Culture and Globalization Essay

Undeniably, the coming of globalization has changed so many concepts and ideas as regard to culture as well as societies, religions and traditions in the world today. Ideas that had been clearly defined in various societies such as good or bad, unity in societies, what is right and wrong have been destroyed by the corruptible nature of globalization. A lot of local languages are facing extinction, with traditions that where held in high esteem and being guarded have now disappeared and have been consumed by globalization. Culture as a word or concept was gotten from a Latin word, ‘cultura’ which means to cultivate. Globalization can be presented as an alienator of value systems found in societies by bringing in new values that favors globalization alone at the expense of the already cultural values found on ground. When the word culture comes up, it comes along with values and norms of people that make them live in a particular way. Norms and values in societies have been destroyed. Local foods have gone or are almost extinct due to the influence that globalization has negatively brought on cultures. Also, the unique nature of a local culture is broken thereby leading to a loss of identity most especially in societies that are facing globalization in a very fast growth level. Culture has been threatened also by the political decisions brought in by globalization. To also mention further on the evils of globalization, it pushes individuals to become aware of the context in which they find themselves. For example an individual from Plateau State in central Nigeria knows that smoking cigarette is against societal values, and while smoking the individual sees an elderly person, that individual smoking will try to hide the cigarette from the elder, but when that same individual travels out of Nigeria to the UK and while smoking sees someone elderly, there will to a very large extend be a repeat of the same reaction back in Nigeria, but sadly the society the society here does not chastise the individual but rather makes the person feel it is a normal thing, and so forget about whatever values or culture you grew in, do what you like. Again most cultural societies especially in Africa and Asia place high respect to older people in the society. Some cultures do not accept younger children calling their elder siblings or relatives with their first names, but rather a title must go before the name for example Aunty Amara in an appropriate way to call an elder sis or older family relative. Globalization in its negative nature has been and is continuing to break this norm is so many traditional societies. In other words a resident society looses its cultural identity and those moving into the resident country also loose their own cultural identity. The coming of media has indeed brought so much decline in societal norms and traditions, TV shows have taken over stories that elders, parents and grand parents use to bring younger generations out mostly in the evening or night time to tell them with the aim of building great values such as respect, trust, honesty, love, differences between good and bad/evil and many others to help build a great future for the younger generation and in keeping with the way of life of such communities. Here in England, the Football Association had to change a long traditional chain of giving best players each month with a bottle of champagne. Yaya Toure, a football that plays for Manchester City won the player of the month award and when he was presented with a bottle of champagne, he refused based on his religious grounds and the FA had to change this old tradition to favor the global world of football and the player as well.

Doubtless, globalization has affected certain values rooted in major religions and cultures of the world. Concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, individualism and pluralism, cultural invasion and cultural imperialism, social isolation and declining social solidarity,

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