Impact Of Globalization On American Culture

Several centuries ago, a British-born woman of Indian descent wearing Korean cosmetics watching a Japanese film on a ship bound for Canada would be unheard of. Today, the exchange of ideas and values and the growing porousness of national borders make this scenario possible, even ordinary. From ubiquitous Nike shoes to the growing global Bollywood scene, culture is becoming more and more adaptive and interconnected. People from the opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean can interact through social media, and in turn, exchange norms and concepts. All of these are made possible through globalization, resulting in endless and accessible cultural osmoses.

Globalization is a slippery and vague concept. In its broadest sense, globalization can be defined

With conquest and trade came cultural exchanges. Hellenistic empire and influence from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indian subcontinent gave birth to the concept of cosmopolitanism. The Silk Road paved the path for the propagation of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, and Christianity, which where syncretized with local beliefs. The demand for global goods culminated the rise of global empires. European imperial empires all left marks of culture on their colonies, notably in the fields of language, religion, and arts. The colonies in turn imparted indigenous quirks to their colonizers, such as cuisine. Cultural globalization is at its most apparent form in the 21st century, with diminishing trade barriers accelerating the movement of goods, people, and ideas through national borders. This is all thanks to advances in media technology and widespread

It asserts that interconnectedness highlights differences between cultures, which will be a cause for conflict. Huntington states that a smaller world would intensify awareness of differences between civilizations and intensify historical animosities. He further reasons that non-Western civilizations are turning inwards, such as the “re-Islamization” in the Middle-East and “Asianization” of Japan (25 – 6). Cultural globalization may bring about an uncertainty between established