One World or Many? (Global Connections)

one world or many?

GLBAL CNNECTINS America’s Role in a Changing World Changing Climates The Changing Global Economy Environment and Natural Resources Feeding a Hungry World The Human Population Human Rights One World or Many? Pandemics and Global Health Terrorism and Security

one world or many?

zoran pavlovic´ SerieS editor: charleS F. Gritzner

One World or Many? Copyright  2010 by Infobase Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Chelsea House An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York, NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pavlovic, Zoran. One world or many? / by Zoran Pavlovic. p. cm. — (Global connections) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60413-284-7 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4381-3298-3 (e-book) 1. Civilization, Modern—21st century—Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series. CB429.P38 2010 909.83—dc22 2009033609 Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can fi nd Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Text design by Annie O’Donnell Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi Composition by EJB Publishing Services Cover printed by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN Book printed and bound by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN Date printed: April 2010 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. All links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.

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CoNTENTS Introduction: A Global Community 1 Who Are We?

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2 The Spread of Culture

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3 International Relations

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4 Social Changes and Well-Being

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5 Culture and Geography

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6 Food, Diet, and Leisure

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7 Collective Memory

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8 What Lies Ahead?

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Glossary

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Bibliography

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Further Resources

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Picture Credits

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Index

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About the Author and Editor

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INTRoDuCTIoN

A GLoBAL CoMMuNITy G

lobalization is the process of coming together as a closely connected global community. It began thousands of years ago, when tribal groups and small hunting parties wandered from place to place. The process accelerated following Columbus’s epic voyage more than five centuries ago. Europeans—an estimated 50 million of them—spread out to occupy lands throughout the world. This migration transformed the distribution of the world’s peoples and their cultures forever. In the United States and Canada, for example, most people speak a West European language. Most practice a religious faith with roots in the ancient Middle East and eat foods originating in Asia. Today, we are citizens of a closely interwoven global community. Events occurring half a world away can be watched and experienced, often as they happen, in our own homes. People, materials, and even diseases can be transported from continent to continent in a single day, thanks to jet planes. Electronic communications make possible the instantaneous exchange of information by phone, e-mail, or other means with friends or business





One World or Many? associates almost anywhere in the world. Trade and commerce, perhaps more so than any other aspect of our daily lives, amply illustrate the importance of global linkages. How many things in your home (including your clothing) are of international origin? What foods and beverages have you consumed today that came from other lands? Could Northern America’s economy survive without foreign oil, iron ore, copper, or other vital resources? The Global Connections series is designed to help you realize how closely people and places are tied to one another within the expanding global community. Each book introduces you to political, economic, environmental, social, medical, and other timely issues, problems, and prospects. The authors and editors hope you enjoy and learn from these books. May they hand you a passport to intellectual travels throughout our fascinating, complex, and increasingly “intradependent” world! —Charles F. Gritzner Series Editor

1 WHo ARE WE? O

ne of the most memorable moments in the Star Wars trilogy is the famous “cantina” scene. Luke Skywalker and his companion, Obi-Wan Kenobi, roll into planet Tatooine’s main spaceport in search of transportation. They must leave the planet without being noticed by the Imperial troops. There, they find Han Solo and Chewbacca, both experienced in shady business deals of smuggling, and they strike a deal. Chalmun’s Cantina is where all monkey business in that corner of the galaxy takes place. It attracts various individuals who appear as strange looking as George Lucas’s imagination and 1970s’ makeup technology managed to accomplish. The more bizarre the characters look, the more interested viewers become with this scene. This is why it ranks so high with fans of the Star Wars movies. Except for a few unfortunate losers who pay for ignorance with their own lives, everyone in the cantina knows well the rules of interaction. Despite such a diversity of creatures of various backgrounds and physical differences, languages, and



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One World or Many? beliefs, they can all communicate without major difficulties. The least interesting faces are in fact the ones that look like ours. Chewbacca generates considerable interest, but Han Solo is just another human. Yet under their skin, as their behavior illustrates, even the most bizarre-looking characters are basically all the same. They follow the same guidelines of behavior established by those in charge of the cantina. It is not their actions, but their appearances that make us assume we are so much different from them. Now imagine any major international airport around the world. Terminals are full of people who mind their own business and try to catch their flights. Some are about to meet their family, fly for a business meeting, or hit the beaches of a tropical paradise for a long overdue vacation. They are all the same. Only humans are at that airport. Screaming children from China have about the same lung capacity as Brazilians or Moroccans of their age; Murphy’s Law dictates that their seats on the airplane are right next to ours on a 15-hour flight. Some people are reading books, while others glance through newspapers. Some may choose sandwiches, whereas others select a salad. The common behavior is not distinctive. Two characteristics, however, set the fellow travelers apart. These differences alert us to the reality that people are, indeed, quite different in some ways. One minor difference is that not everyone speaks the same language. Another is the differences that exist in physical appearance. This is the difference that really sticks in our minds. The fictional cantina scene and the airport reality suddenly blend into an illusionary human landscape. Even though most of our behavior is identical, we tend to think of each other as being different on the simple basis of visual appearance. Just like characters in the cantina scene, we, the passengers, know the norms of behavior at the airport regardless of who we are. Each airport in the world follows mostly identical procedures. Almost everyone understands English because it is designated as the official communication language of air

Who Are We? transportation. This is why when a flight attendant calls for boarding, the passengers know what to do. So the question is, how should we visualize our planet? A world of many differences, or a home of bland similarity?

More or Less Alike? International airports are the microcosm of the world. They portray ongoing trends in a miniature frame. People who arrive from all regions and continents parade through airport corridors. Their interaction creates global connections. Because more people travel today than ever before in history, it is natural that their interactions are much more frequent. In the past, few people traveled outside of their hometown and immediate surroundings. Most people lived and died in the place they were born. To find a companion, they did not travel far, perhaps to the neighboring village or town. Only unusual events, such as war or famine, prompted people to change places of residence. Some people traveled for business or religious reasons, but most people simply stayed put. Even among educated citizens, travel was not a high priority. Why, after all, would one want to leave one’s home place? Prince Henry “the Navigator” of Portugal is a name synonymous with European exploration and discovery. Yet Henry never traveled farther than across the Strait of Gibraltar. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), a famous eighteenth-century German philosopher and teacher of geography, stayed throughout his life in the vicinity of his home in Königsberg, Prussia. He never ventured farther than a few dozen miles. European kings often showed little interest in discovering landscapes beyond their kingdom’s capital city. King George III (1738–1820) ruled a vast empire upon which the “sun never sets.” But this British monarch traveled no more than a hundred miles (160 kilometers) from London during his lifetime. Leisure travel, in particular, was not something ordinary people did as many do today. In the past, geographic

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oNE WoRLD oR MANy? separation between people and countries contributed to their cultural separation. The closer they were to each other, it was assumed, the more they resembled one another in their respective ways of life. In many countries, there were only slight differences, mainly religious or linguistic, between residents. When compared to other countries, such differences increased. The British were quite different from the French. But both the French and the British were quite similar to one another when contrasted to

DNA AND WorlD Cultures In the past two decades, DNA technology has helped catch criminals. It has also helped to release innocent people already behind bars. DNA has also been used to provide evidence in paternity cases. The latest technology makes possible the rapid collection and processing of genetic data. It did not take long for students of human evolution to realize DNA’s benefits as a historical research tool. Scientists recognized that if DNA testing can prove one’s relation to his or her parents, it should be able to piece together generations of lineage. They found that DNA analysis can help connect missing links in human history. In regard to the human past, archaeologists (scientists who study early humans) had many assumptions. But archaeological evidence to support their hypotheses is scant. One assumption was that modern humans originated in Africa and gradually populated the rest of the world. The entire human society descended from a very small number of hunters and gatherers in Africa. DNA proved this hypothesis to be correct. Future technological developments may eventually refute what we believe to be true today. Until such time, however, we must agree that in biological terms, humans are indeed part of one world instead of many.

Who Are We?

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Turks or Egyptians. Now, what if we put Chinese or Indians in the original equation? The gap of cultural differences would be even wider. Differences between Europeans and distant Asians were seen as being quite sharp. This is because they seldom interacted with each other. The Chinese developed their own way of life for millennia before Marco Polo (1254–1324) arrived there. The famous medieval Venetian traveler spent many years in China and returned to tell the story of his life. Few other Europeans reached China until centuries later. And then, too,

Through a period of several years of data collection, the big picture began to emerge. Researchers chose to visit places that have experienced little change throughout history. On the southern tip of India, for example, a remote village held the key to unlocking one secret. Many residents marry their cousins, and few outsiders move in. The earliest Indians, and later Southeast Asians and Australian Aborigines, are descendants of Africans who traveled oceanic shores 50,000 to 80,000 years ago. One such group settled in southern India, and DNA analysis proved that their descendants still live in that area. Similarities in DNA between the villagers in India and Africans clearly indicate an unbreakable evolutionary chain. In another case, DNA links established connections between peoples from Central Asia and Native American tribes. It was long believed that the Americas were populated from Asia, but the linkage was never fully understood. A branch from Africa eventually reached Central Asia. Many generations later, hunters and gatherers moved to Asia’s eastern shores and then on to the Americas. How and by what route they got here is not of concern in this context. Similar to India’s scenario, the researchers were able to find individuals in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan that had a connection to contemporary Native Americans. The residents of one world, indeed!

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One World or Many?

Look around any international airport and you will see a small-scale version of global connections at work. Will all this cross-cultural connecting create one homogeneous world? How would that affect you?

only a small number of Europeans explored China’s mysterious, majestic, and glorious lands. They, just like Marco Polo, brought stories and wrote reports about this “strange” land, but that was it. To others, China was the equivalent of the cantina scene: It was fictional, somewhat bizarre, and certainly different in so many ways. How about today? How do the British view the French? The Turks? What are their images of Egyptians or Chinese? Certainly, these views have changed greatly from times past. Today, cultural frontiers are explored with the assistance of affordable vacation packages. Direct flights link destinations thousands of miles apart, such as Rome to Beijing or Shanghai. Upon arrival at the airport, a traveler can catch a taxi to the hotel and begin

Who Are We? to explore the exotic destination. In terms of travel, he or she has done in a single day what it took Marco Polo many years to accomplish. Most Westerners visiting China rapidly realize that even outside of the huge cities, people are just people. Besides alphabet, language, and eating utensils, the Chinese never were much different from the Europeans. In the way they went about their daily lives, they had only a few major, yet ultimately rather unimportant, differences. Now, with the expansion of global connections, even those few differences are beginning to fade away. Indeed, they seem to be blending together. Contemporary travelers to China, or any other destination, often share the notion of the planet becoming “one world out of many.” They are concerned that we are all becoming basically the same. Differences are disappearing. The world is becoming homogenized and bland.

Individual or Collective? “Not so fast!” critics of this view cry out. They disagree with the human “blending” recipe. They argue that if we are to understand human similarities and differences, we must understand how the processes of culture work. First and foremost, the distinction between collective and individual blending needs to be established. The current global transformation requires analysis on two levels. Once the process of global blending is understood, we can begin to understand how global connections affect the contemporary world. Even more important, we will be in a position to understand what directions culture change will take in the twenty-first century.

Collective Effect Today, certainly most cultures experience a great deal of interaction. This also suggests that at least some cultural boundaries are eroding. Older generations in non-English-speaking countries may need to watch American TV shows dubbed in their native

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One World or Many? tongue. But many of their children understand English well. English has become a global lingua franca, the language of international trade and communication. As such, it is being taught in schools throughout much of the world. Fifty years ago, most people did not really need to know a distant foreign language. They needed to know only their own tongue and perhaps that of their cultural neighbor(s) to get by. Their children, however, are well aware of the many benefits that knowing English can bring. Collectively speaking, cultural groups are indeed becoming more alike. As time goes by, the big differences that once determined who belonged to which culture are disappearing. Different cultures are converging into what may eventually become one culture. Each generation will have more in common with their peers across the planet than with their ancestors at home. The differences will disappear. Everything will become universal and, dare we say, even boring.

Effect on Individual Yet as time passes, an individual may not necessarily feel that he or she is living in a bland, global “sameness.” This is the main argument that critics of “one culture” apply to their analysis of cultural convergence. Each generation, in fact, has many more options from which to choose in terms of how to conduct their everyday lives. Rapid development greatly increases our cultural options. In times past, all members of a particular society lived alike for the most part. Their options were limited. They dressed the same way, ate the same foods, and entertained themselves just as everyone else did. Today, we have almost unlimited options from which to select. Throughout most of the world, each new generation has access to a greater variety of traits than did their predecessors. This sounds confusing, doesn’t it? But pause and think for a moment about your own life. How would it have been had you lived just a half century ago? What were the main differences between Americans then and now? In the 1950s, there were

Who Are We? fewer churches because of fewer congregations. Rock and roll music was slowly emerging, but certainly no one could have predicted the many different genres of music that would spring from it. Television was in its infancy, and in most of the country watchers could tune in to but a single black-and-white channel. How many different types of restaurants can you select from? And in each restaurant, how many different options are there from which you can choose? How about jobs and professional development? How much time do you spend at a computer, and how many different things can you do with it? Computers such as we know them today did not exist until the 1980s. Living down the street from us would have been Johnsons and Smiths who all spoke English as their native tongue. Now, along with the Johnsons and Smiths, there are apt to be the Abdullah, Wang, and Papadopoulos (and even Pavlovic´) families. They, too, speak English as their native tongue, but also several other languages. The latest residents are immigrants whose choices are not necessarily identical to yours. Ten years from now, many things will be vastly different than they are today. All these differences appear small and unnoticeable, but they are extremely important. They shape individual personalities and move people away from each other in terms of their lifestyles. Cultural divergence is occurring on an individual level at the same time that cultural convergence is occurring on a collective level. This means that as groups we are becoming more alike, but within the groups (as individuals) we are becoming less alike. In this way, many worlds emerge from one.

Changes and Consequences Americans, who cherish individualism, can somewhat relate to this two-level change. But people of many other cultures cannot. A glimpse at history reveals why. The United States was created from an idea of going forward with as little historical “baggage” as possible. Most countries, on the other hand, developed their

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One World or Many?

This photograph of a busy New York City street could easily have been taken in many of the world’s urban centers. Although generally cities are culturally diverse, the individuals who live in them are incredibly varied. As citizens of the world we may have access to the same things, but the choices we make about what to eat, drink, read, watch, and listen to help us maintain our individuality.

national identity over a period of many centuries. People who shared long ancestral ties wanted to live together. As a country created for immigrants, the United States is a rather young nation that formed as a cultural “melting pot.” Compare two centuries of U.S. history, for example, with that of Iran (Persia) and its almost three millennia of uninterrupted existence. Historical memories are few and short among Americans. Traditionally, the focus has been on the future, rather than the past. Americans are always ready for something new and are more than willing to embrace continuous change. Such an attitude has been a driving force of the nation’s economic development.

Who Are We? It has also greatly increased the quality of life enjoyed by most Americans. From the beginning, the United States was designed to offer most individuals the life they desired. There was little government interference. For the most part, people were free to pursue their own goals. If they worked hard, they could achieve success. This has long been the “American dream.” In many nations, on the other hand, collective solutions and benefits are preferred. Both individuals and society as a whole choose not to pursue their own destiny. They find comfort in collective security. They do not know or want any other way. One of the reasons for a loss of individual freedom is described in greater detail in following chapters. Briefly, it is that the more personal freedom members of a society enjoy, the less dependent they are on government. This, of course, decreases the government’s power and influence. As historical evidence suggests, those in power rarely choose to limit extension of their interference in personal affairs. Most governments see individualism as something negative. They prefer collective, rather than individual, solutions to problems. At the brink of a new age, we can only imagine the consequences when many different worldviews collide. Will one worldview eventually prevail? It is far too early to tell. What will well-established cultures have to give up in order to “fit in” in the new world? This book analyzes similarities and differences between people and places as they are exposed to the growing effect of global connections. It provides an overview of such processes involved through examples and case studies. At the end, the reader should be able to create his or her own conclusion about the future—will it be one world or many?

