The Role Of Religion In Globalization

In studying globalization, one major factor that always tends to be present is the role of religion. Undoubtedly, religion played a part in shaping cities/regions, however, it should not take credit for being the force that single-handedly unified people of different faiths. Rather, in viewing religious beliefs and practices, we should not perceive it as something that is black or white in terms of how it shaped or drove phases of globalization. Many outside factors such as trade and power should also be included when discussing the forces behind globalization and unification between two different groups of people. In this paper, by looking at two specific regions, I will prove that religious beliefs/practices merely counted as one of

At the time prior to its full-fledged globalization, The Americas were thought to be completely isolated from the Eastern Hemisphere. It served as the origins for the Amerindian Peoples and as a place for ethnolinguistic diversity. Essentially, The Americas were a cultural contact zone for both the indigenous people and the outsiders to simultaneously experience cultural synthesis. Providing some background on how these concepts come into play with the phases of globalization, a contact zone can be defined as, “social spaces where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power” (Pratt/Lecture, 2018). Furthermore, cultural synthesis is how things change over time because of culture. With these concepts in mind, the significance of these two “old worlds” encountering and being brought together demonstrates how, because of cultural synthesis, different people with different faiths/beliefs blended “together”. Cultural factors that cumulated into this cultural synthesis included aspects such as the blending of social forms, customary beliefs, social groups, or patterns of knowledge. While, of course, religion could take part in some of these various cultural factors, it would be presumptuous to assume religion was the main force behind all the “togetherness” in this region. To this extent, cultural synthesis as a whole, within these contact

It was these types of outwardly displays of cultural synthesis that demonstrated Portugal’s “togetherness” among people of different faiths. While this was largely in part due to object-extended globalization, it was still in part because of Henry of Avis’ first push for Christian conversion that laid the groundwork for these extraneous factors to help drive the people of Portugal to become more blended “together” and diversely