Globalization Effects on Local Culture Richard, Sohou November 26, 2013 Mercer University ELI

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Before any connection, talking about globalization without knowing what it is, is like trying to heal a sick people without knowing his illness. What does globalization mean? Thats the big question that everybody should have an answer before entering this domain. According to Ira Rifkin (2003) in his article Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization, globalization can be defined in three levels even though it seems abstract to be defined. First of all, in the economic view, globalization is the expanding of assets, international financial markets, and all this on the support of some industries and transnational agencies in a way that there is no longer boundaries between nations or states. Second, he says on a cultural level, globalization refers to the spread of what has been pejoratively termed McWorld_shorthand for the Western-oriented (many say American) global mono-culture that is burying countless regional and even national cultural expressions in avalanche of MTV, Disney, Michael Jordan endorsements, and, of course, McDonalds-style fast food. Third and finally, Rifkin (2003) states that individually it has completely changed life, behavior, and lifestyle of human beings by the means of its advanced technology and by pretending promote individual values. However, that results in the rapid change of the society in way that deeply disturbs many people because of some issues such as the big difference between rich and poor. From this definition of globalization and the different level of life that it can affect it is imperative that globalization has significant effects on the local culture mostly in the developing countries. Although globalization produces a few positive results, it is a major source of big upheaval in the third world today for three reasons: loss of identity, change in clothing behavior, and change in eating habit. Globalization is completely destroying local culture especially in many developing countries. This destruction can be seen among youth of such developing countries. And they are losing their own identity by choosing foreign culture. That is the cause of many factors, such as

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some products brought from developed countries as the USA and the Europe, the free market system, and capitalism spread through globalization. That happens because the young today are so filling of western culture throughout many means such TV, music, movies. In Globalization and local, The Levin Institute, State University of New York writes that the amount of these product has importantly increased in cultural products and services by international trade. As a result, more this trade is rising up, more the societies are exposed to foreign product which mostly promote western values instead of local culture, so in this chain people will be likely abandoning their own culture. After this reflection, it is clear that because of globalization, not only is international trade spreading rapidly, but the culture, the foreign customs, and values are spreading with it. Moreover, the age between childhood and adulthood is a period during which the young adult are about to make many change in their life and they are so vulnerable that they mostly tend toward absorbing foreign customs that is sometimes seen as the beautiful ones, everything they can see in movies is about the lifestyle of American people. The way of eating, clothing of American people is always full of passion for the young who the most dreams about being like those that they can see in these movies. Heaven and Tubridy states in their articles Global Youth Culture and Youth Identity that as a threat globalization through capitalism marginalize non-western culture (non-developed countries) identities and ways of being. The young of these developing countries such as in Africa and Asia are trapped or lured into a different culture that is not theirs due to the big problem that these countries faced: the economic issues. Since there have been such disintegrations, crucial issues have rose which are loss of linguistic, historical and religious traditions, and the failure of family support organization. From all this, it is obvious that the young are lost in such atmosphere; they lost their own way of life, their customs and value and then everything above. When that happens, the only thing for these

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young to do is to be embedded in the global culture to the detriment of their own values and mores, as Sir Seretse Khama, Botswana's first President said "a nation without a past is a lost nation, and a people without a past is a people without a soul". Does this bring out an important concern round this phenomenon global culture? If so, it is clear cut that the people of countries in which that happened and is happening are lost. The second thing that emphasizes the negative effect of globalization on local values is the change of cultural dressing and clothing behavior. A well dressing function is defined in the article Social and Intercultural Relations in Nineteenth-Century Zanzibar: Dressed Identity by Ivan Vander Biesen of Catholic University of Leuven, Tervuursestraat, Belgium, Dressing can be seen as a daily practice that constitutes the human body and denes its boundaries. It socialises and culturalises individual human beings by using visual markers which help the human body to position itself within a gender- , social-, and ethnical context. Moreover, the culture of dressing is inextricably interwoven with the cultural, historical and anthropological patterns of a culture. For any human being, identity is not something that exists only between the ears, but it aects the whole body: it is not just an idea or a feeling, but something which is expressed in social, cultural and human behaviour by all means. We all have gender, age, ethnicity as well as social and cultural features, and they comprise our whole body. Clothing helps us to externalise this embodied identity. It provides a layer between our skin and the outer world, but also a cultural framework and a visual language that enables us to communicate our identity. (Biesen, 2009) From this definitions, the clear idea that clothing is a pillar of the culture is now obvious and changing it can be one of his death. In many African countries culture is a major part of the people lives and their nations, and their history. They are always acting to protect their culture through teaching it to the young generation but this is totally broken down by the fact of globalization which valorize the foreign customs. The abandon of the way African dress to the

