Cultural leveling

Last updated

Cultural leveling is the process by which different cultures approach each other as a result of travel and communication. [1] It can also refer to "the process by which Western culture is being exported and diffused into other nations." [2] Cultural leveling within the United States has been driven by mass market media such as radio and television broadcasting and nationwide distribution of magazines and catalogs. [3] Some of these means and effects are considered artifacts of the Machine Age of the 1920s and 1930s. Today the interactions between countries worldwide have allowed the opportunity for intercultural dialogue.

Contents

Countries worldwide have undergone forms of cultural leveling. Some countries being more open to it than others. Japan, for example, has assimilated Western styles of dress and music into a blend or Western and Eastern Cultures. [4] Today, due to the crossing or travel and communication with time and space there is just about no "other side of the world" anymore, giving us the inevitable result of what is known as cultural leveling. [4] Eclecticism and cultural leveling both share a similar ideology in the separation of culture from human nature creating the potential risk or enslavement and manipulation. [5]

Cultural leveling is notably present in minorities instead of large cultures driven to aspire wealth and there is more commonality present in minorities. At times countercultures and subcultures may pose as a resistance to cultural change within society. Local cultures did diffuse across each other in earlier times as material items hence influencing a change in the cultural atmosphere. These diffusions have been part of most significant cultural changes in recorded history. To convey how fundamental the loss of diversity and the subsequent leveling have been, many sociologists such as Daniel Lerner amplified the opinion through the phrase "the passing of traditional society."

Relativism and cultural leveling seen as double threat

Baku (2009) asserted that relativism enables diverse cultures to coexist. Meanwhile, cultural leveling eliminates the cultural differences that make a person unique. [6] Further more there has seen to be a "commercialization of cultural exchange: that of cultural eclecticism and that of cultural leveling." [6] Cultural leveling results in the standardization of behaviors and lifestyles which sets out to create the danger for losing the significance of cultures and traditions of different countries. [6] Danger lies within cultural leveling such that indiscriminate acceptance of types of conduct and lifestyles. In this way one loses sight of the profound significance of the different nations, of the traditions of the various people, by which the individuals define himself in relation to life’s fundamental questions. [7]

Transnationality of people, places and cultures

It is evident that today that both local and global personal interconnectedness is becoming increasingly opaque. [8]

Der Querschnitt

The golden years of the Der Querschnitt ranged from 1924 to 1929 when it was edited and achieved the cosmopolitism of its contributions by Hermann von Wedderkop. [8] The journal of the Der Querschnitt contained comparisons of cultures, places and religions followed by the pace in which cultural leveling was progressing within a global perspective. [8] The Der Querschnitt makes the concept of cultural leveling quite easy to identify. The Querschnitt is not only a European journal, but a cosmopolitan one as well as it represents contemporary trends both older and newer. By the end of the twenties, people at both ends of the social scale danced to the same rhythms and listened to the same hit songs as high culture was replaced with a popular new version of the high art of reality, the music of mass entertainment, jazz, and the cinema. [8] These new trendy concepts claimed that boxing and jazz were the only interesting art forms of the modern age and "negro music" set the standards for what was new and stimulating. [8] These different changes were seen to be successful mainly because modernity in cities and regions and the interchangeable aspects of modern life fascinated individuals and provided them with a brand new way of life. [8]

Cultural products in Balkan countries

In the 1920s, cities in the Balkans underwent substantial changes. As a Japanese journalist reports, most of the hairstyles we know today were adopted from the styles and fashion from Tokyo. The hairstyle known as the bob cut used to be known as the new Geisha hair cut originating in Tokyo. [8] The entire region between Budapest and Istanbul displayed similar lifestyles of "jazz bands, gramophones, Chaplin posters, international press, nudist magazines from Berlin, comics from Paris, taxis, symptoms of women’s emancipation in the Turkish-Levantine salons." [8] Mass produced goods and multicultural unreality of everyday are two aspects of global cultural leveling displayed in the Balkans. [8] With all the chaotic co-existence of cultural products in the Balkans, reports have stated that it however does not actually frighten the visitor and that people should deal with the chaos of transnational influences that they are suddenly exposed to in the course of time. [8]

