Different cultures Essay

In the past, different cultures have been developing in various ways and in different parts of the world. These cultures have been influencing the living styles of various nations in the world. It is now very important that different countries be grouped according to their cultural beliefs and civilization e. g. European communities will share those cultures which will differentiate them from those people who are coming from China or Africa. It is believed that those cultural differences of people in the world will clash based on where and how an individual was civilized. This is mainly the ‘clash of civilization’, the concept of Harvard professor Samuel Huntington. This is because people from different parts have ways on which they were civilized and they have different views on the way they view about life,the way they relate to one another and on their various religious beliefs. †We have moved into a world in which ‘civilisation’, some seven or eight of them, and defined much as Arnold Toynbee and some other scholars defined them in the first half of this century,are the building blocks of the new world order† Huntington added. Also most people these days are traveling a lot and therefore the interaction between people from different parts of the world and of different civilization is increasing. These interactions of different people from different civilizations has increased the awareness that this kind of difference in culture exists all over the world, Africa immigration will generate hostility when they settle on European or Asian nations. This is typically due to the clash in their culture. A country whose culture is completely different from another has a problem in investing in a foreign land as compared to those other rivals in the same land. This is because most countries fear to give investment license or such countries due to different ways in their cultural beliefs. The process of economic development and socialization has also resulted in the clash on the ways people live. Samuel Huntington once said†,Pattern of trade will be decisively influnced by pattern of culture†. The different religious beliefs in most of the different cultures is an example of this. We find that there are various types of religions in the world today. These are Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Another reason which brought about the clash in different culture was the way in which people in different parts of the world viewed about civilization. Many communities found civilization rather hard to adopt because it had other believes and cultures which clashed with their original beliefs. This made different communities to quit the idea of civilization of adopting the western culture and replacing it with their original beliefs. De-westernization has therefore been seen in many non-western countries. ( http://www. bintjbeil. com/articles/en/d-huntington. html). The cultural beliefs of people originating from different parts of the world are very hard to adopt to the same culture unlike other things such as economic and political ones. This is because cultural beliefs of more than two nations are not compatible, rather they are clashing. For example a political system of one country can be adopted by another country but the religious issues are far more complex to be adopted form one country to anothere. g. Muslims are very hard to change and start believing in Christianity but they will be very easily convinced to accept to change and adopt other country’s leadership styles. People of the same civilization have also been known to spur economic growth. This has mostly been witnessed in Europe, East Asia and North America. The development of the nations living in this regions usually is because these people have the same civilization and almost the same beliefs in terms of their culture and their social lifestyles. A country like Japan on the other hand who entirely have different civilization has faced a lot of hurdles in their economic development. Their lifestyles and its cultural beliefs have been known to be clashing with that of its neighbors and therefore making it hard for them to get a business partner with the same interests and beliefs. Thus reducing the rate of their growth. (Ghost, 2003) Yes Huntington’s point of view is supported. This is because there are numerous conflicting issues on people living in different parts of the world today. Huntington described an era in which people everywhere define themselves in cultural terms, ‘ a world in which cultural identities are central’. There is a pre-dominant clash of ideas between the religious communities. This is because there is a split between the western Christianity, Orthodox and the Muslims. These difference are traced to have occurred in the year 1500. There were cultural lines which were traced to have been the source to the different cultural belief of these communities. The people who were living to the west and the north of the line were protestant and others were Catholics. They were economically well of than those who were living to the East. The differences and the conflict of various issues between western and Islamic civilization has been going on for almost 140 years. This was mainly due to the attempt by the westerners to introduce Christianity in the Islamic region which faced a lot of oppositions mainly because various issues regarding the beliefs and norms of Muslims culture were conflicting with those of the Christians. The relationships existing between Japan and America has of late worsened so much. This is mainly due to the culture differences which will result to economic conflicts. The attitudes, and the way people relate to each other between the two societies are very mush different. As compared to the European nations, the economic issue between United States and Japan are very serious. This is because the economic difference in culture between United States and the European nations is far much less as compared to those of Japan civilization. Japanese civilization is very much different because their geographical location is far away as compared to the geographical location dividing America from European nations. This has resulted to a very different type of culture being developed in Japan which on the other hand conflict with that of Americans. ( Edwards, & Glover, 2001). According to Huntington, ‘East Asian economic success has its source in East Asian culture’. Culture and civilization have also influenced economies of various countries. Chinese economy ha been enormously growing within the last 15 years than that of Japan. These growth in the China’s economy has been a result of almost the same culture and civilization china enjoyed with its immediate neighbors. Unlike Japan who did not have some cultural resemblance with other nations, china had almost the same cultural beliefs with most of the developing nations in Asia. These countries include Taiwan-which are very much advanced in technological issues, Hong Kong – which is known for the creativity and marketing strategies, Singapore –which is very rich in communication technology. All these three have the same civilization as that of China and therefore they can understand each other in terms of being trading partners, carrying out investment and also respecting each others religious beliefs. (Murshed, 2002) The increase in population among the various countries in the world has resulted to the migration of people. This has mainly occurred in countries particular those living in the Northern part of Africa. The communities living in these parts are then forced to move to western Europe. This movement has resulted to development of other cultures in these countries. These then leads to instability in the normal social life of the citizens in the country both religiously and culturally. The results might be emergence of racism which might cause violence in the country. Reference: Edwards, Rusalind & Glover Judith. Risk and Citizenship: key issues in welfare. New York. Routledge, 2001. Ghost, B. N. Contemporary issues in Development Economics. New York. Routledge, 2003 The clash of civilizations. Samuel Huntington. September 1993. Bint Jbeil. 22/10/2007.http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/en/d-huntington.html