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western dress is a result of this valorization. That changes the culture and also does not respect the human body like it is usually done in the local culture. This problem affects many people mostly the young who are grow up in this atmosphere. Oonk G. (2011) points out how globalization constrains people to change clothing habits. Because the young traders are exposed to foreign culture and they have seen different types of dress, fashions and garment, they want to alter their own cultural habit of clothing. A clothing culture in which they have been raised that introduces them to constraints on what to wear and how to behave according to clothing. Despite all this education, they decide to dress like foreign people do. And that shows how globalization can have negative impacts on the whole cultural system. Thus, the main reasons that the young prefer this kind of clothes instead of cultural way of clothing are principally some of the ideas spread through globalization such as freestyle and the freedom of dressing. Furthermore, this fact has been also observed in Asian culture precisely in China by John Tomlinson (2003) in his article The Revival of Quipau. He explains that these days it is most often to see a girl wear clothes from one of the most modern small boutique called Mu Zhen Liao in the Wang Fu Jing district of Beijing in China. These fashionable clothes are from classical Chinese clothing: elegant qipau cheongsam and well-made jacket in a beautiful silk and other traditional fabrics. Despite the fact that all of this have been made by the wealthy Manchurian elite in the Qing dynasty of 1700-1800, these clothes have nothing similar to the traditional Chinese clothes. A girl who is wearing this kind of clothes will be watched by many people; and that because ten or fifteen years ago, neither a shop like Mu Zhen Liao nor this kind of clothes will be allowed. Yet, globalization through Dengs policy, as it is mentioned by Hayashi T. (2003) in this article Chinas Open Door Policy Towards Foreign Direct Investment: A Game Theoretic Interpretation, First, the government created Special Enterprise Zones (SEZ) in the selected

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coast cities. A set of the preferential treatment is granted to the foreign enterprise invited in SEZs with a restriction on the transfer of profits to home. Then in the second phase of the open door policy, the government lifted the regulation on the participation of foreign capital in the domestic enterprises and the ban on profit transfer., opened up both Chinese economy and culture lifelong that the process of globalization has brought. Though this is killing the traditional way of clothing of ancient China through what Chinese could express all their customs and rites. Finally, this articles mentioned that many developing countries are losing their culture, especially the way of clothing because of this kind of deep intrusion within culture in order to spread as much as possible the western culture of developed countries. The third big problem brought by globalization is the change in the eating habit all over the world, especially in some developing countries. Since gastronomy is proper to a country to another it is obvious that each culture has his own way of eating and that is, of course, part of their customs and values. And impairing this habit will crucially impact the culture and have other challenge on the whole cultural system. Because of its great influence on the world economic system most people see in the globalization as the invasion of American culture or USA until a term word was created to refer to this concept, Americanization. As it is mentioned in this article Globalization and Local Culture by The Levite Institute, State University New York, one aspect of Americanization is the spread of US food which has negative effects on the values in the societies. It is seen in the fact that in many part of the world, food represents an entire culture and making change can bring great dislocation on local eating habit. Two examples on this dislocation can be observed in the concern about French unique cuisine and US fast food. Another is the change in traditional culture and mores in countries like Italy. McDonaldization, the term used by the sociologist George Ritzer, which means the