National resistance against international modernization

Reports from cities such as Prague and Budapest showed odd mannerisms and resistance toward modernization during a period of transition, as old European traditions, legends and monuments are deeply rooted in Prague. [8] Reports on Prague’s sense of national folklore and Budapest’s ambivalent modernity demonstrate how the world's old continent cities cope with cultural leveling. [8] The German, along with foreign correspondents typically tend to share the "New Sobriety’s" fascination with cultural leveling, while America was consistently referred to as the "cultural model of the future". [8] Mass culture and technological modernity are typically adopted by large major cities however old traditions place a strain on some cities when it comes to adapting to new trends. [8] Capital cities tend to imitate each other during the spread of cultural modernity. [8] For example, "in European capital cities, London was in the shadow of Berlin’s progressive modernity, while prior to that Berlin was in the shadow of Paris." [8]

Economic leveling process

Jewish scholar Erich Auerbach wrote in Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature that during the Second World War: "Beneath the conflicts, and also through them, an economic and cultural leveling process is taking place. It is still a long way to a common life of mankind on earth, but the goal begins to be visible." [9] Still, half a century later one hesitates to describe the globalization that was taking place as an "economic leveling process." [9] Meanwhile, Auerbach looked at cultural leveling with growing worry, however it was an unquestionable reality yet difficult to grasp. [9] "In an essay published in 1952, Auerbach remarked that Goethe’s concept of “Weltliteratur [lit. World Literature]” had become increasingly inadequate, explaining the difficulty of a philologist from a single cultural tradition to be able to approach a world in which so many languages and so many cultural traditions interact." [9] Erich Auerbach goes into depth about his belief that one must look for both starting points and concrete details from which the "global process can be inductively reconstructed." [9] In the conclusion to Auerbach's Mimesis, he stated "The ongoing unification of the world is most concretely visible now in the unprejudiced, precise, interior and exterior representation of the random moment in the lives of different people." [9] It is the same kind of class struggle approach in the cultural field that they had taken in the economic field, assembling the shortcoming against the privileged. Cultural leveling efforts were forcefully resumed during the early age among many individuals. [10]

Religion

Religion has always been a main source of cultural change and disruption. Numerous theoretical strategies have been used to explain religion and its role in society. But, in this age of consequent cultural leveling, no theory of religion would be complete if it failed to include the impact of cultural change on religions and the individuals who follow them. [11] Karl Marx, in the words of Brian Morris, believed that "religion was, in a sense, a secondary phenomenon and depended on socioeconomic circumstances. It could only be overcome, therefore, [12] when the circumstances that gave rise to religion were themselves transformed." [11] According to A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, "religion is a storehouse for the mores and ethics conducive to a well-functioning society and embodies truth and meaning, and the individual's role is merely one of assimilating the existing belief system." [11]

Negative and positive outcomes of cultural leveling

Consequently, through the development of cultural leveling it is evident that some of the negative impacts are the disappearance of dialect in the aspect where individuals who spoke different language gradually disappear as the society acknowledges one language. Other negative outcomes include: the reduction of cultural diversity where individuals lose the significance of being different, loss of cultural uniqueness, loss of cultural heritage, and struggle of accepting the results of cultural leveling. [13] Some positive outcomes of cultural leveling include: uniformity, cooperation, and efficient work(common understanding across the board). [13] Cultural leveling influences cultural aspects to unfold what challenges the present precepts of society.