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2 THE SPREAD oF CuLTuRE C

ultural interaction in today’s world is a whirlwind process. Not long after something new is developed, it can rapidly spread worldwide. Technological fads serve as excellent examples of lightning-fast diffusion (spread) of innovations. Mobile telephones and computers cross over all barriers. Apple’s iPhone, for example, was noticed on the streets of Europe soon after it was introduced exclusively in the United States. Skilled “entrepreneurs” purchased a device in the United States, then sold it to someone in Europe for a hefty profit. There, another person unlocked the phone and made it operable on local mobile networks. The phone was supposed to operate only on the U.S. AT&T cellular network, but in no time that barrier was broken. Soon after, even Apple realized that limiting the iPhone to only one service provider does not prevent anything. The Internet, in particular, has broken down barriers by narrowing time and distance gaps in the exchange of information. What took months or even years to access in the past is now

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The Spread of Culture available instantly. The speed with which information can be exchanged throughout the world increases continuously, as does its affordability. Each time a new technology is introduced, the already existing technology decreases in price. Nearly all technology upon which we have come to depend costs much less with each new development. Computers offer a familiar example: Today their cost is but a fraction of that a decade or so ago. The spread of technology now helps shape cultures much faster than ever before.

Time-Distance Decay In 1812, a war broke out between the United States and the British Empire. This was the first time since the Revolutionary War that the two powers engaged in conflict. The bitter conflict lasted for two years, until the Treaty of Ghent (1814) resulted in a truce. The initial causes for war existed in the United States’ relationship with France, which was engaged in war against the United Kingdom. In the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte ruled over France and attempted to conquer Europe. Naturally, other European powers opposed Napoleon’s brazen grab for power and territorial expansion. The British and the Russians aligned to prevent French domination of the continent. The United States, on the other hand, shared a positive relationship with France. When a British flotilla isolated the French coast and attempted to prevent the flow of goods to France, the United States reacted. It accused the United Kingdom of actively interfering with U.S. economic and political interests with French-controlled areas. British reaction was negative, and the bloody conflict began. Both sides lost thousands of lives. The War of 1812 is mostly remembered for two events. First, British forces occupied and damaged the White House. Second, the United States accomplished victory at the Battle of New Orleans. This victory propelled the career of Andrew Jackson, who later became U.S. president. An interesting detail

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One World or Many? about this battle often emerges in history books. The battle took place after the war officially ended, but no one on the battlefield had received information that the conflict was over. The treaty was signed in Ghent, which is in Belgium, and the troops were fighting in Louisiana, thousands of miles away. In the early nineteenth century, the only means of communication between Europe and North America was by ship. This was long before the development of the telegraph, telephone, radio, or airplanes. It took weeks for information of the truce to reach the battlefield. By the time the news and military orders arrived in New Orleans, the warring sides had already lost many lives in unnecessary battle. As this episode from U.S. history illustrates, distance is a vital factor in understanding the spread of cultural traits. The effect of political decisions in this case could have been rapidly implemented if negotiating teams met near U.S. battlefields. The closer people are to the point of origin of a culture trait (anything people know, have, or are able to do), the faster the idea will be accepted. When distance is short, the period of acceptance is minimized. If places are far away, the geographic (spatial) distance will also contribute to a slowing in the spread of a trait.

“Shorting” the World Compare the War of 1812 with current U.S. military engagements in terms of communication ability. Satellites transmit real-time images from Afghanistan and Iraq for commanders at the Pentagon. Decisions can be made in a matter of minutes. How about soldiers chatting with loved ones over the Internet? Web cameras allow family members to communicate instantly, as opposed to during previous conflicts when letters traveled for several weeks. Occasionally, the electronically transmitted tragic news of a soldier’s death would arrive before his last mailed letter was received at home. As geographic distances remain the same (New Orleans and Ghent, Belgium, are still the same distance apart that they

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During a 2006 press conference, Major General Bill Caldwell shows satellite images of a U.S. air strike in Iraq. Advances in technology have greatly affected the way we experience war.

were in 1814), the distance measured in time has drastically shortened. Traditional time-distance decay is disappearing under the pressure of the technological revolution. This contributes to the creation of one world from many. Basically, an integration of cultural traits is so rapid that where a particular invention originates does not matter. On the global level, we are in a position to introduce new lifestyle aspects literally overnight. The spread of popular music offers another example of the rapid pace of cultural diffusion. In the 1960s, when baby boomers were coming of age, new musical genres were changing the world. The big band music of their parents’ generation was considered outdated. New record labels were being introduced. Richard Branson, today a billionaire entrepreneur, entered the music business with a humble investment from family members in order to create Virgin Records. Eventually, he managed to succeed and create a business empire. But many other visionaries of

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One World or Many? that era became forgotten. One of the reasons was that they could not overcome the shroud of obscurity and spread their music around. It was expensive to reach consumers and create a fan base. Vinyl records cost money, and radio stations were basically the only means of promotion. In the United States, for example, racial barriers blocked many black musicians from appearing in the mainstream media. A small record publishing business, and its musicians, depended on the will of major corporations because the corporations controlled the market.

From Invention to Implementation Necessity is not the mother of invention. Few major discoveries have happened because of an existing need. We discover preexisting principles, often by accident, mistake, or simple curiosity, and then try to figure out what do with them. Inventions do not come from areas of perpetual poverty. In the slums of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, or Mumbai, India, local residents think only of basic survival. Most have no formal education, expertise, or interest to work toward any goal other than meeting their daily fundamental needs. They have little free time. Most innovations (new ideas or material traits) are contributed by individuals living in a well-educated, affluent, comfortable environment. People have the time needed to be creative. For several decades, California’s Silicon Valley has been a major center of innovation. A new invention appears almost daily, it seems. But only a small number of them end up being used. They are created, but no application is found for them. Looked at another way, it can be said that “invention is the mother of necessity.” We have something and then may find a use for it. Before the automobile was developed, humans often traveled by horse and

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The Spread of Culture Although corporations still rule the music business, they cannot prevent the growth of independent recording. Two main factors influence this transformation. First, to produce a record of acceptable quality, aspiring rock stars do not have to leave their basement. In the past, an expensive trip to a recording studio was the only option. Home recording equipment was inadequate. Computer technology has removed that obstacle. The quality of modern hardware and software is outstanding, and the price of such equipment is within reach of average individuals. Second,

buggy. In many places, laws were passed to limit or even prevent the use of automobiles, or “the Devil’s carriage” as it was called by some. The first automobiles were clumsy and impractical machines, and most roads were inadequate. It took several decades before the automobile became widely accepted. More than 30 years passed between an idea to create fluorescent lighting and the beginning of widespread use. A vehicle that runs exclusively on water (by separating oxygen and hydrogen) already exists in Japan. Still, it may never find its way to mass production because the existing automotive industry does not like such competition. Despite being aware of the benefits of a particular invention, barriers to applied use are always in place. They are removed once the invention begins to serve as a major source of income to corporations. The corporations, in turn, do not want to invest unless the invention is commercially feasible and attractive to consumers. Corporations want to exhaust all possible profits from the existing product before they market new inventions. Think how long it took to replace audio tapes, despite having the ability to produce, sell, and widely market affordable compact discs. Can you list 10 items that, if implemented earlier, would have improved global connections and the quality of life?

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One World or Many? recordings can be posted on Web sites and become immediately available to millions of potential listeners. Bands can even record videos and live recordings on social networking Web sites or on YouTube. Every so often, another Internet sensation is born. Even renowned musicians who dislike corporate middlemen have taken advantage of this opportunity. Instead of being constrained to long-term contracts with recording labels, some turn to the Internet and to their fans directly. This approach allows artists much more freedom to pursue their artistic vision. All these actions narrow the time-distance gaps between production and consumption of contemporary music. Equally pleasing is the availability of music from the world’s remote places. African oral traditions, for example, can be recorded and preserved in archives and also made available to the worldwide public. In fact, a substantial number of talent discoveries are now being made in developing areas. Such finds help to preserve the cultural heritage of otherwise isolated peoples. Until recently, venturing into the African countryside was the domain of a few anthropologists equipped with tape recorders. Few audio and even fewer video recordings were collected and made available to the public. Preservation of rural African cultural traits seems to parallel the increase in the availability of affordable recording technology. Availability of traditional African music generated interest among Western musicians who sought to explore new frontiers. Soon, artists from two different cultures established their global connections. They created a symbiosis of two worlds into one because they combined their experiences in the creation of new music.

Cultural Barriers to One World In an ideal world, cultural barriers would not exist. Yet they are everywhere. Political regulations prevent people from public speaking in many countries. Social restrictions legally limit the number of children per family in others. Elsewhere, residents

The Spread of Culture cannot own a private business or watch foreign television programs. Why should such barriers exist? As long as they do not harm others, people should have the freedom to determine how they live and what they do. No one needs to be prevented from seeking “the pursuit of happiness,” as the Founding Fathers recognized over two centuries ago and recorded in the Declaration of Independence. They were well aware that the pursuit of happiness is an essential aspect of every person’s life. What we know as the “traditional moral values” represent a well-defined set of behaviors. The Ten Commandments, for example, are one way of expressing such traditions in a religious context. Each culture follows basic moral guidelines in a similar manner. Regardless of where people live, they know the difference between good and bad, support and harm, and the recognized way to go about daily life. In that context, the different cultures should indeed form one world established on the basis of universal values. The recipe certainly sounds simple, doesn’t it? Most complicated cultural problems are essentially simple to understand. Why, then, one might ask, are they so often difficult to resolve? How is it that despite the guiding lights of moral values, the pursuit of happiness is being frequently ignored? Why can’t everyone embrace an individual’s right to choose his or her own future? One of the problems is in the “collective solution” approach that works for the “common good.” As globalization forces cultures to work together, other factors may actively work in the opposite way. Political leaders who favor isolation instead of openness are present everywhere. Their actions generate many barriers, beginning with free speech and elections. Free practice of one’s religion is a luxury that may be taken for granted in one country, but brutally suppressed in another. Many of the nations that experience such issues share a similar reality. They have an unelected government through which the ideas and decisions of a few rigidly restrict and otherwise impact the lives of many.

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oNE WoRLD oR MANy? The purpose of such decisions is to keep the masses under political control and prevent individualization in society. How is this justified? It is done by their leaders telling the masses that they know what is best for them. One of the traditional values we all share is compassion for others. Therefore, the unelected (or occasionally elected) leaders create collective solutions for the common good of all people. One aspect of a collective solution is almost always present: barriers to foreign ideas and lifestyles. This alone forms perhaps the main reason why global connections do not operate the same way everywhere, despite

lost WorlDs A tropical rain forest is a living museum. It hosts animal and plant species yet to be discovered. In Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, the rain forest is home to indigenous peoples. Their numbers are small. They hunt and gather for their food. Some live permanently in one area, and others continuously move from place to place. Increasingly, their movement is being restricted with advancement of the outside world. Global connections are penetrating into the rain forest with mining trucks, lumber operations, and agricultural expansion. Indigenous peoples are losing their ground. The lifestyle they know requires change. To survive they must conform to the structure of a modern lifestyle. The change is sudden and devastating to their culture. Traditional cultures must be allowed to survive. Outside forces that cause change must be stopped! Or so goes one side of the argument. However, there is another way of looking at the issue of cultural survival: The other point of view is that these indigenous people should be encouraged to participate in modern society as soon as possible. The life expectancy of many people in a remote indigenous society is around 30 years. These people do not have access to modern health care or formal education for their children. Conveniences such as electricity, hot and cold running water, and comfortable housing are

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the presence of universal moral values. The interpretation and modification of collective solutions for a specific purpose is what creates the problem. Let’s consider some examples, both past and present.

God Is Everywhere, but Not in China Few cultures are older than China’s. In continuous existence for more than 5,000 years, China has built an amazing record of cultural accomplishments. Unfortunately, its past is marked by many turbulent historical events and periods. The most recent

unknown to them. If not prepared, they may suffer even more when they are swept over by the unstoppable wave of modernization. Many people, of course, disagree with this viewpoint. They want to preserve “living human museums” in the wilderness just to know they are there. Would you want to give up your current way of life with its opportunities and comforts and return to the Stone Age? This is another side of the argument. Representatives of the two opposing viewpoints argue fiercely over how the lives of indigenous people should be handled. In this process, they often forget to ask important questions. What would we expect if we were in their position? Are the tribespeople aware of the changing world around them? How do they perceive the possible consequences of change on their own way of life? More importantly, how do they see the consequences of change on their children’s lives? Are we focusing more on what we want than the actual people we try to represent and defend? The battle of how to approach the issues of indigenous peoples frequently becomes a stalemate. Soon after, politics take over and both sides drift away from the real issues. This is why, in most instances, the solutions to help people of the rain forest fail miserably.

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One World or Many? began in 1949. That year, the devastating civil war ended with the Communists’ victory. The anti-Communists found refuge offshore and formed a new country, Taiwan. In Communist societies, political and religious diversity are severely suppressed. Ordinary citizens have little choice but to follow the government’s proclamations. Political opposition is not allowed, and the Communist Party rules without oversight. Any critic of the regime lands in prison (or worse!). China is officially an atheistic state. Despite a long history of religious practice, it is now officially discouraged. Barriers are created for missionary work, and foreign missionaries face charges and danger of imprisonment. Members of spiritual movements like Falun Gong are considered traitors and dangerous. Falun Gong was created in the early 1990s and was initially recognized as a positive kind of enlightenment. It also spread worldwide, attracting many practitioners. But in China, the government did not take any chances. On the path of spiritual enlightenment and individual development, only one ideology is allowed—that of Communism. Other practices of spiritual enlightenment tend to receive similar treatments. Historically, China is home to the world’s largest population of Buddhists. Other traditional Chinese religions, such as Confucianism, are also widely represented. The members of all these religions are aware of potential repercussions. In Tibet, for example, Buddhists may face prosecution as terrorists who advocate Tibet’s independence. Two of the largest world religions, Christianity and Islam, are traditionally foreign to the Chinese. Until present days, few Chinese converted to either religion. China is the last frontier for Christian missionaries. Their goal is to make a presence in China and attract new members. Even though the matter of faith should be that of individual choice, the authorities continuously limit missionaries’ ability to do their work. If possible, the Communists want to avoid any religious practice in China. Communism by nature is a collective solution, designed by a few and applied to all.

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Members of the spiritual movement Falun Gong demonstrate in Hong Kong in 2007. The practice has been banned by the Chinese government, which considers Communism to be the only acceptable ideology.

Organized religions, particularly the ones that emphasize individualism (as do many Protestant sects), call for individual freedom. That makes the Communists nervous. Free choice of religion falls outside of collective solutions for the common good framework. In order to remain in power, the Communist Party has purposely created political barriers to the spread of religion.

