In less than a week I have been through 20 states ranging from California to Maine and it amazes me how little people change in such a large geographic area. This is a wonder of modern society as we are united by modern communications. Unlike many places, like Africa, were a geographic area the size of the US would have thousands of languages the US speaks one dominant language without much change in dialects, with the exception of in Alabama but I do not think that even qualifies as a language. This type of unification, which has been experienced throughout the modern world, makes one wonder about how long it will take the world to be united by a dominant culture with little variation due to location.
When we develop the technology to allow us to travel to any part of the globe in an hour what will happen to culture? And also this generates the question of how important cultural diversity is. I understand how biodiversity is necessary in a group of different species but within a species is it important to have different subgroups that only differ in language and customs. Customs used to have importance like telling people when to plant crops but now they just serve to united people and make them feel like they are part of a community. This is important but we do not need the thousands of different cultures to make people feel like they belong. So do we let cultures die and naturally evolve into one world culture or do we actively try to save them by limiting technology’s impact or making people participate in them. How important is cultural diversity, what do you think? Emotionally I think it is important but intellectually I do not know why.
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The different cultures around the world carry different sets of values... For example, many cultures consider suicide a shameful act, yet for a long time in Japan seppuku was acceptable and even deemed honorable. (It's a rather extreme example, but does that still make sense?) So the creation of a world culture would call for a unification of mindsets over certain values, but would that be a hindrance to intellectual growth and open-mindedness? I guess religion could make up for the differences in beliefs, but can a single culture have that many religions?
Now I'm wondering to what extent geography affects cultures, if at all...
(And just out of curiosity, what ethnicity are you? I've always wondered but never bothered to ask.)
According to the Jared Diamond school of geography, which I pretty much subscribe to, it has a profound impact on everything. In his books which I encourage you to look at he shows how geography affects human evolution and thus culture. But now that modern culture has transcended our geographic grounds culture predominantly has lost its foundation and is free to change, e.g. because of the availability of foreign foods a person’s cooking is no longer confined by their cultural cuisine. So is one culture as good as the next so it would not matter if we have only one world culture? As for religion it is bigger than culture. Most elements of culture have a singular modern motive of providing a unifying factor within a community and giving an emotional response that we all yearn for. While religion has this aspect it is also fundamentally rooted with a search for truth unlike any other element of culture.
I am of mostly Hispanic ethnicity and practice many of the cultural elements of Northern New Mexico; my Dad’s family has lived in New Mexico for about 400 years and my Mom is a mix of European cultures but primarily Czech.
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