Cultural leveling and Marxism

Communist leaders pursued cultural leveling not only because they remained committed to the Marxist doctrine of eliminating class distinctions, but also because of the distrust the old elites and were determined to prevent them from maintaining and reproducing their class advantage.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural anthropology</span> Branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans

Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term sociocultural anthropology includes both cultural and social anthropology traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habitus (sociology)</span> How individuals perceive and react to the social world

In sociology, habitus is the way that people perceive and respond to the social world they inhabit, by way of their personal habits, skills, and disposition of character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of sociology</span> Overview of and topical guide to sociology

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the discipline of sociology:

Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assessed. There are many different forms of relativism, with a great deal of variation in scope and differing degrees of controversy among them. Moral relativism encompasses the differences in moral judgments among people and cultures. Epistemic relativism holds that there are no absolute principles regarding normative belief, justification, or rationality, and that there are only relative ones. Alethic relativism is the doctrine that there are no absolute truths, i.e., that truth is always relative to some particular frame of reference, such as a language or a culture. Some forms of relativism also bear a resemblance to philosophical skepticism. Descriptive relativism seeks to describe the differences among cultures and people without evaluation, while normative relativism evaluates the word truthfulness of views within a given framework.

Cultural relativism is the position that there is no universal standard to measure cultures by, and that all cultural values and beliefs must be understood relative to their cultural context, and not judged based on outside norms and values. Proponents of cultural relativism also tend to argue that the norms and values of one culture should not be evaluated using the norms and values of another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of knowledge</span> Field of study

The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought, the social context within which it arises, and the effects that prevailing ideas have on societies. It is not a specialized area of sociology. Instead, it deals with broad fundamental questions about the extent and limits of social influences on individuals' lives and the social-cultural basis of our knowledge about the world. The sociology of knowledge has a subclass and a complement. Its subclass is sociology of scientific knowledge. Its complement is the sociology of ignorance.

Postmodernity is the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity. Some schools of thought hold that modernity ended in the late 20th century – in the 1980s or early 1990s – and that it was replaced by postmodernity, and still others would extend modernity to cover the developments denoted by postmodernity. The idea of the postmodern condition is sometimes characterized as a culture stripped of its capacity to function in any linear or autonomous state like regressive isolationism, as opposed to the progressive mind state of modernism.

A worldview or a world-view or Weltanschauung is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and ethics.

Acculturation is a process of social, psychological, and cultural change that stems from the balancing of two cultures while adapting to the prevailing culture of the society. Acculturation is a process in which an individual adopts, acquires and adjusts to a new cultural environment as a result of being placed into a new culture, or when another culture is brought to someone. Individuals of a differing culture try to incorporate themselves into the new more prevalent culture by participating in aspects of the more prevalent culture, such as their traditions, but still hold onto their original cultural values and traditions. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both the devotee of the prevailing culture and those who are assimilating into the culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Giddens</span> British sociologist (born 1938)

Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens is an English sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern sociologists and is the author of at least 34 books, published in at least 29 languages, issuing on average more than one book every year. In 2007, Giddens was listed as the fifth most-referenced author of books in the humanities. He has academic appointments in approximately twenty different universities throughout the world and has received numerous honorary degrees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secularization</span> Societal transition away from religion

In sociology, secularization is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism, irreligion, nor are they automatically anti-thetical to religion. Secularization has different connotations such as implying differentiation of secular from religious domains, the marginalization of religion in those domains, or it may also entail the transformation of religion as a result of its recharacterization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter L. Berger</span> American sociologist (1929–2017)

Peter Ludwig Berger was an Austrian-born American sociologist and Protestant theologian. Berger became known for his work in the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of religion, study of modernization, and theoretical contributions to sociological theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index of sociology articles</span>

This is an index of sociology articles. For a shorter list, see List of basic sociology topics.

Sociocultural evolution, sociocultural evolutionism or social evolution are theories of sociobiology and cultural evolution that describe how societies and culture change over time. Whereas sociocultural development traces processes that tend to increase the complexity of a society or culture, sociocultural evolution also considers process that can lead to decreases in complexity (degeneration) or that can produce variation or proliferation without any seemingly significant changes in complexity (cladogenesis). Sociocultural evolution is "the process by which structural reorganization is affected through time, eventually producing a form or structure that is qualitatively different from the ancestral form".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of culture</span> Branch of the discipline of sociology

The sociology of culture, and the related cultural sociology, concerns the systematic analysis of culture, usually understood as the ensemble of symbolic codes used by a member of a society, as it is manifested in the society. For Georg Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history". Culture in the sociological field is analyzed as the ways of thinking and describing, acting, and the material objects that together shape a group of people's way of life.