God Yes, but Only Our Kind In other areas, religion may be allowed, but only with serious constraints in terms of diversity. Afghanistan’s experience in the past decade illustrates how this concept works. Since the 1970s, the country has experienced constant turmoil. The end of

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One World or Many? the Afghan monarchy brought the Communists to power. Their rule was not welcomed by many local tribesmen, and conflicts escalated. Not long after, the Soviet Union invaded the country to help the regime in power. After the Soviets retreated in 1989, the trouble did not end. Warring tribesmen continued to struggle for supremacy for years. No faction controlled the entire country. Decades of fighting created millions of displaced people. Many of them found refuge in Pakistan. There, in order to help their children, parents enrolled sons in religious schools. In an environment where many people are illiterate and have little ability to provide for their family, these schools offer food and shelter to children. Residents of refugee camps have few options at their disposal. By the mid-1990s, these schools, called madrassas, had produced generations of radical Muslims. The graduates of madrassas created a new movement, the Taliban, with the goal of returning to Afghanistan and taking control of the country. Initially, the Taliban received a warm welcome throughout Afghanistan. Most people, after all, do not want to fight. They want to work hard and raise families. But these simple goals were not possible under existing conditions. The Taliban militiamen rapidly gained power in Afghanistan and created peaceful conditions throughout most of the country. Many people were very grateful. They hoped that the country would move toward modernization and join the world community. The Taliban, however, were also religious fundamentalists. Their vision of Afghanistan’s path to the future was exactly the opposite from modernization. Interpretation of traditional values among the Taliban meant returning to medieval times. They immediately banned all electronic media. Possession of televisions, radios, or computers with an Internet connection meant imprisonment or even execution. Such devices, the Taliban thought, projected foreign images and ideas that would corrupt locals. The formal education of girls also ceased. Teachers who tried to set up underground schools for girls received harsh beatings and risked their lives.

The Spread of Culture Only Islam, in its most fundamental form, was allowed to be practiced. Buddhists, Christians, and Hindus, among others, lost their freedoms. Nonbelievers received equal treatment. Religious artifacts portraying saints and gods were destroyed. Some of them had immeasurable artistic and archaeological value. Until driven from power in 2001, the Taliban tried everything possible to prevent the modernization of Afghanistan. Cultural barriers enforced at gunpoint kept Afghanistan’s population in a state of fear. Rather than increasing their global connections, Afghans were driven backward to much earlier times and conditions. Interestingly, however, the Taliban themselves chose to ignore their own moral values. In the documentary Dinner with the President, former Taliban officials were exposed for hypocrisy. They sent their own daughters to schools in Pakistan to receive formal education, while harshly enforcing the rules at home. They knew that without formal education, their children’s future success was bleak. In Afghanistan, an illiterate person cannot hold high office, and the leaders did not want their own children to be future street vendors. In Afghanistan, as elsewhere, the “common good” system apparently applies only to the commoners.

Uneven Patterns Establishing barriers to the diffusion (spread) of cultural traits is not the exclusive domain of dictatorial regimes. Referendums and elections, where allowed, reflect the will of the people. Electoral results may remove existing barriers, but they also create additional ones. It is important to remember that today’s pressing issues did not suddenly appear. Many if not most of them have deep historical roots. Imagine the differences between Europeans and Americans in terms of the legal drinking age and firearm regulations. The legal age for alcohol consumption in the United States is 21. In most European countries it is 18, and it is rather loosely enforced. In fact, beer and wine fall in the category of food throughout Europe

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One World or Many? and are taxed accordingly. Southern Europeans, as they have done for centuries, cannot imagine family dinners and events without wine. On such occasions, minors drink with adults. It is simply a way of life as it has always been. As a result, widespread binge drinking is almost unheard of in southern Europe. Unlike alcohol consumption, however, the possession of firearms is heavily regulated in Europe. Most countries allow their citizens to possess arms only for hunting or as collection items. Licenses are difficult to obtain. Aversion toward possession of firearms is reflected in general public opinion. Even if they had an opportunity to vote on this matter, most Europeans would support current laws. Americans, on the other hand, have constitutionally granted each other the right to bear arms (as granted by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution). Hunting and land stewardship has been a part of U.S. history since colonial times. To outlaw the purchase and possession of firearms would create social upheaval in the country. Uneven cultural patterns reflect combined past and current human ideals, preferences, and goals. As much as global connections gallop toward one world, these variations in behavior continuously produce many worlds. Historical baggage cannot be easily erased, and it serves as a foundation for development of future patterns. Present actions will be reflected in the behavior of future generations.

3 INTERNATIoNAL RELATIoNS T

he world we live in, it has been said, is like a whiskey distillery’s warehouse. A distiller wants to keep the balance and stability of each barrel of whiskey so that they all age harmoniously well. Barrels can stay that way 15, 25, even 40 or 50 years until the product is bottled. No one can predict how it will taste after such a long period of time. One thing, however, is certain. A mistake made in setting the aging system correct today will cost the producer dearly in coming decades. Sound actions must be conducted at the beginning of the process. Still, after all the upfront preparation, whiskey from each barrel may taste different. No one knows why. Experts agree that some internal factors in each barrel account for the differences, but they cannot pinpoint exactly which. Even though the barrels are exposed to an identical environment from the outside, internally they have a world of their own. Distillers use their past experience to help them out, but they are not always successful in their efforts.

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One World or Many? Modern countries, like whiskey barrels, exist in a world of limited space. In theory, at least, countries should not differ that much from one another. They are exposed to identical environments from the outside in terms of international relations and politics. International law and treaties the nations sign dictate a specific behavior designed to preserve overall balance and stability. Their reactions should be predictable regardless of the context. Yet ultimately the reactions are all different. Unexplainable internal influences account for the uniqueness in each country’s behavior. Each has a life of its own, which makes it hard to predict the general future of international affairs. Despite lessons learned, after a number of attempts, many nations face identical issues time and again. Leaders of governments are like whiskey distillers. They work to increase the product’s quality today without destroying its future quality. Irreversible mistakes are easy to make and can result in political and socioeconomic hardship down the road. History repeats itself quite often through a country’s actions. In the past, such mistakes affected only small areas, little affecting the rest of the world. As global connections strengthened, even local actions often began to have a worldwide effect. This is why it is so essential to pay attention to global affairs. Even the seemingly unimportant events in remote corners of this planet can rapidly affect our lives. Many small “worlds” are increasingly influencing the development of one.

Backlash According to the dictionary, the word backlash means a sudden, violent backward movement or reaction. This term is frequently used in political discussions to emphasize a failure of domestic and foreign policies. The United States, because of its power and influence, engages in policies that may result in a backlash in the years and decades that follow. The American Civil War (1861– 1865) is a domestic example of the backlash to failed policies of

International Relations early administrations. After the formation of the United States, many issues remained unresolved. They ranged from states’ rights to the legal status of slavery in the Southern states. Rather than seeking a solution acceptable for all sides, several generations of American politicians were unable to come to any agreement. The events of the 1860s were the culmination of problems that accumulated through time. Once the war began, the point of no return was reached, and the nation had to pay the price. Instead of bloodless political sacrifices, the United States paid with the largest loss of lives in its history. Another example is the accumulation of national debt in the past 50 years. With each new administration in the White House, the government’s spending has increased and savings have decreased. Initially, the problem was minimal, but as the debt kept accumulating, a heavy burden fell on the U.S. economy and taxpayers. To make things worse, little attention was given to the future needs of the United States’ 75 million aging baby boomers who began to retire. When the economy finally nose-dived in 2008, it took a heavy toll. The stock market plunged, millions of workers lost their jobs, and countless mortgage lenders foreclosed, leaving families homeless.

The Soviet Experience In 1991, the mighty Soviet empire crumbled after having existed for more than a half century; an enormous nuclear power became a ruined nation. The largest country in the world broke into pieces and was replaced by 15 new countries. No one expected the Soviet Union to fall apart. Even U.S. intelligence agencies were surprised by the abrupt end of the Cold War in 1991. The sudden internal change left a sense of disarray in Russia and other successor states. Ethnic conflicts spread everywhere. Economic conditions worsened rapidly, and the quality of life plummeted. It took years for the dust to settle. The Soviet Union was created in the aftermath of World War€I. The October Revolution of 1917 brought the Communists

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One World or Many? to power in Russia, which triggered a civil war with forces loyal to the Russian tsars. In 1922, the Communist Party finally consolidated its power and created the Soviet Union on the Russian empire’s ashes. The regime’s idealist views included wider freedoms for the country’s ethnic groups. It split the territory into pieces and awarded republics (autonomous territories somewhat similar to U.S. states) to some but not all ethnic groups. The Soviets never imagined that their union would come to an end. Republics had little say in internal affairs, as all important dealings were controlled from Moscow. Internal boundaries changed often and without much actual consideration about the needs of the people. This was particularly true during the undisputed leadership of Joseph Stalin between 1924 and 1953. Under his supervision, the Soviets relocated millions of people to different parts of the country. Infrastructure, transportation, and all other aspects of the economy were designed to fit Moscow’s needs. A look at a map of Central Asia provides an example of such policies. Most major roads and railroads were built to lead to the north, to Russia, with very few connecting the neighboring republics themselves. Republics’ boundaries were often shifted to fit political purposes instead of reflecting actual demographic and ethnic factors. Truly amazing, however, was a clause in the Soviet Union’s constitution that actually allowed republics to seek full independence if they wanted to. Of course, during the days of powerful and brutal leaders, no one ever imagined taking such action, but in the late 1980s, the situation changed. The country’s leader at that time, Mikhail Gorbachev, decided to increase political and economic freedoms. Once that window opened, a snowballing process of change hit the Soviet Union. The Cold War ended and the Soviet Union split apart. When the mighty power grip from Moscow loosened, the republics exercised the option in the constitution that allowed them to seek independence. Within a few years, the Soviet Union dissolved. Many new problems suddenly arose. How

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would boundaries be arranged to accommodate people who had ended up on the wrong side of the border? What about ethnic groups who were forcefully relocated during the Soviet era?

Immigration Quotas Unrestricted international movement is necessary in order to realize the one-world option. People should have the freedom to live and travel wherever they desire. Currently this is not the case anywhere in the world, except internally for the members of the European Union. The United States offers visa-free tourist travel to citizens of only a handful of countries. Others must pass a comprehensive preliminary screening in order to obtain a visa for a temporary tourist visit. Another step, seeking employment in other countries, is radically different and much more complicated. Developed countries strictly control their borders and severely limit entrance to job seekers and refugees from the developing world. Immigration quotas are the norm in the contemporary world. They are determined on the basis of need. Under pressure from its own citizens, Western Europe, Northern America, and Australia continue to strengthen their immigration policies. Yet despite new anti-immigration measures, more and more people want to immigrate to these countries. As a result, illegal immigration has increased dramatically. This creates a burden on border law-enforcement agencies. Other consequences include formation of illegal migrant camps, human smuggling, and international prostitution rings. Still, the majority of those who become illegal immigrants only hope to feed their families through honest work. Do you believe that global immigration quotas should be removed or enforced? If so, in what ways would either policy affect you and your community?

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One World or Many? Two million ethnic Germans, for example, lived on the border with China. They were descendants of people relocated from Russia and the Ukraine to Kazakhstan during World War II. Seen by the Soviets as potential traitors and helpers to advancing Nazi Germany’s troops, Russian Germans (who settled there in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) were forcefully relocated. Kazakhstan was home to many other ethnic groups that experienced the same policies, notably the Chechens. Reckless redrawing of boundaries and the forced relocation of ethnic groups created a series of political problems. Nearly two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, unresolved ethnic issues continue. Since the mid-1990s, for example, Russians have fought two devastating wars against independence-seeking Chechens. The Republic of Georgia’s internal struggle has led to numerous ethnic conflicts and, most recently, a war with the Russians in 2008. Farther south, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bloody war for domination over mountainous ethnic lands. The international community faces serious difficulties in how to serve as a mediator without facing the accusation of taking sides. Can the world simply ignore the former Soviet Union’s affairs and let the locals sort out their issues on their own? Perhaps, but the advocates of “one world” understand that ignoring local problems today may lead to even larger problems tomorrow. And such problems can involve huge populations and more than one country. They are trying to learn from the Soviet Union’s history.

Pipeline Politics When bone-chilling temperatures affected the European continent during the winter of 2008–2009, residents turned on their heating units. Many Europeans heat their homes with natural gas. Businesses, too, consume vast quantities of natural gas for daily operation. The decline of energy prices in 2008 because of a worldwide economic recession at least lowered the price of natural gas. Consumers in Europe felt secure.

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Georgian soldiers maneuver a tank along city streets in 2008. That year, Georgia went to war with Russia following years of ethnic conflicts. Such situations create difficulties for the global community, which finds itself faced with the unappealing options of either taking sides or turning a blind eye to crimes against humanity.

Then, Russia shut down the operation of the pipeline network that supplies Europe with natural gas. Secure feelings turned to panic almost overnight because nearly all Europeans depend on Russian-produced natural gas. Only a handful of European countries have sufficient natural gas reserves. The majority must import fossil fuels because they are not blessed with energy reserves. Russia is one of the largest natural gas producers and suppliers to European markets. For the gas to reach its destination, however, a network of pipelines has to cross several countries. The most important of these countries is Ukraine. Sovietera pipeline builders did not worry about crossing internal boundaries. Once Ukraine and Russia both became independent,

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oNE WoRLD oR MANy? the network of pipelines crossed more than one country. To ship the fuel to its final destination, Russia needed permission from Ukraine. An agreement was reached resulting in Ukraine receiving royalties from Russia in the form of transit fees. Both sides practiced a respectful relationship for years. Russia even sold gas to Ukraine under preferential terms that were much cheaper than to the rest of Europe. In recent years, however, the political relationship between the two countries soured. Russian companies decided to triple

oNe CouNtry or MANy? Not all groups of people enjoy the luxury of having their own country. Political boundaries sometimes sharply divide relatives. Borders may shift, but communities, after all, remain in the same place. After the two turbulent world wars, Europe saw its boundaries dramatically redrawn. This led to many displaced peoples. Millions of ethnic Hungarians still live within Romania’s borders. Austrian last names are dominant in some parts of northeastern Italy for the same reason. Germans who got stuck on the Polish side of the border in 1945 had to relocate westward. The situation is repeated time and time again throughout much of the world. When India and Pakistan separated in 1947, some 15 million people crossed the border in one direction or the other. On a positive note, as the Jews have experienced, even if it takes a long time, people find ways to form their own country. But this destiny appears to have bypassed the Kurds. Native to Southwest Asia, the Kurds are one of the region’s largest ethnic groups. Nearly 30 million Kurds reside in five countries: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Armenia. These borderlands are their traditional homeland, but they also live elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds can be found in Afghanistan. More recently, the Kurds migrated in significant numbers to Western Europe, particularly Germany. Strengthening global connections have stimulated many to live elsewhere.

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the price of gas sold to Ukraine. The Ukrainian government felt this was a politically motivated move by Russia to destabilize its smaller neighbor. The political and economic rift led to a complete shutdown of the transit network at the beginning of 2009. Their relationship and inability to negotiate natural gas prices therefore had a disastrous effect on a much larger area and population. To replace lost supplies, other countries had to find alternative sources. One option was to purchase gas from Libya and

In their homeland region, the Kurds were unable to accomplish independence. Other countries dominate the area. During the Turkishcontrolled Ottoman Empire’s era, the Kurds remained its subjects for centuries. In the twentieth century, the Western powers dictated the formation of local political boundaries. They created Iraq and Syria. Persia transformed into Iran. Yet the Kurds remained relatively powerless. The various countries in which they lived were unwilling to give the Kurds autonomy. They feared that the ethnic group would seek political independence. Geographic factors influence such fears. Most Kurds live in these countries’ border regions. Such regions, as history illustrates, are usually the first to secede. In Turkey, home to half of all Kurds, their status was relegated to second-class citizens. Their freedom of expression was strictly monitored. In Iraq, they received cruel punishment during Saddam Hussein’s control over this predominantly Arab country. Other countries, too, look at them with suspicion. In recent years, with the change in Iraq’s governing structure, the Kurds in the country have managed to enjoy a previously unimagined degree of autonomy. Ultimately, they want to live in their own independent country named Kurdistan. Will the future bring one country for the Kurds, or will they continue to live in many countries?

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One World or Many? Algeria in North Africa and transport supplies to Europe. In addition to transportation challenges, their production could not match the amount of natural gas received from Russia. Twenty percent of Europe’s natural gas supply comes from Russia. Other short-term solutions included actions that would drastically increase air pollution. Power plants had to switch from natural gas to coal in order to produce electricity. Electricity delivery increased as residents switched from natural gas to electrical heaters. By mid-January, smog alerts were being issued in some major urban areas. The local problem between Russia and the Ukraine became an issue of continental proportion.

