Endangered Cultures Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Endangered cultures are cultures that are threatened by extinction. Cultures become extinct when few people practice a culture and the number of participants is declining. While cultures have historically changed in size and composition, contemporary anthropologists, cultural community members, and cultural admirers work to restore and preserve endangered cultures. The term endangered cultures describes both those who are threatened by systemic changes and those affected by proximal effects.

Intentional And Unintentional Cultural Extinction

Cultures become extinct through both deliberate and accidental means. Governments may deliberately work to extinguish a culture by altering, or prohibiting communities from practicing, their traditions. Military conquerors have attempted to alter the cultures of oppressed people for several reasons. Repressive governments have tried to destroy cultural traditions by killing prominent figures and through acculturation programs aimed at homogenizing a population. For example, governments have historically prohibited a cultural group’s language, religion, and other social practices in an effort to weaken the cohesion and identity of that group. Settler populations bring their customs and culture to a new land and propagate old-world cultures in their new territory. However, existing social structures and religions may help maintain cultural differences between the vanquished and the settler population. By erasing cultural cleavages between peoples, a government may be able to weaken traditional centers of power. Without these centers of power, a government is better able to influence the people through culture. Elites from the dominant culture thus deliberately shape the thought and language of the dominated people. For example, creating an official language and a standard state curriculum helps homogenize the history of the people. One illustration of this arose during the French occupation of Algeria (1830–1962). To gain the rights of citizens, Algerian Muslims were forced to accept Christianity, learn the French language, and abide by French law. This assimilation effort failed, and the Algerians eventually defeated the French to win their independence.

Cultures also may become endangered accidentally. Communities may become acculturated by an exogenous source; that is, they may be influenced from exposure to different cultural communities, and individuals may voluntarily adopt cultural practices from other communities. For example, intercultural trade, marriage, and immigration create opportunities for people of different cultures to interact and learn the others’ customs. However, cultures also change organically without external stimuli. For instance, migratory people in a new territory may create customs and alter their culture to adapt to the environment. Past cultural traditions may be inappropriate in the new environment. Likewise, if a migratory people encounters a second, culturally distinct people, their traditions may change in several ways. The migratory people may adapt to the cultural traditions of the second population. Also, the second population may adopt the culture of the migratory people. Finally, both peoples may alter their cultures in some new way. For example, as noted by Nigel Spivey in Etruscan Art (1997), although the Etruscans of central Italy (approximately 1200–500 BCE) resisted colonization, they did adopt Hellenistic art styles, the Euboean alphabet, and Greek myths.

Another unintentional way cultures may become endangered is through the international spread of ideas. This international spread need not be malicious like that of a repressive government but may be a product of interacting with other communities. Critics of globalization lament the pollution of local, unincorporated cultures because of this international influence. Globalization, that is, the increased intensity of social networks connecting people in different geographic locations, increases intercultural exposure and may asymmetrically change one culture vis-à-vis the other. For instance, American popular culture can be seen across the globe in cinema, music, and dress. This culture may become part of the language and thought of local people around the world. Proponents of endangered cultures worry that local cultures will suffer and change due to the preponderance of the cultures of larger and wealthier states.

Endangered cultures, as well as other cultures, face systemic alteration by their exposure to new opportunities. Expressing language and traditions through new media and environments gives individuals opportunities to celebrate and preserve the traditions, but this invariably affects the culture. Spoken languages and oral traditions may be lost or altered by widely accepted international norms of writing. Oral language traditions may become standardized to be recorded and taught, but the oral facet of that language and the traditional flexibility of the language may be lost. External norms and institutions cause cultures to change by prompting individuals to adapt to international cultural streams.

To many, the growth of one culture at the expense of other cultures is the result of oppressive cultures’ diluting and destroying weak ones. This argument suggests that globalism and other forms of acculturation create estrangement by individuals of the extinct culture. Those alienated by the monopolizing, encroaching culture are more likely to act antisocially and reject the dominating culture. However, cultural extinction is not universally accepted as a problem to correct.

Studies And Preservation Efforts

Endangered cultures have attracted the attention of the international community as anthropologists, linguists, and individuals strive to maintain and restore threatened cultures. There is a strong normative component to the argument of those in favor of saving endangered cultures. Cultural pluralism and the norm of cultural equality drive many advocates to preserve endangered cultures. In addition, others argue that cultural diversity is objectively beneficial: preserving international cultural heterogeneity promotes critical insight into one’s own culture and practices. Endangered cultures may be sources of critical thought about language, institutions, and social and familial relationships. Proponents argue that endangered cultures are oppressed by the spreading culture.

Advocates for the endangered cultures may be insiders or outsiders of that culture. Insiders may continue to practice their culture and language in the face of external pressure to change. However, social divergence inside cultural groups may also arise from within the group. Social group insiders may refine past practices to keep cultural practices attractive and in accord with changing norms. For example, Baganda women, a people in central Uganda, have historically knelt when greeting men. Urban/ modernist Baganda have tried to stop this tradition to promote gender equality, while rural/traditionalist Baganda prefer that this tradition continue. Cultural change initiated by insiders is widely thought to be a natural, organic process, and most advocates of the endangered culture recognize that cultures change. Endangered cultures are not threatened by endogenous, organic changes (changes that originate without external influence and by cultural insiders) because these changes are considered to be culturally consistent. This distinction allows cultures to adapt, survive, and respond to social movements without losing local legitimacy and alienating the population.

Communities and individuals outside an endangered cultural group may also make efforts to preserve endangered cultures in several ways. One tangible way pluralists work to support heterogeneity is by preserving local customs. A second way is by preserving local languages. Different groups create local language archives to preserve languages with few remaining speakers. While native speakers might eventually vanish, their language will remain. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Works Programme, academic institutions, and many international organizations strive to protect endangered languages and cultures.

Bibliography:

Jameson, Fredric, and Masao Miyoshi. The Cultures of Globalization. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1998.
Knauft, Bruce M. Exchanging the Past: A Rainforest World Before & After. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Kramer, Eric. The Emerging Monoculture: Assimilation and the “Model Minority.” Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003.
Leon-Portilla, Miguel. Endangered Cultures. Dallas, Tex.: Southern Methodist University Press, 1990.
Spivey, Nigel. Etruscan Art. New York:Thames and Hudson, 1997.
Weinstein, Jay. Social and Cultural Change: Social Science for a Dynamic World. 2d ed. Boulder, Colo.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
Young, Crawford. “Ethnicity and the Colonial and Post-colonial State in Africa.” In Ethnic Groups and the State, edited by Paul Brass. London: Croom Helm, 1985.