restaurants in countries around the world. American films, television shows, books, and music can be found everywhere, from a village in Peru to a high-rise in Hong Kong.
The overwhelming presence of Western and American culture around the world has led to concerns about Westernization or Americanization having a negative effect on local cultures. People around the world own Apple iPhones, wear Levi’s jeans, drink Coke, and eat McDonald’s Big Macs. English is often the common language used in international business and professional contacts.
Critics point out that globalization is forcing people around the world to become more similar. Diverse cultures could lose their own ideas, languages, and customs as they are replaced by popular Western culture.
Concerns that local cultures are becoming Americanized have led some governments to intervene. In France, local radio stations are required by law to play French songs at least 35 percent of the time. In addition, France requires television programming to be at least 40-percent French and 60-percent European.
By limiting the amount of American content that plays on radios and televisions, the government hopes to preserve local French culture. However, some people oppose these quotas because they limit the choices people have.
In recent years, there has been a backlash against cultural globalization. Some people, especially those who live in the Middle East and Africa, feel as if Western and American culture and values are being forced on them. In fact, many terrorist groups believe that Western influence is harmful to Muslim society. Groups such as Al-Qaeda resent Western culture and believe the United States and the United Kingdom are trying to dominate the world, with both military and economic forces.
For the September 11, 2001, attack on the Twin Towers in New York City, terrorists flew airplanes into strategic U.S. targets.
credit: Mike Goad
While they oppose globalization, many terrorists take advantage of the technology, transportation, and other advances that have been made possible by globalization. Terror groups frequently use the internet to promote their ideas and coordinate followers all over the world. Planes and other modes of transportation make it easy to travel and coordinate attacks in other countries.
What do you think? Is the world in danger of becoming too Americanized? If so, what can societies do to maintain their own cultures and traditions?
REINFORCING LOCAL CULTURES
In some ways, globalization can be a way to reinforce and strengthen local cultures. For example, technological advances in India give many people access to satellite television. While satellite TV can bring in broadcasts from other countries and cultures, it can also increase the number of regional channels available to the Indian people. Many of these regional channels broadcast Indian content. This gives viewers more opportunities to identify with local Indian culture.
Similarly, many multinational companies carefully consider the culture of the countries in which they do business, open offices, or sell products. For example, McDonald’s creates regional menus in its restaurants that incorporate local tastes and customs. In Japan, there are seaweed-seasoned French fries. Samurai pork burgers are offered in Thailand. And in Taiwan, kids’ meals come in reusable metal containers that are a local custom. Combining traditional customs with new global products is another way to reinforce and reaffirm local cultures.
In prior centuries, people were disconnected from other people and cultures. Because people were so separate and did not have a lot of interaction, they often felt little emotion for the challenges faced by others. For example, if an earthquake devastated China, destroying homes and killing large numbers of civilians, people in Europe were not greatly affected because they had no connection to China. They might not even know about the tragic event for days or weeks after it happened.
Today, globalization has connected people and cultures more closely than at any time in the past. Now, television news networks broadcast powerful images of famine, natural disasters, and war. By interviewing victims and showing the physical and emotional damage they experience, newscasters humanize an event occurring halfway around the world.
Such emotional reactions can motivate people to take action. In some cases, public opinion can put significant pressure on governments to take action. In 1992, news coverage of the crisis in Somalia put pressure on U.S. government officials to intervene militarily to prevent a famine. And in 2017, the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean inspired many people from countries around the world to donate money and supplies and to volunteer for relief efforts to aid the people affected by the storm.
In 1984, a British television documentary about famine in Ethiopia inspired a group of British musicians to organize a charity event to benefit the starving Ethiopian people. They called themselves Band Aid and recorded a song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and held a concert, raising nearly $15 million for famine relief efforts.
In 2014, musicians repeated the effort made by the original Band Aid and called themselves Band Aid 30, in honor of the event’s 30-year anniversary.
You can listen to the original Band Aid recording at this site. How timely are these lyrics today?
Band Aid song
The island of Saint Martin was hit hard by Hurricane Irma.
credit: Ministry of Defense, the Netherlands
CREATING GLOBAL VALUES
In some cases, globalization can do more than raise awareness and sympathy for people in need. It can also spread certain values related to issues of democracy, human rights, and health.
Some global institutions, including NGOs, multinational agencies, and government agencies, have promoted what they believe to be positive cultural values. These groups convey their ideas through mass communication, think tanks, education, and development projects. One organization, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 in recognition for its work to organize global efforts to end the use of landmines.
Landmines are containers of explosive material that detonate when triggered by contact with a person or vehicle. They are designed to severely wound or kill a person or damage a vehicle with an explosive blast. These mines are generally buried within 6 inches of the earth’s surface and are sometimes even laid above the ground. Most are placed by military groups during a conflict. Years after the conflict’s end, many landmines remain active and dangerous.
Jody Williams (1950–), the executive director of the ICBL, used the internet to spread information about the benefits of banning landmines. With a small staff and limited resources, Williams was able to build a global network of more than 1,100 groups for human rights, de-mining, and other humanitarian causes in more than 60 countries. These organizations worked around the world to ban landmines. Her work led to a significant international movement that shifted government attitudes toward the use of landmines.
PROTECTING LANGUAGES
As globalization has spread, so has the English language. Business, pop culture, entertainment, and more are dominated by English speakers. What might this mean for languages around the world? Some people fear the spread of English will mean the decline and eventual loss of some of the world’s native languages.