Many Worlds? Support for global integration is far from uniform. Critics, and there are many of them, argue that the one-world concept is unrealistic. Regardless of how many unifying factors bring humanity closer, they argue, dividing factors will always prevail. Diversity is simply overwhelming. In terms of international affairs, integration into a one-world government would create many unhappy parties. This is why the number of countries continues to increase, rather than decrease. People want to have more input into their own affairs on a local level. They feel, as the argument goes, that despite the common goals of humanity (peace, a clean environment, and so forth), it is the local issues that matter the most. The larger and more complex a state becomes, the more local issues lose value and importance. Think in terms of your own community. What are the major issues where you live? Are they the same concerns held by your state (or province) or nation? Do residents of Boston feel compelled to pay taxes to help agriculture in rural Iowa? How about Iowans paying extra taxes to help fund tunnel and highway construction in Boston? How about Ghana or Thailand? As much as global connections affect our lives, they do so in an indirect and long-term way. Most people think about what is going to affect

International Relations them only in the short term. In the middle of a blizzard, no one is concerned about whether there will be enough road salt next year. Commuters want their roads clean now. How much does saving the tropical rain forest affect the daily life of Western Europeans? Perhaps much less than the inability to provide natural gas and heat their homes in the midst of a harsh winter. Universal solutions cannot be applied to a one-world concept. Enormous political diversity and a wide range of priorities create a complex system. A single global government can neither understand nor fulfill the needs of everyone. Small countries already have little influence in global affairs. There is no guarantee their problems would ever gain any significance under the umbrella of a single international government. In the past half century, many if not most heated conflicts were the result of people’s desire to be self-governing. Conflicts labeled “ethnic” or “religious” have a common denominator: People want to be self-governing and manage their own affairs. Supporters of the “many-worlds” concept foresee up to 300 countries in the not-too-distant future (there are about 200 countries today). More and more groups, they believe, will attempt separation and seek independence.

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4 SoCIAL CHANGES AND WELL-BEING T

he primary goal of a unified world is to achieve socioeconomic equality. This is not an easy task. Uniform solutions cannot apply equally to all people. No single policy can succeed in all places. A single policy can, however, create even more problems if there is no understanding of how local cultures operate. Instead of increasing the quality of life and socioeconomic status of people, bad policies create undesired consequences. Currently, throughout much of the world, a number of serious problems exist that were created from policy makers and advisors. Their intentions were good, but they were blinded by ignorance in their attempt to improve conditions. They failed to envision the consequences of their actions. The following example illustrates some negative results brought about when ideals failed to match reality.

AFRICA AND THE GREEN REvoLuTIoN The years that followed World War II were years of major changes. Politically, the Cold War polarized capitalist and Communist

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Social Changes and Well-Being nations into two camps. At the same time, colonialism rapidly crumbled and new nations appeared on the global scene. Former colonies became free to run their own affairs. Before 1945, Africa had only four independent countries. By 1970, the continent projected a different picture. Young nations rose from the remnants of the colonial world, and most of Africa was free. Unfortunately, the celebration was short-lived. The moment former colonial rulers left, many serious problems and concerns began to emerge. Few countries experienced political stability long enough to create an effective economic system. Industrial development did not follow the urban and population growth of the 1960s. Despite the rapid growth of cities, most of the population still resided in the countryside. There, people relied on traditional ways of life, which included agriculture and cattle herding as the main economic activities. Global leaders knew they had to provide help to Africans. One solution was to implement the success of the Green Revolution into the African countryside. Agricultural accomplishments in the West, it was thought, could be transplanted in Africa. New drought-resistant grains and stronger fertilizers increased yield in the deserts of the United States and elsewhere. Certainly, it was believed, they could do the same in the African desert environment. All African farmers had to do was to follow the same procedures used by U.S. farmers. If natural environments are identical, then agricultural results should be identical, experts believed. One solution for one world is an adequate approach. Famine should be but a distant memory once a country produces enough food to feed itself. Enough food would generate economic development, raise the quality of life, and eventually create social harmony. In technical agricultural terms, this general idea made sense: One plus one always equals two. That is, more planted acreage, supported with the latest agricultural technology, will generate a higher yield than will traditional farming methods. Mechanized tractors do a better job than traditional beasts of burden pulling the plow. Political leaders in the West and in Africa

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One World or Many? approved this idea, the former in quest of help and the latter because they had no other solutions. What experts failed to realize was that traditional cultural systems do not change easily. They are the backbone of rural African society. First, in much of Africa, the best land is reserved for cattle grazing and not for farming. In these maledominated societies, one is respected on the basis of cattle ownership. A family’s social status depends on the number of cows the head of the household possesses. Therefore, the cattle are a status, rather than food, resource. More cattle means a man receives respect from the elders who make overall decisions for the community. His sons can marry daughters of prominent villagers, while daughters can find good partners, too. In a traditional male-dominated society, having female children is undesirable. They are a burden on a family, an American equivalent to extra taxes. A man with many daughters and no sons had better have as many head of cattle as possible. First, having a lot of cattle compensates for not having sons. Having only daughters reduces a family’s status. Second, the most sought-after village bachelors choose brides from wealthier families to preserve their own status (in the same way that European royalty do not marry commoners). The role of females is simply to bear and raise children, prepare food, and clean the house. A father must pay others to marry his daughters, which means he has to give away cattle as part of the dowry. Naturally, this economic burden is to be avoided. As simple as this system appears on the surface, its internal structure is rather complicated.

Point of No Return Centuries of complex relations between villagers have built many layers of social interaction in rural Africa. Most importantly, to change it would require an essential change of the local people’s culture. The Green Revolution did exactly that. Policy makers could not understand that the U.S. farmer is a capitalist, while

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Assistance to Africa from the global community was in part unsuccessful because of a lack of consideration of cultural differences. Global leaders assumed that Western rules could be applied to the plight of African farmers. By directing African farmers to replace cattle with mechanized tractors, these leaders overlooked the cultural standards of the importance of cattle ownership.

the African farmer is not. Each values profits differently. An American farmer’s ties to the land are for the purpose of profits in a cash economy. He thrives on change and new technologies that can reduce operative costs. The best land is used to grow the most expensive crops in order to sell them. Money must come in after each harvest in order to pay for expensive machinery and keep the farm going as a business enterprise. With cash income, the farmer sends his children to college. Their formal education is the farmer’s most important investment. Many children return with knowledge and expertise on how to run farms as a capitalist enterprise. They improve their parents’ agricultural methods.

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One World or Many? The traditional African farmer does not want change. He wants the system to continue the same way it worked for his ancestors. The best land is reserved for pasture without any further discussion. When African governments implemented agricultural changes, often forcefully, the entire system began to crumble. Suddenly, the villagers were supposed to replace cattle with tractors. The best land had to be cultivated and irrigated, and by the same methods and standards used in U.S. deserts. What about cattle and social status? What about children who

Declining Reading Habits Reading stimulates critical and independent thinking. With the invention of advanced electronic devices, the body of knowledge available to the average person has reached immeasurable levels. Entire libraries can be downloaded onto a computer or an electronic book reader. For those inclined toward traditional reading methods, the news is also positive. More than 100,000 new publications hit the shelves of U.S. bookstores each year. The relative price of books, from literature to scientific topics, has never been more affordable to customers. At the same time, our reading habits are on a serious decline. Book sales are flat. A study published in 2007 revealed that one in four adults has not read a single book during the past year. The negative trend continues, as fewer people find reading valuable, while increasing numbers concentrate on informational snippets from television and the Internet. Simultaneously, scientific studies also indicate the concerning growth in attention deficit–type disorders among adults and children alike. If this indicates a global trend, what can we expect for the population in economically emerging nations? What will be the consequences of our current actions to the well-being of future generations?

Social Changes and Well-Being worked the land? Most importantly, what about female children? When folk traditions were replaced with overnight modernization, many people found themselves in a social vacuum. Old views take generations to fade (remember, it took almost a century and a half for U.S. women to gain suffrage), and heads of household tried to resist changes for as long as possible. Frequently, they would simply let their daughters go, which meant they were not welcomed at home any more. Throughout Africa, young women had no choice other than to leave their villages and move to cities. They suddenly moved from a traditional lifestyle into a modern economic environment. There, mostly illiterate and without any professional skills, their options were severely limited. Lucky ones found jobs as manual laborers or maids. Thousands of less fortunate women became prostitutes or were exploited in some other way. This created an additional social burden on African urban societies. These women could not go to college, like their American counterparts, earn degrees and receive professional knowledge, then come home and help families rise from poverty. In rural areas, the Green Revolution seldom had success. Political instability, corruption, and economic mismanagement additionally contributed to widespread failure. As inability to transform African agricultural nations into modern economies failed, the socioeconomic conditions in many countries reached new lows. The disenfranchised females were the first to pay the price of change yet again. The backlash from lack of awareness had tremendously affected idealistic Western consultants and their African projects. Rather than approaching step by step, gradually through a longer period of time, the experts impatiently sought radical short-term changes. They had no alternative if the gradual approach was ultimately fruitless. Certainly they gave little consideration to social consequences of a sudden cultural change. One’s culture is his or her defensive mechanism. To many African villagers, preventing the Green Revolution from success was success itself.

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One World or Many?

The Right Kind of Change To create one world from many, barriers sometimes appear impenetrable. The most important component in the process of change is time. People can adapt to lifestyle changes only when new ways present themselves gradually. It takes a period of time for a society to absorb changes. The more traditional the lifestyle, the longer the period of change required. Otherwise, as the African example illustrates, the damage can be much greater than the benefits. We tend to forget how long it took the West to accept major social milestones. In our case, these milestones were selfcreated, rather than imposed from other cultures. Yet the Western agricultural experts in Africa expected locals to reject social behavior that serves as a backbone of their culture. Regardless of how beneficial changes can be eventually, time is a necessary factor in any cultural equation. The second aspect is geography. Only with a clear understanding of where particular approaches can work (and where they will not work) can positive changes be achieved.

Formal Education Few people would argue against the benefits of formal education. The rapid progress of a global society is undoubtedly the result of educational development. Unlike in the past, when only the wealthy could afford a formal education, the doors of opportunity are now open to many others. Among potential problems in creating one world, however, is the structure of the educational system. Some cultures see the educational process differently than do Northern Americans. India’s caste system, for example, prevents lower caste members from entering universities, particularly in the case of females. Laws that erase such barriers are in the books, but the everyday reality often ignores legislative decisions. The Hispanic population in the United States displays a large difference in male versus female high school graduation rates. Few males continue to universities because of the

Social Changes and Well-Being overwhelming desire they have to join the workforce at an early age. Throughout the world, minority groups, many of them immigrants, face similar challenges. They live in host countries where societal expectations differ from those in their country of origin. In order to accommodate for cultural differences, diversity policies designed to blend people together are often implemented. Sometimes such programs are productive, but frequently they are not.

Cultural Diversity and Social Engineering To promote cultural diversity is a goal of any modern society. A look back in recent U.S. history clearly shows improvements on this matter. Women fought for their rights to be more than teachers and secretaries and won. As time passes, the gender equality gap continues to narrow. The law against discrimination is part of the U.S. Constitution. The racial divide is being conquered as well. The United States is among the most desirable destinations for people emigrating from their home countries. It is perhaps the only country where representatives of every ethnic group in the world can be found. If people desire to migrate to a country in large numbers, it means that that country has much to offer. No one immigrates to North Korea or Zimbabwe, but each year, thousands of new U.S. residents become citizens. A characteristic of a society can be judged well on the basis of immigration rates. The United States, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe all experience high immigration. They also have strict laws that grant personal freedoms to newcomers if they arrive through legal channels. It is important to understand that immigration is not an easy process. Most people do not want to leave the place they were born and where they grew up. Nostalgic feelings are always present in first-generation immigrants, and they never fully blend into the host nation’s culture. Diversity policies ensure that the barriers immigrants face are minimized. Their children, especially if they are born in the

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oNE WoRLD oR MANy? new country, assimilate rapidly. How many friends of foreign ancestry do you have? Can you identify differences between them and their parents in social behavior? As much as diversity policies can be productive, the best way to integrate people is the natural, rather than enforced, way. People and their communities will jump cultural roadblocks and find productive ways to coexist. This, after all, is the story of the United States. The problem arises when diversity policies are used for political manipulation. Then, instead of bringing people together, they expand social and cultural gaps. Political manipulation of cultural diversity issues may serve one group at the expense of another.

ethNiC NeighborhooDs When immigrants arrive in a host country, they group together. This is a part of the human defensive mechanism. Being close to one’s own kind provides a variety of shelters, from physical to economic. At first, particularly if unfamiliar with the local language, immigrants gravitate to the parts of the community where they can successfully find employment. Economic factors are the leading reason for migration, more so than all other reasons combined. Imagine the impact of the Industrial Revolution on relocation from rural to urban areas. On an international scale, nearly 50 million Europeans moved to North America alone in the past two centuries. Today, due to evolving global connections, the migration process is even more grandiose. Millions are changing their places of residence as you read this book. As the result of a continuous influx of immigrants, certain parts of inner-city areas evolve into ethnic neighborhoods. In the United States, such neighborhoods are common, particularly in larger cities. Some became famous tourist attractions like Chinatown in San Francisco. In New York, we find Little Italy. Boston is known for the Irish cultural imprint. Large numbers of Irish immigrants

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Good Friends? Diversity is often used as a marketing tool for the purpose of social engineering. To sell their products, companies manipulate commercials in order to make buyers feel cozy. For example, cereal maker Kashi markets Good Friends cereal as an excellent breakfast choice. The cover of the box features a picture of two charming people—good friends—who smile to passing shoppers as they cruise through the aisle. Options allow shoppers to choose between Cinna-Raisin Crunch and Original. The latter is much higher in fiber and includes 50 percent of a person’s daily needs. The interesting aspect of this marketing approach is that the two people on the box never share identical

arrived after the Potato Famine in the 1840s, which devastated their homeland. Ethnic neighborhoods in Germany are an example of more recent migrations. Since the 1960s, Turks have been moving there as guest workers. As their numbers increased, the landscape began to reflect the change. Grocery stores, restaurants, community centers, places of worship, and other private and public facilities cater to the new residents. Advertising signs have become bilingual. Overall, ethnic neighborhoods directly contribute to the increase in local cultural diversity. They are often recognized as places where different worlds collide, but in a positive manner. As time passes by, a neighborhood previously established by one group may entirely transform, following the latest wave of migration. Immigrant-friendly U.S. cities continuously experience this kind of cultural effect. An influx of Latin Americans into a formerly Italian-dominated neighborhood is an example of such change. As Italians rose in economic status, they moved to wealthier suburban neighborhoods. In a generation or two, Latinos will follow the same footsteps. Then, some other group will take their place and once again transform the neighborhood.

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One World or Many? gender, ethnicity, or racial features. Two men of European Caucasian ancestry never smile from the Good Friends box. This is social engineering, a purposely designed attempt to use diversity to mentally manipulate shoppers and make profits, not to promote it for diversity sake. Smiles from the box of the fiberfortified Original come from, of course, an elderly pair. Here, the age is added as a factor in marketing the product because elderly citizens are not only “good friends,” but also above average in fiber deficiency. Shoppers of their age will grab that box and put it in their cart with much less reluctance than if the picture depicted two skateboarding teenagers. Well-crafted commercials promoting cultural diversity bombard viewers each night on television. They are designed to manipulate a consumer’s conscience. Analyze these commercials for a moment and try to identify certain patterns. Politicians use similar methods to reach through the ethnically diverse electorate in order to gain voter confidence and acquire votes. It is very difficult to prevent such actions. Ultimately, they almost certainly will be counterproductive, simply because they are not genuine expressions, but a form of manipulation. Social engineering represents one of the major barriers to the one-world concept. It often backfires among people who perceive it as being dishonest and forceful profit-making manipulation.

