7.3.1 Overview
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7.3.1 Promoting Language and Culture
What happens to language and culture in our globalizing world?
Why do groups fight to preserve their language and culture? How important is your language to you? How important is your culture to you?
If you are a member of the dominant culture, you may not have had much reason to think about this issue. But what if you had to learn another language to communicate? What if you could not communicate in English? What if no one around you celebrated birthdays, holidays such as Christmas, customs such as Halloween, or the joys of turning eighteen? What if no one you knew held the values that you and your family share? If you think about those things being taken from you, you will begin to understand why people want to keep to their languages and cultures. Language and culture are the most deeply rooted aspects of our identity. Without them, we feel lost.
In our pluralistic society, we believe that our differences make us stronger. We believe that the inclusion of other ways of living and thinking into our country or community enriches our lives. However, pluralism means that, while we accept others' differences, we want also to maintain our own way of life. Pluralism is in many ways inevitable in a globalizing world. Without pluralism, our world must develop one global culture where everyone speaks the same language, lives the same way, and values the same things — much like the "United States of Borg" from the poem read earlier.
Homogenization occurs when individuals and groups become more alike. Because of trade, migration, and technology, all people have access to the same goods, news, entertainment, and ideas. People begin to speak the same language, eat the same food, buy the same goods, and wear the same clothes. People around the world watch the same TV shows and the same movies, eat at the same fast-food restaurants, buy their clothes at the same chain stores, and listen to the same music.
Many people see homogenization as a negative force, reducing diversity and forcing everyone to be the same. Others see value in it because it allows people around the world to choose among various products, information, and ideas, deciding for themselves what is the best.
Accommodation occurs when one culture modifies itself to fit with another. Usually, these changes are small and allow the people to blend into the dominant culture while other and more important aspects of their beliefs stay the same.
For example, Ming's family immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong just before she was born. Although she speaks English at school, she also speaks Cantonese with her family. Although she dresses in western clothing, she also celebrates Chinese festivals and holds the same strong family values as her ancestors.
Watch this short video about the actions of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau in the promotion of Canadian culture and identity.
If you are a member of the dominant culture, you may not have had much reason to think about this issue. But what if you had to learn another language to communicate? What if you could not communicate in English? What if no one around you celebrated birthdays, holidays such as Christmas, customs such as Halloween, or the joys of turning eighteen? What if no one you knew held the values that you and your family share? If you think about those things being taken from you, you will begin to understand why people want to keep to their languages and cultures. Language and culture are the most deeply rooted aspects of our identity. Without them, we feel lost.
In our pluralistic society, we believe that our differences make us stronger. We believe that the inclusion of other ways of living and thinking into our country or community enriches our lives. However, pluralism means that, while we accept others' differences, we want also to maintain our own way of life. Pluralism is in many ways inevitable in a globalizing world. Without pluralism, our world must develop one global culture where everyone speaks the same language, lives the same way, and values the same things — much like the "United States of Borg" from the poem read earlier.
However, globalization presents great challenges to our cultural identities.
Integration occurs when two or more cultures join to form one culture that incorporates aspects of both.
For example, the 400-year-old church of Santo Tomás was built by the Spanish colonizers of Guatemala on the ruins of a Mayan temple. The eighteen steps leading to the doors represent the months of the Mayan calendar. The flowers and the incense are all part of the Indigenous Mayan religion. Inside the church, which includes a traditional Christian altar, are Mayan tablets on which worshippers present offerings in support of their prayers. Mayan priests and priestesses still use the church for their rituals, burning incense and candles and sometimes even burning a chicken for the gods.
While some degree of each culture is retained, other parts are lost, leading to a new culture.
Homogenization is the mixing of parts that are all the same.
Integration occurs when two or more cultures join to form one culture that incorporates aspects of both.
For example, the 400-year-old church of Santo Tomás was built by the Spanish colonizers of Guatemala on the ruins of a Mayan temple. The eighteen steps leading to the doors represent the months of the Mayan calendar. The flowers and the incense are all part of the Indigenous Mayan religion. Inside the church, which includes a traditional Christian altar, are Mayan tablets on which worshippers present offerings in support of their prayers. Mayan priests and priestesses still use the church for their rituals, burning incense and candles and sometimes even burning a chicken for the gods.
While some degree of each culture is retained, other parts are lost, leading to a new culture.
Homogenization is the mixing of parts that are all the same.
Homogenization occurs when individuals and groups become more alike. Because of trade, migration, and technology, all people have access to the same goods, news, entertainment, and ideas. People begin to speak the same language, eat the same food, buy the same goods, and wear the same clothes. People around the world watch the same TV shows and the same movies, eat at the same fast-food restaurants, buy their clothes at the same chain stores, and listen to the same music.
Many people see homogenization as a negative force, reducing diversity and forcing everyone to be the same. Others see value in it because it allows people around the world to choose among various products, information, and ideas, deciding for themselves what is the best.
Accommodation occurs when one culture modifies itself to fit with another. Usually, these changes are small and allow the people to blend into the dominant culture while other and more important aspects of their beliefs stay the same.
For example, Ming's family immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong just before she was born. Although she speaks English at school, she also speaks Cantonese with her family. Although she dresses in western clothing, she also celebrates Chinese festivals and holds the same strong family values as her ancestors.
Assimilation is related to accommodation, but it represents a more significant change. It occurs when people choose or are forced to
change their own way of life and beliefs to succeed in their community.
For example, most First Nations people in Canada and the United States were forced to give up their languages and cultures to survive when European immigrants became the dominant culture.
Marginalization occurs when people are excluded systematically from meaningful participation in the economic, social, political aspects of their communities. Whole categories of people are discouraged or even forbidden from true membership in society.
The victims of marginalization experience poverty, homelessness, and lack of opportunities. They are denied the chance to fulfill themselves as human beings. This can lead to feelings of worthlessness, the loss of community, and a lack of meaning in their lives. Marginalized people suffer greatly and sometimes resort to self-destructive acts, crime, and violence. Although often treated as a developing world phenomenon, marginalization also occurs in the developed world when certain groups such as women, young people, homosexuals, the disabled or ethnic minorities are pushed to the fringes of society.
For example, most First Nations people in Canada and the United States were forced to give up their languages and cultures to survive when European immigrants became the dominant culture.
Marginalization occurs when people are excluded systematically from meaningful participation in the economic, social, political aspects of their communities. Whole categories of people are discouraged or even forbidden from true membership in society.
The victims of marginalization experience poverty, homelessness, and lack of opportunities. They are denied the chance to fulfill themselves as human beings. This can lead to feelings of worthlessness, the loss of community, and a lack of meaning in their lives. Marginalized people suffer greatly and sometimes resort to self-destructive acts, crime, and violence. Although often treated as a developing world phenomenon, marginalization also occurs in the developed world when certain groups such as women, young people, homosexuals, the disabled or ethnic minorities are pushed to the fringes of society.
| "The faces of marginalized people are legion. They can be seen in homeless persons sleeping in the subways of Manhattan or under the bridges of the Seine. They are the faces of African children wasting away from diarrhea that could be prevented if only their desperate mothers knew how to put together a simple saline solution. They are the faces of struggling farmers in South Asia whose primitive agricultural methods have not changed for generations, of reindeer herders in the Russian Far East organising to fight for mineral rights to the land they occupy, of oppressed minority groups around the world still denied the right the vote." |
| Source: UNESCO Status and Trends, 2000 |
African teenagers using traditional drums on the side of the road, Kampala, Uganda
Courtesy Dawna Bates
Courtesy Dawna Bates
Watch
Watch this short video about the actions of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau in the promotion of Canadian culture and identity.