Homogenized Culture
12
Way of Life
Solutions
Integration Into Majority
- Establish organizations or programs
- Cultural Survival, The Linguistic Society of America, Global Heritage Fund (Stewart).
success
lesser known cultures decline
Majority overshadows minority
opportunities
- Promote cultural diversity
- Celebrate cultures
- Clubs and festivals
- Emphasis on foreign language
- Limitation: cultural drift may be inevitable
- Alteration of culture
- 20th century immigrants ("Americanization")
- Loss of knowledge
"Seventy-eight percent of the world’s population speaks the 85 largest languages, while the 3,500 smallest languages share a mere 8.25 million speakers."
-Russ Rymer in "Vanishing Voices"
Diversity
- Exchange of new information, items, and methods
- Different viewpoints and beliefs
- Homogenized culture >> same mentality and perspective >> lack creativity
- example: Japan
Should minor cultures lean toward integrating into more common cultures in favor of having more success and opportunities?
Conclusion
- Each culture should be appreciated
- Work together without discrimination
- Wary about overmixing
"Flags." Photograph. Ulatus Translation Blog, 14 Jan. 2015, www.ulatus.com/translation-blog/the-importance-of-culture-in-translation/.
Individuality
"This developing consciousness of the wider world influences our sense of identity . . . we incorporate aspects of other cultures through our lifetime into our sense of self, resulting in a bicultural identity that combines a local identity with an identity linked to the global culture."
-Steve Melluish in "Globalization, culture and psychology"
Argument
Connection
- "A Letter to My Nephew" by James Baldwin
- Frida Kahlo
Kahlo, Frida. Self Portrait Between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States. Painting. 1932.
Minor cultures should be preserved in order to keep diversity and to protect various ways of life and origins.
Works Cited
"Americanization." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition, Mar. 2017, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/
login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=39043484&site=ehost-live.
Baldwin, James. "A Letter to My Nephew." Progressive.org, The Progressive Inc., 1 Jan. 1962, progressive.org/magazine/letter-
nephew/.
Kahlo, Frida. Self Portrait Between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States. Painting. 1932.
Melluish, Steve. "Globalization, Culture and Psychology." International Review of Psychiatry, vol. 26, no. 5, Oct. 2014, pp.
538-543. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3109/09540261.2014.918873.
Rymer, Russ. "Vanishing Voices." National Geographic, July 2012.
Simon, William. "Immigration and Americanization." The Heritage Foundation, 12 Aug. 2005, www.heritage.org/
immigration/commentary/immigration-and-americanization.
Stewart, Ryan. "Cultural Preservation Is Often Overlooked - Here's Why It's Important." Day Translations Blog, 11 Sept. 2017,
www.daytranslations.com/blog/2017/09/cultural-preservation-9737.