National Identity An issue of loss of national identity, too, is a matter of serious concern for people when they feel pressured and manipulated. Their natural response is to reject, rather than accept, diversity. These kinds of feelings can be seen throughout Europe. National identity is having a sense of belonging to a unique group, such as being French or Italian. It is a powerful unifying force in the foundation of most European countries. These countries were not created as an idea, but they grew out of ethnic or religious selfdeterminism. Imagine how many centuries shaped the evolution of German or English national identity. Once people envision that

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A women’s rights activist protests the “honor killing” of an Afghan immigrant in Hamburg, Germany. Dramatic cultural differences often divide immigrants from the citizens of their host country, making it difficult for either group to understand one another, despite their close proximity.

their values and national identity are threatened, they may move to the extreme side of the political spectrum. Anti-immigrant groups in present-day Europe base their actions on three related reasons. First is the immigrants’ perceived unwillingness to accept European cultural values (many immigrants are from Asia and Africa). The list of values ranges from learning the local language to following norms of social behavior. Honor killing of family members who reject arranged marriage, for example, is not rare among Turkish immigrants in Germany or Pakistanis in the United Kingdom. Such behavior is strange and unacceptable to Europeans. Because of “politically

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One World or Many? correct” social pressures, many Europeans feel that it is they who should change. They should accept the ways of immigrants’ culture even if they are totally alien to the European experience. Feeling pressured to accept an imported cultural trait is a second reason for anti-immigrant sentiment. Finally, many feel that emphasis on diversity creates two parallel societies, which eventually may lead to the immigrant culture overrunning the host culture. Demographic statistics play an important role because immigrant birth rates are much higher than those of natives. Fear of eventually losing population majority contributes to the spread of anti-immigrant feelings. The determining factor behind higher birth rates among immigrant populations is primarily socioeconomic. Most first-generation immigrants are on a lower economic level and have low rates of formal education. Once economic status and formal education rates increase, with the second and third generation, birth rates decrease. But to wait that long is often too much for many proponents of anti-immigration measures in Europe.

5 CuLTuRE AND GEoGRAPHy I

n the process of cultural change, whether people are willing to accept or reject a new culture trait differs from place to place. In urban settings, change is a way of life. In cities, the process of change is not only rapid and accepted, but it is expected. It is not at all unusual for the storefronts on a city block to change from year to year. A former resident might return to his old neighborhood just a year after moving to find his favorite restaurant has become a nail salon. Change and progression are part of the way of life in urban areas. Now imagine exactly the opposite image, the one of traditional culture. In such a lifestyle, change is threatening. It interferes with existing, deeply embedded ways of doing things. How much did the landscape of Australian Aborigines change during the millennia before the arrival of European settlers? Very little, we can imagine. In the rural cultural environment, there is no need for change. Throughout the world, we see

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oNE WoRLD oR MANy? similar conditions. From remote villages in Turkey to Peruvian settlements tucked away in an Andean valley, change occurs very slowly if at all. Rapid change erases cultural homogeneity. People simply have more options from which to choose. This is why global

PlACe NAMes ChANges Place names, or toponyms, reflect the cultural and historical background of geographical features. When settlers arrive, they name towns and villages, as well as physical features. As time progresses and new groups arrive, the place names begin to change to accommodate the newcomers. The history of the North American Great Plains tells many stories of small communities that transformed nearly overnight once railroad tracks were laid down. Among them were those of Bohemian Slavs, who arrived from the present-day Czech Republic. They formed agricultural settlements deep in the countryside. Many towns and streets were named in the Czech language. Churches and schools revealed the central European character. Not long after, as the railroads advanced, along came the English language, a tongue of trade and communication. Previously isolated communities became rapidly growing towns located on or near the railway connection between North America’s coasts. They were integrated into a larger transportation network. As a result, the influx of non-Bohemians rapidly increased in local areas. The English language of the newcomers had an unavoidable impact on once-firmly Bohemian prairie towns. This trend is far from being uniquely American. Elsewhere, especially in multiethnic zones, people often must unwillingly conduct place name changes. It occurs under political pressure to create dominance of one group over others. By doing so, the ethnic identity of minority groups may gradually fade away with each new generation coming of

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development is uneven. People in some regions, such as throughout most of the developed world, eagerly accept changes in their lifestyle. Yet others work to preserve existing conditions. Let’s look at some important differences in the geography of culture change with emphasis on its global connections.

age. Such a process is an attempt for ethnic assimilation. Religious place names often change in a similar fashion to ethnic toponyms for the purpose of assimilation. Authorities fear that people’s strong connection with the land they inhabit may lead to calls for separatism. In Europe, with a long historical memory of ethnic and religious conflicts, political decisions frequently influence name changes. Ideological differences can push for the replacement of established toponyms. During the Communist era in the Soviet Union, St. Petersburg became Leningrad. The Communist Party renamed the city that symbolized the centuries-old power of the Russian Empire’s tsars. In turn, the new name glorified the leader of the Russian Communists, Vladimir Lenin. Once the Soviet Union ceased to exist and the Communists lost power, the city again changed its name to St. Petersburg. Toponyms have also fallen into a contemporary game of political correctness. According to advocates of change, place names must be replaced if they offend any particular racial, ethnic, religious, or social group. An example would be a name with a racial epithet in the American South, created prior to the Civil War. Such place names remain unpleasant reminders of historical injustice over certain groups. Quite to the contrary, argues the opposing side. Place names are excellent evidence of the social progress we have made since the times they were created. They remind the members of society about not only who we are, but who we were in the past and how such reminders should not be erased from future generations’ memory.

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Religion One’s religous faith is not biologically inherited. For most people, it is acquired from their immediate cultural surrounding, primarily family and community. Until recent times, voluntary conversion was unheard of in most societies. Today, particularly in urban areas, more people change their religion than ever before. What is the determining factor in this process? Generally speaking, it is the transformation of folk culture to popular culture, from tradition to modernity. Yet what needs to be emphasized even more here is the relationship between individualism and collectivism. Once a person becomes an adult, faith is a matter of personal choice. As illustrated in the previous chapter, individualism is very rare in an African village. If practiced, it is sure to cause a strong backlash from family and villagers. The community places great pressure on its members to follow the same cultural path as everyone else. Collective decisions and practices are to be followed rigidly. Anyone who fails to do so becomes a village outcast. Nonconformity usually lasts until the first drought or famine strikes and the individual needs help from the village. The sole purpose of traditional culture is to ensure that its individual members keep in line with behavior that benefits the group as one unit. Such conformity is not necessary in an urban setting. Individual success depends mainly on one’s education and specialized skills. An aircraft engineer could care less if his neighbor is a manager of a supermarket chain, and vice versa. Purchasing power and standard of living in the developed world depend upon cash income, not on neighborhood status. People work in different professions, receive different incomes, and choose to pursue their own individual lifestyles. In urban settings, this is true in regard to religious practices. When people have freedom of choice in the search for spiritual enlightenment, they willingly explore options.

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Thousands of Sects The growth of Protestant sects illustrates the foregoing point. Due to Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, Western Christianity split into Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in the sixteenth century. Since that time, the number of Protestant sects has greatly increased in number. The invention of the printing press a few decades earlier had a great impact on the spread of Protestantism. The printing press allowed people to read and spread messages that were not approved by the Roman Catholic clergy. Among these teachings was one that condoned the individual search for spiritual fulfillment without the Church as mediator.

As illustrated by the appearance of these members of Kenya’s Turkana district, conformity is key in remote African villages. This applies to actions, dress, and beliefs. Those who fail to conform are considered outcasts and may pay the price when they need help or support from their fellow villagers.

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One World or Many? The message was that people should seek their own enlightenment and voluntarily assemble in their own church of choice. This approach gave rise to a proliferation of Protestant denominations, or sects. Industrialization and urbanization in Western Europe helped accelerate this process. The North American continent, too, became a fertile ground for new denominations. It is estimated that some 3,000 Protestant denominations exist worldwide, a number that grows each year. Some faiths

Interracial Marriages Many people, particularly those living in urban societies, can hide their ethnicity or religious orientation. What they cannot avoid is detection of their skin color. Racial identification is as old as the races themselves. Throughout history, so-called racial divisions separated people of identical culture. Marrying outside of one’s race meant becoming a social outcast. Interracial marriages remained taboo until recent times. Even in the United States, until recent decades, laws banning interracial marriage were firmly in place in many areas of the country. During the past several decades, major improvements contributed to changes in the established structure. Global connections and exposure to worldviews contributed to this process. Racial desegregation removed a major barrier between love, the desire to marry, and rigid laws. Since the 1970s, the number of interracial marriages, predominantly between whites and blacks, has increased nearly fourfold. Younger generations welcome the trend and overwhelmingly support the mixing of races, although some elders continue to resist change. What factors from your daily life, particularly the ones absent among members of previous generations, do you see influencing the acceptance of interracial marriages? How do global connections fit in the contemporary picture of racial relationships?

Culture and Geography have huge memberships, whereas others gather only a handful of like-minded soul-searching individuals. The Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, is seeing a reverse trend in membership. This is most evident in the traditional Catholic stronghold of Latin America. Catholicism depends on collectivism. Followers of Roman Catholicism must follow religious teachings and social behavior that are predetermined for everyone. Protestant missionaries, particularly the Pentecostals, have used that as an opportunity to effectively reach out to Latin American Catholics. The number of converts there is rising. In the past, such change would be unthinkable. But today, the great majority of Latin Americans no longer live in remote villages. They are much more selfreliant and capable of making choices themselves. Local priests no longer have the status and power they once held within a society. They are particularly losing their influence over urban dwellers. Latin America is not the only “battleground.” Other regions report similar stories. In Russia, Protestant missionaries have gone deep into the forest of Siberia. After 70 years of Communism, Russians became free to practice any religion. Most Russians share the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition. Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism split in 1054 over issues of dominance. Both are similar in regard to their emphasis on a collectivist and rigidly uniform approach. Until the twentieth century, nearly 90 percent of Russians lived in remote rural communities. Then, the Communists took over power. Their emphasis on national urbanization and industrialization led to a giant demographic leap. Today, 73 percent of all Russians live in cities. Reliance on others has been replaced with self-reliance in a way identical to that of Latin Americans. During recent years, the rate of conversion has been dramatic. The Russian Eastern Orthodox Church has experienced a rapid loss of worshippers. In response, it has asked the government to impose barriers to the work of foreign missionaries.

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Two Extremes: Secularization and Theocracy Another product of globalization is a steady increase in the number of people who practice no religion whatsoever. Free will is a powerful cultural tool. Urbanites with a high level of formal education are most likely to represent this group. This is particularly evident in Europe. Even in countries known for association with Christian tradition, such as Italy or Spain, many churches remain nearly empty. Each new generation is less religious than the previous. The church as a provider of social welfare has been replaced with political institutions. Governmental organizations accountable to the electorate now hold the primary role. As providers of faith-based services, religious institutions have generally lost ground throughout much of the region. It is difficult to know the exact number of nonpractitioners and atheists worldwide. Estimates suggest that about 15 percent of the global population follows no particular faith. Does that mean that in the future, we can expect to see one world made up of nonbelievers? The answer, most likely, is no. Humans have shown a need for spirituality throughout history. There is a place in the human mind and in society for faith-based beliefs and practices. The change may come in only the type of religion practiced and the number of followers. Culturally, in terms of religion, one world will remain the world of many. Some countries are still ruled by religious leaders. They represent the other side of the cultural coin. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader is not an elected politician, but a cleric elected from an assembly of his peers. The country’s president takes care of the country’s daily business. But the grand ayatollah makes the final decisions. He can accept or reject legislative decisions and overturn any executive decision. One of the main issues in Iran has been his influence on social behavior. In the Islamic world, separation between church and state is mostly nonexistent. In some countries, like Turkey, the separation was created through strong enforcement, rather than the will of the people.

Culture and Geography Islamic clerics are recognized as religious, community, and political leaders. This arrangement is similar to that of Roman Catholic priests during medieval times. This creates a problem in Iran for people who want to pursue spiritual enlightenment other than Islam or who have no religion at all. They still have to follow the social norms of behavior that are the result of interpretation of Islamic teachings and traditions. Women are particularly affected because their personal liberties are severely suppressed. To prevent the introduction of Western influences (globalization/ modernization), Iranian leaders try to enforce religion through morality. Therefore, if some social act is unacceptable to the clerics’ interpretation of moral Islamic behavior, people who conduct that act receive punishment. These acts may range from wearing short skirts to reading classic Western novels. For years, Iranian women were banned from attending some sporting events, particularly soccer matches. When the president announced that female spectators were to be allowed in soccer stadiums, the grand ayatollah overturned the decision. Religious leaders claimed that behavior that takes place in stadiums is immoral for all women. They extended the ban instead, thereby imposing their personal choice as a guideline of how to spend Sunday afternoons. Coed sporting events are also banned for similar reasons. Unless they are related, men and women are banned from physical contact; hence, they cannot engage in sporting activity. In 2009, perhaps for the first time ever in Iran’s modern history, a soccer match between males and females took place in Teheran. For participating in this milestone event, the coaches received lengthy suspensions and hefty fines as punishments.

Languages One strong argument against “one world” (globalization) is that many languages will disappear. Today, more people can communicate in English than any other language. As the international

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Iranian soccer fans cheer at a stadium in Tehran in 2009. Look closely and note that the crowd is made up entirely of males. Women have been banned from soccer matches because of the supposed immoral behavior that takes place during such events. While Iran has a secular president, its spiritual leader can overrule and influence any law.

language of trade, tourism, popular culture, and general communication, its importance and usage will only increase. Therefore, the argument goes, other languages may lose their significance, and soon the world will have only a single tongue. This prospect warrants close examination. First, global connections certainly have accelerated the spread of English. The British Empire’s colonial aspirations greatly contributed to the language’s initial spread. In fact, it became the official language of more countries than any other tongue. The only continent where other European languages have primacy is South America. There, Spanish and Portuguese (in Brazil) reflect a different colonial heritage. English is official only in tiny Guyana, a former British colony.

Culture and Geography Second, it is true that never before in history has one language had such a global impact. Previously, most linguistic changes occurred on regional levels. Greeks colonized only the Mediterranean realm. Russians extended only as far as the northern portions of Asia. The French became influential in eighteenthcentury Europe and later in portions of West Africa. Yet their languages all gradually retreated following the decline of Greek, Russian, or French political and economic power. Can we expect a similar destiny for the English language? What, for example, might happen if U.S. political and economic power declined and China became the dominant world power? Third, many people who speak English as a second language do not count out their native tongue. They use English only for job-related purposes. When they come home, they communicate in their native language. A recent study showed that half of European citizens speak two or more languages. The number of multilingual individuals is actually rising. This fact supports many worlds in which English is just one of the languages good to know for a specific purpose. In Africa, the tradition of utilizing different languages, depending on circumstances, has a long history. Tribes speak different languages at the local level, but national unity depends on a single tongue. Languages of former colonial rulers serve such a purpose in addition to one or more local tongues. Still, millions of commoners are not expected to speak a European language or, for that matter, each other’s tongue. Instead, they use a lingua franca such as Swahili for intertribal, economic, media, and other regional interactions.

