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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dane Simri: [QB] Excellent points, one and all. Baloo, I think you may be misinterpreting me somewhat. The popularity of McDonalds in Russia is indicative of cultural amalgamation, but no more or less so than the existance of Chinese restaurants in Brazil or Italian restaurants in Saudi Arabia. The popularity of country music in France is inticative, but no more or less so than the popularity of techno (which has its roots in Germany) in the USA. My point is that, as "people choose aspects of another culture that complement their own," they drive the heterogeneous toward the homogeneous. I think the analogy of gaseous diffusion is a good one for my feelings on the subject. (In other words, I'm not trying to equate American culture with the Borg here!) Frank, I think that the trend toward amalgamation is proven out all the more by "all the stuff that people value more than hamburgers." I offer the recent series of reconciliation moves between the Lutheran and Catholic churches as an example. Or how about the much-aligned Euro? (By the way, isn't it interesting how the Euro hovers so close to the value of the US dollar?) I suppose this discussion would be made clearer if we could come up with a definition of culture. My dictionary offers: "The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought." But what does culture include? Off the top of my head: Language The Arts Music Drama/Theater Graphic Arts Literature Etiquitte/Customs Civil and Fiscal Government Religion/Spirituality Science/Technology I think it's possible to measure roughly the degree to which each of these items has become more (or less) globally homogeneous over the last, say, 200 years. In my opinion, the trend is toward homogeneity. Now, I'm sure that there are other things that could be added to this list, but do they support the "sustainment of many static cultures" theory? Thanks for helping me sort out my opinions on this! [/QB][/QUOTE]
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