Global
Culture and Cultural Imperialism

One of the
main implications of globalization is that in the world today, a more uniform
world society is taking shape. Global culture can include everybody speaking a
similar language, sharing the same values and norms, and maintaining shared
knowledge and understanding as residents of the same group. Cultural hegemony,
the uneven cultural trade in the global economy whereby Western material and
non-material societies have come to play a dominant and imposing position on
the traditional cultures of peoples of the Third World, may also be identified
with global society. 

Global
culture is encouraged by:

1. Capitalism’s
   worldwide spread
2. Consumerism
   and the culture of consumption
3. The creation
   of transnational media, especially electronic mass media.

Hence it is
concluded that the word "culture” refers to the representatives of a
community’s whole way of life. It concerns what they dress; their traditions of
marriage and family life; art and work patterns; religious ceremonies; pursuits
of leisure, and so on. There are different facets of society, such as material
and non-material, implied and concrete, organic and supra-organic, ideal and
natural, complex and stagnant, transparent and covert. Symbols, vocabulary,
beliefs and standards form the basic elements of culture. Cultural
heterogeneity, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and culture shock, cultural
universals, alternatives and specialties, and culture lag and lead are other
important facets of culture.

Cultural
Universals

While there
are as many distinct and diverse cultures as there are nations, there are
certain common cultural traditions. There are several universal characteristics
that are present in nearly all cultures despite the complexity of human
cultural behavior. Cultural universality refers to all behaviors, attitudes,
principles, norms, material artifacts, etc. that are observed within a society
in all cultures around the world, or across multiple social classes. Every
culture has a grammatically complicated language, for instance. All communities
have an accepted type of family structure in which the treatment of children is
related to values and norms.

The
institution of marriage, religious traditions, and property rights are cultural
universals. All cultures have a sort of prohibition against incest. Various
other cultural universals have been established by sociologists, including the
nature of painting, dancing, body adornments, games, gift giving, laughing, and
hygiene laws. In a given society or through cultures, cultural universals mean
behavioral similarities among individuals. They do not account for variations
in personality, lifestyle, attitude, behavior, behavior, etc.

These are
some of cultural universals:

Joking                                                               
Pregnancy usages

Athletics                                                           
Family

Age
grading                                                       Faith healing

Kin
terminology                                                Puberty customs

Community
organization                                   Folklore

Language                                                           Religious
rituals

Kin
groups                                                         Property rights

Bodily
adornments                                            Feasting

Calendar                                                            Fire making

Cooperative
labor                                              Funeral
rites

Status
differentiation                                         Courtship 

Games                                                               Medicine

Magic                                                                Residence rules

Cooking
food                                                    Taboos

Gestures                                                            Modesty

Trade                                                                  Dancing

Marriage                                                            Sexual restrictions  

Gift giving etc.

Related article

Socialization
– Goals and Importance of Socialization

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