Linguists estimate that a language dies every two weeks.
Learn more about the loss of world languages and culture by reading this newspaper article. What is the connection between the environment and language? Why is biodiversity important both in nature and in culture?
Loss Languages Guardian
How can we keep the languages of the world from disappearing as the world grows more connected? By using some of the technology we share! When the last speaker of a language dies, the language dies with them, but if there are recordings of this language being spoken, that can help keep the sounds and memories of this language alive for current and future generations. You can listen to recordings of some of the last speakers of endangered languages at this website. How does it feel to know you are listening to a language that is on its way out of existence? What are the benefits of keeping language accessible even as its speakers die off?
Enduring Voices YouTube
In order to preserve language, some governments have imposed bans on what they determine to be a foreign intrusion of culture. In France, the French Academy routinely reviews for words from other languages, particularly English, and comes up with French equivalents. For example, “courriel” instead of “email.” Even the word “hashtag,” which is frequently used on Twitter and social media, was replaced with the French word “mot-dièse.”
In China, the government is also attempting to remove foreign words. Authorities reviewed the brands and names of more than 20,000 Western companies and forced more than 2,000 of them to change to more Chinese-sounding names.
Because of globalization, people who were once isolated can communicate and connect with people who live thousands of miles away. These connections make it easier to exchange ideas, customs, and traditions and help people from different cultures better understand each other. At the same time, globalization can cause cultures to become more similar, which may result in the loss of customs. By understanding these risks, we can work together to preserve valuable cultures and traditions.
•Who might see cultural globalization as a threat? Who might see it as a beneficial trend?
•Do you think a world in which everyone eats the same things, talks the same way, and consumes the same media would be a happy one? Why or why not?
PRESERVING CULTURE
As people share culture with one another, there is a danger that some pieces of a local culture will be lost and forgotten forever. What part of your life and culture do you want to save for future generations? What traditions are in danger of being forgotten and should be preserved?
VOCAB LAB 
Write down what you think each word means. What root words can you find to help you? What does the context of the word tell you?
indigenous, humanize, popular culture, stereotype, terrorism, traditions, and Westernization.
Compare your definitions with those of your friends or classmates. Did you all come up with the same meanings? Turn to the text and glossary if you need help.
•Imagine that you are living one thousand years in the future.
•What do you think the people then will remember about today’s world?
•Do you think they will be able to understand what daily life was like?
•What parts of our culture do you think will have survived?
•What parts may not have survived? Why not?
•Help a person living in the future better understand today’s life, culture, and traditions. Come up with a package filled with artifacts from your own life—objects, images, videos, recordings, documents, or other items. What will you include? Explain why you chose each item and its cultural significance.
To investigate more, consider that many local communities have a historic preservation board or committee. Find out what artifacts are being considered for preservation or issues that are being debated by the board. Choose an issue or artifact to investigate and create arguments either for or against preserving the artifact.
Currently, the United States has no official language. Federal legislators have proposed laws to make English the country’s official language, but no legislation has been passed to date.
•Using the internet and other sources, research state and national debates on making English an official language. You can start with the following articles.
•“States where English is the official language”
English official language WaPo
•“Do You Speak American?”
official American PBS
•As you learn more about the issue, consider the following questions.
•What are the benefits and drawbacks of having an official language?
•If there was such a law, what effect would it have on you, your community, your state, and the country?
•What does the debate about a national language reveal about American society and culture?
•Why do you think the United States does not have an official language?
•Now think about the issue from the perspective of another country. Many countries around the world have declared a national language. Choose a country to research and consider the following.
•Does this country have an official language?
•What other languages are spoken or used in the country?
•How is globalization affecting the country’s language(s)? How does this impact its culture?
•What steps has the country taken or not taken to protect its language? How effective have these measures been?
•Take a side and write a persuasive essay about whether or not a country should declare an official language. Be sure to discuss the importance of language to a culture and the impact of globalization on language. Does declaring an official language have an effect on globalization and the future of language?
To investigate more, consider the question, why should we study languages in school? Create a PowerPoint presentation that explains how language, culture, and globalization are connected.
Many indigenous cultures are facing a battle between traditional ways of life and globalization. As older generations die out, many of the culture’s traditions are dying with them.
•Use the internet and other sources to research a specific indigenous culture. You might choose the Maasai of Africa, the Wanniyala-Aetto of Sri Lanka, the Yanomami of South America, or another group of your choosing. Once you have chosen a group to investigate, consider the following.
•Where does the group traditionally live? What are the climate and environment like?
•What is their traditional lifestyle? How do they eat and gather food? What tools do they use to get and prepare food?
•What ceremonies, celebrations, or festivals do they observe?
•What role does the extended family play?
•What types of jobs do people typically hold? How do they get around?
•How are traditions passed from one generation to the next?
•Next, research how globalization has impacted these indigenous people and their culture. What changes have occurred in their environment, society, and political systems? What has caused these changes? How have these changes affected the group’s culture, beliefs, and traditions? Prepare a presentation to share what you have learned with your class.
To investigate more, imagine that you were going to live with this group for a week. What items from your culture would you bring with you? Why are these items important to you? How would they help you to live with this indigenous group? What would people from this group think about the items you have brought? Write a diary entry to describe your visit.
