Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
though they are still players in culture creation. At the same time, cultural fads and technology
changes are occurring with much greater frequency than ever before, and help to create
peoples who are culturally different from neighboring groups. Consider also the human spirit
that rejects a world in which everyone looks and acts the same. Cultural divergence may have
slowed, therefore, but no evidence suggests that a world of 15,000 culture areas will reduce to
a single culture area any time soon.
Promoting cultural convergence
It seems pretty clear, however, that in the present day and age more cultures are dying out than
getting born. As many as a thousand languages are likely to disappear in your lifetime because
they are not being spoken by the next generation who are instead learning and speaking anoth-
er language. This is an example of cultural convergence, the concept and process of culture
destruction and attendant “convergence,” or coming together of the world's people in the cul-
tural sense.
Thisislargelyhappeningbecausecommunicationisoverwhelmingthetraditionalfactorsthatisolated
people and encouraged cultural differentiation. The key players in this trend are improved transporta-
tion (especially the advent of road-building in remote areas); expansion of television, movies, and the
Internet; increased literacy and access to printed media; rising tourism due to increased disposable
income and leisure time; rising foreign trade; the growing number of multi-national corporations; and
desire for economic development.
In the future, culture will continue to be the spice of life and place, even if the range of flavors is
significantly less than we have today.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search