Theories Of Global Primacy

With the invention of so much new technology since the 20th century, our world is now more connected than ever before. People from different cultures, countries, and ways of life now have the ability to conduct business, settle disputes, and simply communicate with one another in way that merely 50 years ago would have been unimaginable. However, this interconnectedness between societies, or globalization, has caused many discussions on how it should be viewed (Kelleher, 2011, p. 48). The sides of these discussions come from different views, or primacies, through which globalization can be seen. The main categories of these perspectives are Global, State, and Cultural, with each perspective holding different values as most important. Today,

49). In the theory of Global Primacy, the world will begin to lean toward unification, with cultures and ways of life becoming more connected, if not more similar and the best parts of all cultures becoming the norm. There are three methods by which this unification increases, assimilation, acculturation, and syncretism. In the past assimilation, people giving up their culture altogether and being enveloped in a “better” one, was often practice in the form of colonization. This, of course, is of great concern to those of less powerful cultures, who were often forced to abandon their cultures, as in the case of Australian Aboriginal ethnocide (Kelleher, 2011, p. 50). As the main idea of Global Primacy is to collect the best parts of all cultures, assimilation as it has been practiced has done a poor job of creating global unification. Fortunately, acculturation and syncretism are becoming more and more common. In acculturation, individuals simply modify their culture to fit into a larger one, without giving it up altogether. This practice is very apparent in places like the US, Canada, Great Britain, and Germany, as many cultures of people coexist under a common flag, but without giving up their cultural identities (Kelleher, 2011, p. 50). In syncretism, pieces of different cultures are formed

As the procedure is very painful women and can also lead to a multiplicity of health problems that can last a lifetime (Kelleher, 2011, p. 41). Because of the health problems associated with the practice, there has been outrage in the global community on both sides, some calling to end the practice, others saying that is an important cultural tradition (Fedorak, 2014, p. 17). Though many states have tried to outlaw female genital cutting, they have been unable to do so as ethnic groups continue the practice, but now under fear of having their children taken from them (Fedorak, 2014, p. 26). On the side of a Cultural Primacy perspective, it’s not just the individual cultures deciding what to do. The fact that female genital cutting is even being debated means that is no longer simply a cultural problem, but a global one. Global Primacy best sums up this example. Through interconnectedness, the global community can settle on global values and decide to tolerate the practice, which would mean accepting the tradition which goes against the cultural beliefs of most western societies, or to stop the practice, which would mean an adoption of the cultural value of bodily integrity for the societies that practice