CHAPTER 4: CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND GLOBALIZATION

A society is a group of people who share a common language and culture. The two most critical
purposes of a society’s culture are to provide its members with the means to gain adequate food and shelter
while protecting them from the members of other societies with whom they might be in competition.
Culture is a dynamic dimension that allows us, both in- dividually and collectively as groups, to
adapt to new natural and social environments. This capacity is critical to our survival as human beings
because, directly or indirectly from our natural environment, we acquire those things we need to meet our
most basic biological needs—food, clothing, and shelter—while at the same time we are usually in contact
and frequently com- petition with other human groups for survival—our social environment. However, this
still does not answer the question of how the culture of a society changes. Culture of a society is an
integrated system.
Two major processes are involved in culture change: (1) members of the society independently dis-
cover new knowledge or create new behaviors or technologies; and (2) they borrow knowledge, behaviors,
or technology from some other group.
Globalization refers to the spread of culture between all the peoples of the world; this started 500
years ago with European expansion. The first phase, which started in about 1500 and ended in about 1800,
saw the European conquest of the Americas and establishment of direct trade with Asia and Africa. The
second phase, which began in about 1800 with the Industrial Revolution in Europe, ultimately resulted in the
division of Asia, Africa, and Oceania into European- controlled empires. The global economy, an integrated
world economic system, started only about 60 years ago with the collapse of these empires, and it is the third
phase of globalization. These migrations resulted in the changing, replacement, or absorption of many
foraging peoples.
In sum, early human culture history was characterized by the migration of foraging peoples, followed
by scattered independent localized cultural developments associated with horticulture, intensive agriculture,
and pastoralism. Trade between groups was limited, and diffusion of cultural knowledge minimal. This
began to change with the emergence of civilizations. Civilizations were much larger, politically organized
aggregates of peoples. Because of their far more complex technologies and economies, they needed a
broader range of natural resources than they usually controlled. This led to expansionist warfare, the creation
of multisocietal empires, and the development of long-distance trade, which resulted in ever- increasing
contact between regional civilizations as well as neighboring foraging, horticultural and pastoral peoples.

SOCIETY Socially distinct group of people who share a common language and culture.

CULTURE The socially learned knowledge and patterns of behavior shared by some group of people.

GLOBALIZATION Flow of cultural knowledge, directly or indirectly, between the different peoples of the
world.

OLD WORLD Landmasses of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

NEW WORLD Landmasses of North and South America.

COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE Exchange of people, diseases, domesticated animals and plants, and other
cultural knowledge between the peoples of the Old World and the New World. This exchange resulted in
the massive destruction of indigenous American peoples and their cultures, while ultimately changing the
political and economic balance of power among the peoples of the Old World.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE Culturally distinct peoples who have occupied a region longer than peoples who
have colonized or immigrated to the region.

GLOBAL TRADE Economic exchange of goods and other products between the different peoples of the
world via established trade networks. (küresel ticaret)
GLOBAL ECONOMY Integrated global market in which goods and services are bought and sold globally
with prices determined by supply and demand.