“Warlike” Languages The power of language as a political tool must be given special attention. History shows a strong connection between languages and political aspirations. Each time a new country is created, its leaders must establish an official language. Most new countries are formed by slicing up larger, already existing countries. Language is used as a tool for separatism and to convince people that they are different from their neighbors. An emphasis on

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One World or Many? linguistic differences, however small they are, is designed to forge a unique national identity. Throughout the past two centuries, nationalistic movements in Europe and elsewhere frequently called for linguistic purity when asking for political separation. In each case, an official language has been adopted. Very few countries have the minority group’s language as their official tongue. When two mutually unintelligible peoples share living space, linguistic oppression sometimes affects the minority group. A sense of oppression generates separatist feelings and justifies the call for political independence. The majority group dominates the government, and the response can be harsh. One of the responses to Kurdish nationalism in Turkey, for example, was to severely limit the use of the Kurdish language in the media. Treason charges and imprisonment threatened individuals who defied the ban. Sometimes languages are understood by speakers of other tongues, differing only in their dialect (word pronunciation and usage). During Yugoslavia’s breakup in the early 1990s, nationalistic messages were written in the “proper” language, that of the writer’s “own people.” People on various “sides” searched for the smallest linguistic variations between each other so that they could “prove” historical differences from their neighbors next door. Can you imagine a fourth-generation Norwegian American from Milwaukee insisting that he or she is different than a thirdgeneration Danish American living in Kenosha? Could you tell the difference? In the United States, all citizens are Americans. The way they choose to identify and express their ethnic and linguistic heritage is a matter of individual preference and feelings. Among Croats and Serbs in the former Yugoslavia, however, individual preferences are regarded with laughter and rejection. Collective heritage based upon medieval myths, fabricated histories, and forced group associations takes priority over individual needs and desires. There, many worlds, rather than one, continue to hold a fast grip on people’s sense of identity.

6 FooD, DIET, AND LEISuRE F

ood is perhaps the most important cultural indicator. In fact, it can be said that we eat what we are in a cultural sense. This statement is not only popular in television cooking shows. It represents a contemporary and historical reality. Much can be said about an individual or group of people on the basis of what they eat. Lifestyle preferences are displayed through food and diet. Religion and diet are closely related. The effect of economic development has influenced dietary habits. For many cultures, social life always revolves around the kitchen because food brings people together.

HEARTH Throughout history, the place in the house where food was prepared held a sacred status. This is not an evolutionary accident. Ever since humans mastered the use of fire, the hearth—where the fire was kept—was the center of the home. It also kept

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One World or Many? humans from starvation. Caves with preserved archaeological remains usually had a hearth in the middle. Preparation of food using fire greatly expanded what early humans could eat. The ability to create and preserve fire was highly valued. Tierra del Fuego (“Land of Fire” in Spanish), for example, received its name when early Iberian navigators sailed the southern tip of South America in the sixteenth century. When the explorers reached present-day southern Argentina and Chile, they saw many fires near the shore. The locals, who continued the tradition until the twentieth century, did not know how to create fire. Rather, they were fire keepers. They developed an excellent ability to preserve fire once it was obtained from neighbors or through natural causes. They even kept a small fire in their boats. Twentieth-century modernization made many radical cultural changes. Aborigines throughout the world today use lighter fluids to generate fire. The process of urbanization attracted rural people to the cities. Rapid economic development changed many traditional folkways into today’s contemporary popular-culture lifestyles. U.S. residents were the first to experience the new age. With the introduction of television during the mid-twentieth century, the living room began to replace the kitchen as the center of family activity. As TV watching grew, so did the popularity of prepackaged meals. The TV dinner was introduced so consumers could eat while watching television. In the early days, most TV broadcasts were live; viewers did not have the luxury of recording shows. Post–World War II expansion of the U.S. economy drastically increased vehicle ownership among the middle class. Eating out became a fashion and convenience that never faded away. The restaurant industry is now a multibillion-dollar business, and new locations open every day. This, too, accounted for the family’s removal from the kitchen. Convenience replaced patience and also took a toll on close family ties. In a traditional home, family members often sat around for hours as the meal was

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prepared and eaten. Such social interaction is all but unheard of today in many fast-paced households. This kind of cultural transformation has some people concerned about the influence of outside pressures upon their own culture. Traditional foods are being replaced with those imported from other countries. Dietary habits are changing to accommodate the demands of modern lifestyles. Economic progress creates opportunities, but it also generates responsibilities. When people act irresponsibly, some price must be paid. Waistlines certainly are among the first victims of irresponsibility.

Taxing Fat Obesity and its effect on well-being has become an issue of public debate in many countries. Grasping the size of this problem is not the only issue. Many politicians ask whether the fight against obesity should become a government-sponsored program. In New York, some politicians recommended enacting a law that would fight obesity through targeted taxation. Corporations that produce fattening foods, and the consumers who buy them, should pay additional taxes for such products. The money generated from taxation would fund predetermined programs. Opposing views hold serious concerns in regard to how public policies affect personal liberties. Shopping for food and losing weight should be a matter of personal responsibility rather than being government imposed. Who decides what food should be included and how much weight a person should lose? Poverty and obesity go hand in hand; thus, the solution can easily generate more problems because of additional and unjust tax. Keeping in mind both views, which side of this debate would you support?

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Fat Gene? No matter what the future brings—one world or many—there is one aspect of reality that most societies drawn into contemporary fast-paced, fast-food, popular culture will share. That is the rapidly growing problem of obesity. Hunters and gatherers do not get fat. A sedentary lifestyle is the main reason for expanding waistbands. As societies progress economically, food becomes readily available and prices decline. In a service-based economy, manual workers are a tiny portion of the labor force. Most are involved in office-based duties. Compare your own lifestyle with that of your grandparents. Are there any major generational differences? Physical inactivity increases obesity rates. According to some surveys, more than two of every three Americans are obese or overweight. Technological achievements have lowered the price of food production and distribution. The frozen foods aisle in a grocery store is very long. The seemingly never-ending variety of pre-made products calls for a convenient approach to cooking. “Cheap and easy to prepare” are the key buzzwords that echo in most consumers’ ears when they enter a grocery store. But few of them concentrate on the amount of calories and fat in such products. The amount is high because to make frozen foods tasty, the manufacturer must add saturated fats. Most consumers, it seems, choose denial, convenience, and low cost over responsibility and moderation in consumption. To compete against each other and attract new customers, restaurants keep increasing portion sizes. An average meal has twice the amount of calories compared to only a couple of decades ago, yet prices (adjusted for inflation) are much lower. Health experts warn that the disproportionate intake of food and lack of exercise may even begin to modify the human genetic structure. Diabetes rates have exploded, especially among people whose diets have radically changed.

Food, Diet, and Leisure

Native Peoples, Dietary Changes, and Health Issues When the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Corps of Discovery, entered present-day South Dakota in 1803, they encountered fierce Lakota warriors. Males of this nomadic tribe hunted game to feed their families. They were a slim people, always in motion and pursuit of buffalo and other game. A traditional lifestyle included a simple diet with as much meat as possible. Meat has high energy, good fats, and protein value. Have you noticed a difference when you eat steak, as opposed to vegetables or pasta? Members of the Lewis and Clark expedition were no different on their long journey to and back from the Pacific coast. They hunted in order to survive. To carry loads of equipment and to push the boat upstream across sandbars of the Missouri River required hard labor. In order to replace the energy lost through hard work, each member of the expedition consumed up to nine pounds of meat daily. Physically, however, they remained unchanged. Today, only professional athletes match this enormous energy intake. Swimmers, marathon runners, and bicycle riders, to name a few, rapidly burn energy and need continuous replenishment of nutrients. Celebrated swimmer Michael Phelps is known to consume 12,000 calories a day through a specialized diet. Recommended daily intake for the average person is between 2,000 and 2,500 calories. A visit to any of the Indian reservations in the Dakotas (or many elsewhere) will immediately open a visitor’s eyes in regard to how much things have changed. Forced to retreat to reservations, the tribesmen had to change their culture overnight. The lifestyle they practiced for centuries was suddenly gone. Cultural changes drew them into modern society. Foreign cultural traits were introduced and had to be accepted. A sedentary lifestyle has replaced roaming the vast prairies of the northern United

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One World or Many? States. Horses and barns had to make room for cars and garages. Lean buffalo meat is now $4.99 a pound, compared to the least healthy ground meat at $1.99 a pound. Fresh spring water and occasional grain (mainly corn) are replaced with high cholesterol chips, frozen foods, and sodas. A diet that revolves around such products increases the chances of obesity and diabetes many times over. Once proud warriors now fight a different type of battle for survival. It is against diseases related to living a modern lifestyle. Reservations

Dietary habits and lifestyles have changed considerably for people around the world in a relatively short period of time. The availability of inexpensive, nonnutritious food and a predominately sedentary lifestyle have contributed to an epidemic of obesity. This is evident among many Native American peoples, who have adapted to the culture of the rest of the country. Once a lean people who lived off the land, their calorie intake now far outweighs energy expended.

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Food, Diet, and Leisure across the country experience similar trends. And once established, such trends are extremely difficult to reverse. Why, you ask, don’t the tribes spend more money on a healthy lifestyle? The main answer is poverty. Few low-income families can afford healthy foods. Even when they can, physical access to them is difficult because high-end stores do not open in low-income areas. Certainly they do not open in the middle of a remote reservation. Local grocery stores carry only profitable products that their patrons can afford. The lack of role models is another important issue. If one generation of people comes of age in unfavorable lifestyle conditions, we cannot expect to see major changes in the generation that immediately follows. The pressure to follow our parents’ path is often too strong. If surrounding economic and social conditions do not improve, and they hardly did for most tribes, major improvements cannot occur. Most reservations are tucked in the remote countryside. Physical isolation and the lack of outside contact increases indifference toward change.

Global Trends More than a billion of Earth’s residents are overweight or obese. Twenty percent of all people fall in this rapidly expanding category. The latest data show evidence that many developing countries are experiencing a surge in obesity rates. It is hard to grasp that economic development, with all its other benefits, is actually directly related to this problem. The transformation from agricultural into urban societies contributes to this situation. As villagers leave their homes and move to cities, they have to change their diet. For generations, their meals consisted mostly of grains, vegetables, fruits, and perhaps some meat. Almost everything came from their own gardens and fields. In an urban environment, this is not possible. Work in a factory has replaced tillage of the land. The reward is a salary in banknotes, not in bushels of corn, wheat, or other grain to be exchanged on the

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One World or Many? local market. The new diet is financially affordable and feeds many members of large families. The invention of refrigerators has changed the world in deep and profound ways. They are readily available to almost everyone in economically developed lands, and they make possible the storage of packaged, frozen, or other prefabricated foodstuffs.

Cultural Variations As noted earlier, tradition is hard to erase overnight. Fancy green salads topped with a few drops of vinegar are not generally a part of the southern U.S. diet. In the South, people enjoy fried food and hefty portions of barbecued meat. Residents of the rural agricultural South spent centuries eating such foods while cultivating fields. Economic conditions have changed since, but dietary habits lag behind by a few generations. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Kentucky always rank high on the list of states with the highest rates of obesity. Despite efforts to make the public aware of the consequences of a poor diet and resulting obesity, there has been little progress. It is not easy to tell people what to do when they follow only what previous generations have done. For example, midwestern farmers’ traditional “steak and potato” diet is the same as that of previous generations, but instead of spending the day behind a beast of burden working their field, their workday is made up of driving a tractor or combine. With so little exercise, few calories are used. In winter months, when snow covers fields and farmers stay indoors, their bodies burn an even smaller amount of energy. Yet their diet and caloric intake remain identical to those farmers who came before them. Other cultures have their own issues. In India, obesity rates are climbing even though many people do not eat meat at all. Most Indians who follow the Hindu faith are vegetarians. They avoid meat consumption for religious reasons. To compensate for the lack of meat and animal fat in their diet, they add ghee (clarified butter) to many meals. As India’s economy continues

Food, Diet, and Leisure to develop, urban areas attract many new dwellers still loyal to the traditional diet. But now they can afford more than a single meal per day, unlike before, and waistlines immediately begin to expand. Coastal areas of southeastern Europe experience fewer issues with obesity, compared to the near interior. In coastal Croatia, for example, most residents follow a simple Mediterranean diet of fish, vegetables, and grain. Driving eastward from the Croatian coast, through the mountains in the country the size of West Virginia, one reaches the Pannonian lowlands. There, central European dietary influences are strong. Meals are hearty and include lots of meat. This region has a reputation for the quality of its excellent cured meats, delicious stews, and well-aboveaverage heart attack rates.

“Foreign” Foods Cultural interaction has greatly influenced dietary changes. Migratory workers introduce previously foreign foods as they arrive in new places. Different ingredients, previously considered exotic, suddenly appear on shelves in grocery stores. Aisles reserved for “ethnic” foods continue to expand as tastes continue to evolve among residents. Even small towns in the U.S. heartland have a Chinese restaurant. Mexican food is popular throughout the country, regardless of the local Hispanic population. In large urban areas that are more ethnically diverse, an array of ethnic grocery stores can be found in the inner city. Through food, people learn about each other’s cultures. This is why many if not most customers in ethnic grocery stores are not members of that particular ethnic group. Through time, the foreign foods become just another aspect of the local diet. Today, pizzas and pastas are Italian only in name because they form an integral part of American cuisine. Such was not the case a century or so ago when Italian immigrants first arrived. With increased global connections, this dietary globalization will continue to expand. After all, many “foreign” foods have

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oNE WoRLD oR MANy? not been so foreign for quite some time. The most radical change in global interaction before recent times occurred during the sixteenth century. Once the New World was colonized by Europeans, foodways began to undergo rapid change. The Columbian Exchange accounted for the transfer of many products in both directions. It is almost impossible to imagine that potatoes and tomatoes were foreign to the Old World. Peanuts and tobacco, too, grew in Northern America, while peppers originated in and spread from Central America. Since then, these plants have become identifiable with other cultures’ cuisines.

DiffereNt CoNCePts of tiMe When visiting other countries, people often are surprised, or even shocked, at the way “foreigners” view time. Tourists and businesspersons alike experience these differences while interacting with the locals. “They act as if they operate on a different time scale,” is a typical comment. In many cultures, it is customary to be late for social or professional gatherings. This is not easy for us to comprehend because of the U.S. and Canadian tradition that “time is money.” Everything is rounded up in a time frame. It seems that only baseball games are partially immune to rigid schedules. Sometimes they seem to last forever. But the business world is particularly fond of strict schedules. Being late is considered rude, disrespectful, and unprofessional. Lunchtime is seen as a brief period during which one rapidly inhales fast food and then returns to work. Latin Americans, on the other hand, perceive the concept of time in a different light. Business meetings rarely begin on time. And lunch can last for several hours, followed by a siesta (nap). Other regions share a similar perception of how to manage time. Tardiness is not addressed as an issue in such circumstances. Meetings do not necessarily have to follow a strict time schedule, as long

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The famous Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s resulted in massive out-migration that changed the small island forever. This is why more people of Irish ancestry reside outside of Ireland than within its boundaries. Tomatoes in southern Italian cuisine have entirely transformed the local way of life. Around the globe, in southern India, tomato-based dishes are essentials in Hindu cuisine. The Hungarians use New World bell and chili peppers in the preparation of “traditional” stews for which they are famous. Few are aware that this tradition began only after the peppers were brought from the Americas and introduced to Hungary.

as productivity is not suffering. When visiting their family for a social event, Latin Americans also tend to arrive late. The events themselves seem to go at a slower pace and extend longer. North Americans tend to see all this as uncomfortably and unproductively slow because of what their culture dictates as appropriate behavior. Other cultures see it as an issue of barely any importance. The problem arises when cultures begin to interact with increased frequency. In the American corporate environment, which many nations try to replicate, arriving late is the first step toward being fired. Workplace evaluation depends on a worker’s time management. We equate late with lazy, and lazy workers are a costly burden to a company. Most large companies, and many smaller ones, today employ a diverse workforce. How to adequately address cultural differences is one of the serious problems in the current global economic environment. Multinational corporate offices and factories with a global presence cannot have a single human resource policy. In order to accommodate everyone, no single solution is adequate. They continue to struggle with how to balance employees’ cultural and social demands.