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expanding of McDonalds companies. This expanding of the food company, negatively change all customs of the way food is eaten by local consumer. In other words, the totally change, even in the way people use food in their traditions from how to cook to how to eat food, will lead to great upheaval which can deeply disturb all concern related to the customs of this country. Consequently, there might be some conflict in order to fight against the intrusion and that can cause negative effects on whole systems of the culture. Indeed, in most African societies there is a set-up of the family that goes until the way of eating. That is what called family interconnection in which every member in the family is connected to the others in anything. So this idea shows how there is not full independence or privacy in the way it is view by foreign culture but that is the way it is since decade in their traditions. Afterward, a typical African family will have the habit of eating together in the heat of the family instead of the loneness that is promoted in the foreign culture through the fact of globalization. According to Anderson & Paul (2008), Adam (2005, 2008), Oishi (2010), Yuki & Schug (2012), in the article Mother and Wife the typical family sitting in West Africa is emphasized with embedded interdependence. Everyone, from child to an adult, is relatively connected with a solid family root, link, where there is no choice between privacy, and everything is shared together in this community- based on kinship, from eating habit to a lifelong communal coresidence. There is no break between the relationships on the family. According to Henrich et al. (2010), in contrast to the African culture, a WEIRD (Western educated industrial rich and democratic) typical family setting is most likely to be independent with eating in an individual setting. Also a high mobility, and self-catering residence apartment where being independence is more promoted for each one to act as a free agent. If people begin to eat alone not anymore with family member, then they are getting western cultural habit. And this is how globalization affects people way of life in all part of their

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culture as it is argued in this articles. Much African values are preserved in all this habit including eating habit, but not anymore now, and this is the result of widespread of Western food. Globalization have been tough subject for the fact that it is negatively affecting the culture in most cases in the developing countries. Because of the globalization, many countries in Africa and in Asia are losing their values to detriment of the foreign ones. And this lead to the fact that the young are changing in the way of life or lifestyle that is seen in the fact of the change in clothing behavior. Also, globalization has impacted the habit of eating in many cultures instead of eating together habit to which the families are accustomed. They are now adopting and eating fast food from US culture. I refer the reader back to the expression about a nation and his past; culture is necessary in the lifelong of a nation and people, and globalization should be a soft mix of culture without determining the other culture.

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References

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2013 Heaven, C., & Tubridy, M. On The Outside-The Marginalisation of Cultural Difference. Global Youth Culture and Youth Identity. Retrieved from http://www.tachbik.ma/documents/da619779-5Global%20Youth%20Culture%20and%20Youth%20Identity.pdf. Retrieved on November 25, 2013. P 5-6 http://www.thuto.org/ubh/bw/skquote1.htm. Retrieved on November 25, 2013 Khama, S. (1970) A Nation without a Past is a Lost Nation. Retrieved from Oonk, G. (2011). Clothing Matters: Asian-African Businessmen in European Suits, 18801980. Comparative Sociology, 10(4), 528-547. doi:10.1163/156913311X590619. Rifkin, I. (2003). Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization in Dollahite, N. E., & Haun, J. (2012). Sourcework:academic writing from sources. (2 ed.). Boston: Heinte/ Cengage Learning. P 176-177 Salter, P. S., & Adams, G. (2012). Mother or wife? An African dilemma tale and the psychological dynamics of sociocultural change. Social Psychology, 43(4), 232-242. doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000124.

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The Levite Institute, State University of New York. Globalization and Local Culture in Dollahite, N. E., & Haun, J. (2012). Sourcework:academic writing from sources. (2 ed.). Boston: Heinte/ Cengage Learning. P 179-180 Tomlinson, J. (2003). The Revival of the Qipau. Globalization and Cultural Identity. Retrieved from http://www.polity.co.uk/global/pdf/GTreader2eTomlinson.pdf. Retrieved on November 25, 2013. Vander Biesen, I. (2009). Social and Intercultural Relations in Nineteenth-Century Zanzibar: Dressed Identity. African & Asian Studies, 8(3), 309-331. doi:10.1163/156921009X458136. P 2-3

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