GLOBALIZATION AND CULTURAL HYBRIDIZATION

As the time has change, the independence of the countries lead to the globalization known as the minimization of the economic barriers between the states, and with this the entry of new products, people and with it new cultures, traditions, ideas and entry of new companies and with it international competition and customers. Is important to have in mind that the globalization will not only lead to positive effects but also it may affect the country and the cultures in a negative way. For example, the entry of new strong international companies may affect significantly the national ones and even more the “beginners”, making them lose a lot of money and customers and harming in that way the profitability of the company and therefore the employees (they may be fired). The positive effects of a globalization can also lead to more possibilities of job, and the development of new areas, that helps to the prosperity and benefits the citizens, giving them an extended number of options in means of life styles, technology, food, clothes, medicine, machines, and so on. The entry of new technologies can make the countries more independent and auto-sufficient, emphasizing the individualism, facilitating processes and procedures, searching’s, domestic activities, etc. and that way saving and optimizing their time.  When talking in means of culture, it can be affected or influence in a positive or negative situation, globalization may lead to immigration of citizens, which means also the entry of a new culture that may try to be impose or adapt their traditions and behaviors, creating in that way a new blended culture or even destroying existing ones; In the other hand it can mean the acquisition of new ideas, behaviors or ways of thinking that may help the existing cultures to grow and improve, or to develop new subcultures.

In my research question for this class I will like to go deeper in the explaining of the cultural hybridization. The cultural hybridization can be seen as a process in which the cultures all around the world cling to the characteristics and strong aspects and traditions of their culture, while adapting to a degree of “homogenized global culture”. So it will lead to a mixing of two different behaviors or traditions or even language, known as a hybrid.  For example, due to the non-stop immigration from Mexico to USA, the Mexicans and even the Americans start to adopt the two kinds of culture and also languages, mixing the English and the Spanish based on the situation, and trying to adapt to the new environment without forgetting their native culture. Another big example of the cultural hybridization can be seen in Colombia with the culture best known as “otakus” in other words, Colombians that are in love with the Japanese culture and the Anime (Japanese cartoons), they will adapt some Japanese behaviors in their everyday, also mixing the languages when speaking Spanish, using commonly Japanese words as “kawaii”, “arigatou”, “konnichiwa”, “sayonara” and so on.

(HowStuffWorks, Reference: http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/what-is-cultural-hybridization )