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One World or Many? The New World experienced even more change. Most of today’s widely used grains and domestic animals never existed in the Americas before the Spaniards arrived. There were no traditional beasts of burden like oxen and horses. Goats, sheep, and chickens all arrived on ships transporting conquistadors, if any space remained after cows, pigs, and horses were boarded. The milk-producing animals helped introduce cheese to residents of the Americas. A beef or pork enchilada, wrapped in a flour tortilla and topped with cheese and sour cream, makes a meal in which no ingredients are of truly local origin. As we identify them as part of traditional Mexican culture, the enchiladas are hardly any different from what Europeans have consumed for centuries. The ingredients are identical, and only small variations account for differences in appearance and taste. Time and evolving cultural preferences contribute to small regional variations while erasing the collective memory of why we do things in particular ways.

Leisure Famous French gourmet Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once wrote, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.” Perhaps he should have said, “Tell me how you eat . . . ,” as the answer to that question would also indicate how people enjoy their leisure time. Such traditions are most likely to resist the challenge of time and cultural pressures. Americans, perhaps more so than anyone else, thrive upon change. Many other cultures are reluctant to replace longstanding traditions. Time around the dinner table is considered a prime leisure activity throughout the world. Dining for several hours, especially during the weekends, is a worthwhile experience for southern Europeans and is rooted in something very practical. The old tradition of eating slowly and late reflects their adaptation to the natural environment. In the summer, the days are long and hot. This is also the main season for agricultural work that lasts from sunrise to sunset. After sunset, when air

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Despite concerns about globalization threatening diversity around the world, many long-standing cultural practices remain. Even with the availability of air-conditioning, in the summer southern Europeans prefer to take their evening meal at night, when the heat has lessened and they can dine outdoors in comfort. This scene of the Spanish resort Ibiza shows streets clogged with outdoor diners.

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One World or Many? temperatures decrease and become more manageable, people would gather for dinner. Until the invention of air conditioners, evenings were more enjoyable outside. Verandas and terraces were exposed to allow better air circulation than inside of buildings. Eating out, in literal terms, is one of the trademarks of the southern European lifestyle. Meals begin around 9:00 p.m. Even after the invention of air conditioners, the attitude has not changed. When you visit Spain, Portugal, or Italy, take a look at the local landscapes of leisure. During evening hours, a restaurant can be almost empty inside yet filled with guests on its terrace. In this part of the world, as the saying goes, people work to live. They cherish daily leisure time as an essential part of their identity and as the fruits of hard labor. To allow more leisure time, French authorities even experimented with reducing the work week to 35 hours. Throughout much of the world, people live to work. They almost exclusively focus all aspects of their lives on work and productivity. Such values cannot allow individuals to spend several hours each night dining. To do so is viewed as being a terrible waste of time. Are global connections able to accommodate these differences between cultures? Should we expect people from different cultures to truly understand each other’s value of free time? Creation of one world appears much more difficult when these questions are taken into consideration.

7 CoLLECTIvE MEMoRy G

roups of people that share unique experiences often bond together. Their recollections of past events are a part of what is called collective memory. Based upon their shared experiences, individual members of a community tend to develop shared ideas and attitudes about the world around them. For example, survivors of a devastating wildfire may be quite critical of a National Park Service decision to conduct controlled burns. In 2000, the residents of Los Alamos, New Mexico, barely survived the destruction of their picturesque community. What began as a controlled small-scale fire intended to clear the forest of ground litter and stimulate new growth rapidly became a raging inferno. Unaware of the potential hazards, residents of Los Alamos had little time to prepare themselves. They were unable to protect their property or evacuate in an orderly fashion. Nearby, the nuclear laboratory of Los Alamos, the home of the first atomic weapon, was left exposed to the advancing wildfire.

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One World or Many? Changing weather conditions, the skilled work of firefighters, and pure luck eventually combined to save Los Alamos from total devastation. Since this event, the lives of the many residents have been changed permanently. Many still battle post-traumatic stress syndrome, a condition often displayed by people who survive stressful events. Volcanic eruptions, floods, storms, earthquakes, or any other type of sudden and intense impact on a community will leave permanent scars on its residents. Political changes, too, impact the collective memory that influences the collective way of life and worldviews. In the fall of 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war. The crisis escalated fast. In an attempt to expand its influence in the Western Hemisphere, the Soviet Union supported the newly installed regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba. Two years earlier, Castro and his revolutionaries gained control over Cuba, which lies less than 100 miles (160 km) from Florida’s south coast. They immediately turned to the Soviet Union for military and other assistance. Moscow responded with a shipment of short-range nuclear ballistic missiles. Such weapons were capable of striking the United States in a matter of minutes. Faced with the perceived danger, the U.S. president, John F. Kennedy, ordered the navy to prevent Soviet ships from bringing the hardware to Cuba. Fear of potential military conflict between two nuclear powers spread across the world. Eventually, the opposing sides reached a peaceful resolution to the conflict. But the fear of a nuclear standoff remained clear in everyone’s memory. A year later, President Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Shocking and unexpected, this incident triggered the question people would ask each other for many years to follow: “Where were you when JFK was assassinated?” Decades later, the same sort of question was asked after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Collective Memory

The Power of Time “Time heals everything,” or so the expression goes. People eventually forget the past and move on. Yet this is only partially true. What it means is that through time, one generation fades away and the next arrives. The collective memory of unique experiences gradually retreats with each generation coming of age. Those who lived through times worth remembering never forget them. As their numbers in the community decline, however, the community begins to emphasize new events and build a new collective memory. In evolutionary terms, this memory is short. In most cases it lasts for a single generation of people who shared and were affected by the same events. This is why so many mistakes are repeated throughout history. Collective memory rarely reaches back through periods of time measured by centuries or millennia. Residents of San Francisco, California, keep building houses on the San Andreas Fault. According to many geologists, it is only a matter of time before an earthquake similar to that of 1906 will again strike the city. Several million people live in the foothills surrounding Italy’s Mt. Vesuvius, one of Europe’s most active volcanoes. Nearby, some 4 million residents of Naples live in the volcano’s shadow. All of them are in danger if the volcano erupts. No major eruptions have occurred recently. Therefore, people live their lives without much worry. At the same time, major tourist attractions in the area are the archaeological sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Both cities were destroyed in a.d. 79 when Vesuvius erupted violently, killing more than 10,000 people. Numerous examples around the world illustrate that, from small communities to entire nations, short-term collective memory is the preferred way of thinking.

Good Old Times Collective memory represents a vital factor in shaping a group’s way of life and future decisions. When referring to past experiences,

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Humans are highly adaptive creatures. Collective memories—once so strong—fade over time, which explains why people often have made the same mistakes throughout history. Pompeii, for example, was the site of a catastrophic volcanic eruption, the threat of which still exists today. Yet even with that knowledge, people live on and continue to visit the site in droves, putting themselves at risk.

the “good old times” often become part of the conversation. Each generation tends to refer to its past in a positive and romantic manner. This occurs because of selective memory. There is a human tendency to remember only positive experiences. Grandchildren rarely hear stories about the hardship their grandparents endured. Many such stories begin with, “Once there was a time when we could leave our doors unlocked without worry.” Even villains, bank robbers, and rural bushwhackers assume romanticized roles. Bonnie and Clyde, the pair of Depression-era cold-blooded killers and bank robbers, have become celebrities.

Collective Memory Elsewhere, we see a repetition of some patterns. In Latin America, widespread stories about revolutionaries emphasize the liberation of society from dictatorial oppression. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, an Argentinean-born revolutionary, is perceived that way. He became an icon of the above-mentioned Cuban revolution as Fidel Castro’s associate. In 1968, he died in an attempt to organize a similar revolution in Bolivia. To the leftist organizations all over the world, his image became a symbol of the fight against government oppression. T-shirts, posters, and coffee cups with Guevara’s face became regular items in college dorms. And they remain common today. The romanticized perception of a freedom fighter did not fade away, even after evidence of widespread atrocities he committed surfaced in literature and media. Selective memory in the minds of millions keeps Guevara’s image in a positive light for the next generation of college students searching for heroes and villains.

Good New Times? Skewed images of the past cannot create a uniform interpretation of events. This, in turn, impacts future decisions in political, economic, and social development. Stereotypes easily evolve in this context. They polarize different groups of people in regard to their beliefs and intentions. When this happens, antagonisms grow. The one-world concept may fall victim to this process because opposing groups will always exist. Think in terms of the debate among Americans about education, immigration, environmental protection, abortion, or any other controversial issue. Now apply that to the level of global connections. Can we expect more uniformity or more complexity in the future? Let us illustrate the relationship between collective memory and the one-versus many-world(s) concept. In Italy, an older generation grew leery of air conditioners. Their widespread negative opinion persisted for decades. It influenced knowledge about the “proved” relationship between the circulation of indoor cool air and immediate sickness. American tourists never understood

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oNE WoRLD oR MANy? why so few Italian households utilized air conditioners, despite unpleasantly steamy summers. During exceptionally hot summers in the early 2000s, dozens of elderly Italians died from what could have been prevented by installing a simple airconditioning unit. In parts of Africa, the locals consider witchcraft a matter of serious concern. This tradition has survived the impact of modernization (unlike that of the 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, witch trials). Residents of African communities share the collective memory of witchcraft cases and refuse to reject it as superstition. After all, those who suggest otherwise may be publicly ostracized and accused of witchcraft themselves. Critics, therefore,

the hAPPiest PlACe(s) oN eArth Some say that happiness can be measured, but others disagree. The example of the country of Bhutan illustrates that money certainly cannot buy happiness. Tucked high in the picturesque Himalayas between India and China, Bhutan is a small Buddhist kingdom. The lifestyle of residents has undergone little change over the centuries. Economic activity revolves around basic agriculture and barter exchange. Bhutan is landlocked and located far from main transportation routes. It is this isolation that worked well for the Bhutanese in the past. People felt happy living in a peaceful folk culture environment on the distant edge of global affairs. The government even promoted the country’s image as being the happiest place on earth. Bhutanese citizens, the kingdom’s leaders explain, enjoy and appreciate spiritual aspects of life more than materialistic gains. Television sets became legal to own privately in only 1999. Yet global connections eventually reach even the farthest and most isolated regions. Authorities now must actively promote the concept of Gross National Happiness as they try to integrate tradition and modernization.

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remain silent. As a part of local culture, such beliefs are impossible to erase. During a soccer match in the Congo in 2008, some spectators accused one of the players of practicing witchcraft. Riots immediately started, resulting in the death of 13 players, with many more injured. Collective experiences vastly influence social perceptions. In the United States, protection of domestic animals and pets is always a burning topic. Public debate about horse meat is a good example. Unless they advocate vegetarianism or observe religious limitations, most Americans have no difficulties enjoying a good beefsteak or chicken breast. They consume billions of hamburger patties annually. Yet consumption of horse meat

Current conditions in the world dictate that integration must overcome isolation. Then, there are the Scandinavian countries. Recent studies have concluded that residents of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark identify their way of life as producing collective happiness. These nations are also among the wealthiest in the world. They belong to the leaders of the postindustrial world. Workers earn some of the highest wages. Public services, communication technology, health care, and education show outstanding performance. Locals celebrate leisure and travel widely. The United Nations’ Human Development Index regularly lists Scandinavian nations as leaders in quality of life. To pay for all this, the Scandinavians do not rely on ancient spiritual guidelines. They are taxed at some of the highest rates in the developed world. Half or even more of an individual’s income is usually distributed to public accounts through the systems of taxation. From there, the funds flow to support public services. For the Scandinavians to achieve their celebrated happiness, financial aspects must frequently play a central role.

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One World or Many? is a serious taboo. To many people, horses are pets rather than a source of food! This perception is the product of our historical experience with horses. Europeans, however, consider horse meat a popular delicacy and healthy choice because of its nutritional value. French and Belgian markets regularly display and sell such meat. The Japanese, too, advocate consumption of horses. Until recently, a good portion of their stock would arrive from slaughterhouses operating in the United States. The trend rapidly changed when, under the pressure of advocacy groups and overwhelming public approval, the last U.S. horse slaughterhouses closed their doors. The collective memory of Americans’ historically close relationship with horses was enough to influence political decisions and regulations. Across the globe, dietary cultural preferences have few such barriers. Whereas horses may be pets in the United States, they are a delicacy elsewhere. The same can be said for eating dogs in China and having “pet” rats in Vietnam. To expect cultural behavior to rapidly transform many worlds into one, particularly in this context, is to expect a miracle. Powerful global connections may in fact create more new issues than blend existing ones because of increased interaction between the camps of differing views.

Food Scare and Scary Foods Developing countries frequently rely on assistance from wealthy nations. The scope of help ranges from financial aid to delivery of free goods when natural disaster strikes. Armed conflicts are another major factor in the destabilization of countries. Civilians always suffer and pay the highest price during an armed conflict. Destroyed homes, waves of refugees, and uncultivated fields are a common landscape in areas of continuous conflict. Free international food assistance sometimes includes genetically modified (GM) crops. Such crops can, for example, be designed for higher drought resistance. This can be a very

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important development for farming in a desert region. At the same time, GM crops may not be fully tested to satisfy rigorous Western standards. To revitalize local folk agriculture, numerous countries

Swine Flu Scare In 2009, media outlets spread the word about the swine flu danger. It originated somewhere in Mexico and spread to people. After the first deaths from the strain of flu, medical officials warned the public about the possibility of a global pandemic—thousands, even millions, may die from this new disease if humanity cannot find an immediate cure. Panicked Egyptian officials ordered the slaughter of all pigs in the country. This action created religious tensions because pig farm owners are Christians, whereas the Muslim majority of the country does not consume pork. Mexico City shut down entirely for several days. China implemented travel controls and bans. Calls for mandatory vaccinations began to emerge in the United States. Politicians called for the investment of public money to combat the flu. Billions of dollars, during a time of severe economic crisis, were funneled to the prevention of the swine flu. Ultimately, the epidemic never reached the feared cataclysmic proportions. What no one seemed to do was to look to the past or to learn from previous experience and report findings to the public. The United States did not remember its previous encounter with the swine flu, in 1976. It was as though the disease had never existed! More people died then from the effects of vaccination (25), than from the actual disease (1). It was exactly for that reason that the 1976 scare has been erased from the collective memory. On the other hand, tens of thousands die each year from the ordinary flu in the United States, yet no one raises alerts to levels of hysteria. If in a position of political power, how would you respond to a problem like this in an educated and productive manner?

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One World or Many? have depended on such assistance from U.S. relief organizations, corporations, or government-sponsored programs. The alternative to accepting GM crops is to reject shipments and unsuccessfully battle existing conditions. Under the pressure of advocacy groups, some governments opt for the alternative and reject genetically modified crops. The opinion that such crops create health issues spreads fast, often without scientific evidence. Yet once this belief enters the collective memory through repeated media and public announcements, it becomes difficult to erase. Unjustified fear influences future decisions that may prevent shipment of additional aid. The amount of aid is limited, whereas new conflicts and natural hazards continue to increase. To avoid unnecessary exposure and media hostility, donors will shift their attention to other regions. This has happened in the world’s poorest and hungriest region—Africa. Most African countries ban the growing or consumption of genetically modified crops. U.S. residents are not immune to creating a collective memory in food-related issues. Think for a moment about how often the national electronic and printed media reports on issues of food quality. Each time this happens, it generates fear that never fully disappears from consumers’ minds. Fear remains in our memory, only to be brought back later, when issues of food production and consumption once again enter the public debate. Food poisonings generally affect a small number of consumers, compared with the country’s entire population. Public perception of seriousness, however, is based on the number of people affected, rather than the ratio between affected and unaffected consumers. Several hundred affected versus several hundred million left in the clear is statistically insignificant. Each day, more than 300 million Americans eat fruits and vegetables in a nearly immeasurable quantity. Although 99.9 percent may never suffer diarrhea from a tainted tomato, their collective fear of food poisoning may heavily impact future regulations. The price of additional regulation is paid for by the consumer. In times of crisis, most people concentrate on short-term

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Although genetically modified foods are widely accepted in some parts of the world—the United States, for example—other countries strongly object to the practice. This creates a conflict when a country requires assistance and the food donated to them is GM food. Above, Indian farmers protest GM crops in New Delhi in 2008.

solutions, which may create long-term financial disadvantages in terms of additional taxes and price hikes.