Transmodernism is a philosophical and cultural movement founded by Argentinian-Mexican philosopher Enrique Dussel. He refers to himself as a transmodernist and wrote a series of essays criticising the postmodern theory and advocating a transmodern way of thinking. Transmodernism is a development in thought following the period of postmodernism; as a movement, it was also developed from modernism, and, in turn, critiques modernity and postmodernity, viewing them as the end of modernism.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to anthropology:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology</span> Social science that studies human society and its development

Sociology is the scientific and systematic study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. Regarded as a part of both the social sciences and humanities, sociology uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and social change. Sociological subject matter ranges from micro-level analyses of individual interaction and agency to macro-level analyses of social systems and social structure. Applied sociological research may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, whereas theoretical approaches may focus on the understanding of social processes and phenomenological method.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture</span> Social behavior and norms of a society

Culture is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups. Culture is often originated from or attributed to a specific region or location.

Postmodern religion is any type of religion that is influenced by postmodernism and postmodern philosophies. Examples of religions that may be interpreted using postmodern philosophy include Postmodern Christianity, Postmodern Neopaganism, and Postmodern Buddhism. Postmodern religion is not an attempt to banish religion from the public sphere; rather, it is a philosophical approach to religion that critically considers orthodox assumptions. Postmodern religious systems of thought view realities as plural, subjective, and dependent on the individual's worldview. Postmodern interpretations of religion acknowledge and value a multiplicity of diverse interpretations of truth, being, and ways of seeing. There is a rejection of sharp distinctions and global or dominant metanarratives in postmodern religion, and this reflects one of the core principles of postmodern philosophy. A postmodern interpretation of religion emphasises the key point that religious truth is highly individualistic, subjective, and resides within the individual.

References

  1. ↑ Culture Archived 2021-05-05 at the Wayback Machine , lecture notes, Introductory Sociology, Russ Long, Del Mar College. Accessed on line November 20, 2007.
  2. ↑ Jones-Smith, Elsie (2013-01-09). Strengths-Based Therapy: Connecting Theory, Practice and Skills. SAGE Publications. ISBN   9781483321981.
  3. ↑ p. 247, Why Viewers Watch: A Reappraisal of Television's Effects, Jib Fowles, Sage Publications, 1992, ISBN   0-8039-4077-7.
  4. 1 2 "Cultural Leveling". sociologyguide.com. Sociology Guide- A Student's Guide to Sociology. 2016.
  5. ↑ Pope Benedict XVI (2009). Charity in Truth. Ignatius Press. ISBN   9781586172800.
  6. 1 2 3 Baku, Azerbaijan (November 2009). "Relativism, Cultural Leveling Seen as Double Danger". zenit.org. Zenit Staff.
  7. ↑ Weinstein, Jay A. (2005-01-01). Social and Cultural Change: Social Science for a Dynamic World. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   9780742525740.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Ledanff, Susanne (2004). "This big village which is called the world. Metropolises and Globalization in the Twenties in the Journal Der Querschnitt". KulturPoetik: 82–103. ISSN   1616-1203. JSTOR   40621709.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ginzburg, Carlo (2005). "Latitude, Slaves and the Bible: An Experiment in Microhistory". Critical Inquiry. 31 (3): 665–683. doi:10.1086/430989. ISSN   0093-1896. JSTOR   10.1086/430989. S2CID   162235791.
  10. ↑ Guo, Yingjie (2016-01-29). Handbook on Class and Social Stratification in China. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN   9781783470648.
  11. 1 2 3 Houk, James (1996). "Anthropological Theory and the Breakdown of Eclectic Folk Religions". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 35 (4): 442–447. doi:10.2307/1386420. ISSN   0021-8294. JSTOR   1386420.
  12. ↑ Gartman, David (2012-11-12). Culture, Class, and Critical Theory: Between Bourdieu and the Frankfurt School. Routledge. ISBN   9781136169779.
  13. 1 2 Brent, Edward; Lewis, J. Scott (2013-03-15). Learn Sociology. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. ISBN   9781449672461.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.