Memory, Traditions, and Customs Through time, collective memory becomes embedded into traditions and customs. Even if the community at large remembers something as accurate and takes it for granted, it is not necessarily true. Incorrect interpretation of historical events is a particularly complicated issue in a political context. When “traditional historical truths” are taken for granted, opposing views are often received with hostility.

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One World or Many? The separation between church and state represents an American tradition. As such, it is a widely accepted view that the Founding Fathers outlined this separation in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. This separation of church and state is almost always associated with the Revolutionary War period. Throughout the nineteenth century, in particular, many Protestant circles used it as a basis to prevent Roman Catholics from taking over the country. Millions of Irish and Italian immigrants, they feared, would work hard to establish Roman Catholicism as the country’s official religion and destroy “American” values. Yet the call for separation between church and state never originated in formal documents. It was the third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), who used the term “wall of separation between the church and state” in his 1802 letter to a Baptist association in Connecticut. From that letter, the phrase gradually entered general acceptance. Yet it took nearly 150 years and action by the U.S. Supreme Court to integrate the separation of church and state into the nation’s legal system. In 1948, while ruling in the case McCollum v. Board of Education, Chief Justice Hugo Black imported the phrase, as it indeed had historical constitutional authority in the Bill of Rights. To most Americans, separation of church and state is a done deal. Elsewhere, the picture is exactly the opposite; based on the memory of religious history and tradition, church and state cannot be separated in certain places. Not only does religion play an important role, but so do other aspects of culture. Ethnic groups accept collective notions of myths, partial truths, or fabricated stories to promote nationalism and a sense of unity and common history. This is particularly true in an attempt to differentiate one group from others in an ethnically diverse environment. Historians often publicly intervene to correct the difference between public interpretation of history and actual events. If Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) ever really said “let them eat cake,” the statement had little relevance outside of eighteenth-century

Collective Memory France. It certainly has no political relevance today. On the other hand, if an Iranian leader’s statements are not translated correctly from Persian to English, Western public opinion may be influenced to support military intervention against Iran.

Norms of Behavior Tribal customs are mainly unwritten codes of behavior. They echo collective memory of past times. In the mountains of Albania, tribes follow forms of interaction between individuals and groups outlined by fifteenth-century warlords. Their norms of behavior include isolation from other groups (and “foreign” ideas and other influences that may impact their way of life). Neighboring groups in southeastern Europe celebrate their own medieval heroes. This attitude tends to polarize people, rather than bring them together. The approach to historical collective memory depends on peacefulness of this turbulent region. During ethnic conflicts in the 1990s, each group searched deeply into its past to find heroes, from Alexander the Great to World War II fighters. If people choose to embrace change and reject the burden of behavioral norms formed from collective memories, they can make progress toward the future. Yet in southeastern Europe, just as in many other regions of the world, collective memory and what geographer Norman J. Pounds called “illusions of vanished grandeur” may be forces too powerful to change many worlds into one.

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8 WHAT LIES AHEAD? F

rom the past we now turn to the future. In which direction can we expect the world to turn? No one can outline future cultural development with certainty. If, as geographer Erhard Rostlund noted in the 1950s, “the present is the fruit of the past and contains the seeds of the future,” the future may only be a reflection of the past. As human society evolves, few new things are being invented. Rather, already existing ideas and concepts evolve into somewhat different forms. What is it, then, that the past has taught us about the most important aspects of culture? What knowledge can be applied to comprehend the future better? In the context of this book, the most essential difference is that between an individual and the collective (group). No matter how culture progresses, this polarization may never disappear. But we must remember that an individual is the foundation for the existence of any group. At the same time, an individual cannot solely change a group’s overall behavior. (Unless, of course,



What Lies Ahead? an individual is a military dictator who uses power to force his wishes on other individuals.) History is full of examples where individuals chosen to lead turned against what they were supposed to represent. Gaius Julius Caesar (100–44 b.c.) is one historical figure best known for the concentration of delegated power. After rising to prominence as a skilled military leader, he gradually gained absolute power as a dictator of the Roman Republic. Instead of leading Rome as the first among equals, Julius Caesar sought to erase centuries of the republic’s traditions. His desire did not last long. A group of senators assassinated Caesar in an effort to restore the values of the Roman Republic. They failed to achieve their goal, however. In the aftermath of the assassination, Rome became the victim of a civil war, and another individual assumed ultimate power. For the next several centuries, the Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean realm. Fast forward many centuries and we find a similar situation in Western Europe. French and British kings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries personified absolute power. French king Louis XIV (1638–1715) is famous for saying “I am the state,” to illustrate his absolute power over the people of France. These leaders were convinced that the existence of their nation could be prolonged only with their unquestioned leadership. What they created was a forcefully pressured collective behavior. Any French or British individual who did not like a monarch’s policy would pay the price of dissent with his or her life. No supreme leader wants to hear his policies criticized! Oppression lasted only until the people took matters into their own hands. The French Revolution of 1789 temporarily replaced the monarchy. Yet just as in the case of the Roman Republic, the changes meant to give equal power for many eventually led to the power of one—in the case of France, Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821). He, too, attempted to create an undisputed reign over France. Throughout the nineteenth century, France would continue to struggle internally in republic versus monarchy conflict.

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Truths Self-evident Across the Atlantic Ocean, at the same time French revolutionaries were burning the streets of Paris, Americans gathered to create the young nation’s supreme law of the land. Several years earlier, they had defeated the British military and established independence. The main problem surfaced when they had to make a decision about the structure of government. Some wanted to establish a kingdom similar to the United Kingdom. Others wanted a republic with a strong central government. Such government would make the best decisions for the masses, proponents envisioned, in how to rule all Americans. A third group, a vocal minority led by Thomas Jefferson, insisted that a strong nation can only be a nation of individuals who can freely exercise their rights. Each person has a natural right to be an individual, rather than being the subject of a government that he or she must obediently follow. These free individuals give a privilege to elected officials to serve the nation. As ambassador to France at that time, Jefferson saw firsthand the dire consequence of the lack of personal liberties. If the United States was to survive as a country, he believed, its structure had to build upon a foundation much different than those Europeans had experienced for centuries. During medieval times, for example, the Roman Catholic Church held absolute power. Many of those who did not follow its direction were burned on crosses. With ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the United States became a country built upon respect for individual rights. These ten amendments to the Constitution have become a focal point in the evolution of American values to the present day. Americans today celebrate their individualism. It is hard to argue that, despite many faults along the road, this system was not ultimately successful. Immigrants of all races and religions, from many different worlds, continue to arrive in the United States. People who bitterly fought each other as neighbors in their homelands find a common language as neighbors in their

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The United States was the first country to articulate the importance of freedom of the individual. Consequently, the nation has fostered individuality among its people. Many countries around the world have followed suit. Rather than resulting in a world of “sameness,” this has allowed for great diversity among individuals.

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oNE WoRLD oR MANy? new country. The basic difference is simple. When someone else decides where one belongs by default (to an ethnic or religious group), then one cannot claim to be free. Diverse societies where individuals do not feel free are societies eventually destined for destruction. The framers of the Constitution understood that if diversity was not boldly addressed, the United States would not survive as a free state.

CurreNt effeCts of soCiAl AND geogrAPhiC Mobility Statistically speaking, most people live near their place of birth. Despite a significant recent increase in human mobility, permanent relocation is still one of life’s hardest decisions. In many countries, children feel as if they must live near their parents. They are born, live, and die in the same vicinity. Cultural pressure to stay is too strong, even with the existence of only a few prospective economic options. Residents of rural areas exhibit stronger attachment to local places. Leisure travel is a foreign concept. When most people travel, they are going to work or are homeward bound. Socially and culturally, they tend to look inward rather than outward. Such an attitude creates socioeconomic conditions that can be difficult to overcome. The burden of social environment is too strong for many. Farmers’ children become farmers. Blacksmiths’ children continue in their fathers’ footsteps. Individual options are limited because society dictates what the individual can (or cannot) do. Upward socioeconomic mobility, moving from poverty to prosperity, is unthinkable and generally out of a person’s hands. It takes a tremendous amount of willpower to seek change. It also requires a person to break many social barriers with his or her kin and the community in order to succeed. The only way to make a difference is to physically remove oneself to another place. There, a fresh start is possible. Geographic mobility is a key to successful social mobility. Global connections now influence

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Historical Anomaly In a larger context of history, the U.S. way of life is not a rule. It is an exception to a rule, a historical anomaly of sorts. Stop and think for a moment about this. Tribes, clans, and ethnic groups have been around much longer than the United States has. Their ways of life, the only ones they know, cannot change overnight. Societies where group behavior is dominant have difficulty

the symbiosis of geographic and social mobility in many supportive ways. Migration for the purpose of improving one’s economic wellbeing is a time-tested way of gaining independence from the pressure of an entrenched social environment. Moving limits outside social influences imposed upon an individual. It also allows the person to follow his or her own pathway to a self-identified life destination. This is one reason so many people, through time, have chosen to take part in the rural-to-urban migration Personal freedom, rather than slavery to the existing social fabric, is a noble, visionary, and progressive goal. When emphasized, it stimulates socioeconomic development, which leads to further degrees of freedom. The average American changes place of residence many times during his or her lifetime. Some moves are to another neighborhood, while others may easily include cross-country relocation. Teenagers pack their bags to attend college in towns sometimes thousands of miles away. They do so with their parents’ support. Parents are aware that their children’s current geographic mobility is for the purpose of future social and economic prosperity. The United States was built on the idea of individual mobility, rather than collective stagnation, and the results are evident. More so than residents of any other nation, Americans accept change and understand the positive effects of social and geographical mobility.

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One World or Many? understanding individualism. Most importantly, they see individualism as having no true social value. A Japanese proverb says that people are like nails—the one that sticks out is the one that gets hammered down. It reminds us that an individual’s stray social choices should not matter because they do not benefit the group. Cultural pressure to conform to established behavior easily crosses geographic boundaries. A story of two foreign students attending an American university illustrates the power of cultural pressure. An engineering professor walking through one of the university’s buildings notices two of his students exchanging homework. The students come from the same country. The professor begins to reprimand the students for cheating. “In the United States we take great pride in fairness,” he says. “One must do his own work,” the professor continues, “and cannot claim someone else’s work as his own.” “Why would you risk being caught,” he asks one of the students, “when you know that such an action may lead to expulsion from the university and the country?” “But professor,” the student answers in a humble tone, “he is from my village. If I do not help him, my parents will lose face in front of the entire community because their son refused to help a fellow tribesman.” Even 10,000 miles (16,000 km) away, a village determines what an individual must do. Otherwise, he and his family will suffer the consequences. Freedom of choice in such a cultural environment is only a freedom of collective choice.

Predicting the Future Finally, is one world better than many worlds? The answer no doubt depends upon future decisions and actions, many of which cannot be predicted in advance. We are sailing through uncharted waters. Global connections, the increased interaction between people and cultures, play an instrumental role in this process. These connections have never been more intense. They

What Lies Ahead? continue to link many places into an interactive web of cultural exchange. One world may be an ultimate product of global connections. A time-traveling machine and a voyage into the future would perhaps reveal that such is indeed the reality of upcoming times. On the other hand, what if one accidentally pushes a reverse button and visits the past? What is to be learned about historical cycles of empires that crumbled and connections that faded away? Greeks, Romans, Incas, the British, and so many others tried to culturally unify the world they occupied. In the end, they shared the same destiny. Their one world collapsed and fragmented to worlds of many.

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GLoSSARy capitalism An economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations. collectivism A social system in which the existential rights of an individual are inferior to that of a group; the role of the individual is to fulfill a group’s desires; the opposite of individualism. Falun gong A spiritual movement with origins in China, but practiced worldwide; emphasizes morality, meditation, and exercise. globalization Growth and integration on a global scale; usage differs slightly on the basis of context. great Depression The period of rapid economic decline that began in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929, lasted through the 1930s in the United States, and affected the rest of the world. green revolution An improvement in the application of agriculture technology and methods during the second part of the twentieth century that resulted in increased production of food and stimulated overall development. individualism A social system that cherishes each individual as being unique and underlines that his or her rights are superior to that of a group; the opposite of collectivism. lingua franca A language chosen for common use among people of a multilingual society. murphy’s law Not a law in any scientific sense, but a popular saying that means if something can go wrong it definitely will go wrong. secularization A process of societal transformation with the decline of religious influence on the general way of life.

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Glossary social engineeringâ•… Influence on modifying public opinion and attitudes to fit preplanned ideas with the purpose of particular social or economic gain. theocracyâ•… A system of government dependent on religion; a country led by the religious leaders. time-distance decayâ•… A fading acceptance of cultural traits as they pass through time and space from their place of origin.

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BIBLIoGRAPHy Jordan-Bychkov, Terry, et al. The Human Mosaic. New York: W.H. Freeman, 2006. Norton, William. Cultural Geography. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Schultz, Theodore. Investing in People: The Economics of Population Quality. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1981. Simon, Julian. The Ultimate Resource 2. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996. White, Leslie A. The Concept of Cultural Systems. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975.

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FuRTHER RESouRCES Jaffe, Eugene D. Globalization and Development. New York: Chelsea House, 2005. Kurian, George Thomas. Encyclopedia of the World’s Nations and Cultures. New York: Facts On File, 2006. Malaspina, Ann. Critical Perspectives on Globalization. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2006. McCall, R.W. Encyclopedia of World Geography. New York: Facts On File, 2005. Miller, Debra A. Globalization. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Thomsen, Natasha. Women’s Rights. New York: Facts On File, 2007.

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INDEx A advertising, social engineering and, 55–56 Afghanistan, religious practice constraints in, 31–33 Africa Green Revolution, 46–51 human origins in, 12–13 oral traditions, recording of, 26 agricultural reform, 46–51 airports, 10–11 alcohol consumption, 33–34 American Civil War, 36–37 anti-immigrant sentiments, 57–58 Armenia, 40 Azerbaijan, 40

B backlash, 36–37 Battle of New Orleans, 21–22 Bhutan, 90 Bill of Rights, 100 Branson, Richard, 23 Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme, 82–84

C Caesar, Gaius Julius, 99 cantina scene (Star Wars), 9–10 cash economy, 49 Castro, Fidel, 86, 89 Catholicism, 65, 100 cattle ownership, role in African culture, 48, 50–51 change, urban vs. rural acceptance of, 59–61

Chechen wars against Russia, 40 China, 13–15, 30–31 church and state, separation of, 96 Civil War, American, 36–37 collective effects of cultural interaction, 15–16 collective memory bonding power of, 85–86 food scares and, 91–95 and “good old times,” 87–89 negative impacts of, 89–92, 97 time frame of, 87 traditions and, 95–97 collectivism as cultural barrier, 27–29 individualism vs., 98 national identity and, 17–19 traditional cultures and, 62 Columbian exchange, 80–82 commercials, social engineering and, 55–56 Communism Chinese, 29–31 Soviet, 37–38 controlled burning, 85–86 Cuban Missile Crisis, 86 cultural barriers overview, 26–29 people’s will and, 33–34 religious constraints in Afghanistan, 31–33 religious suppression in China, 29–31 cultural change. See social change

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One World or Many? cultural divergence/ convergence, 17 cultural diversity advertising and, 55–56 in diet, 78–79 promotion of, 53–54 cultural interaction collective vs. individual effects of, 15–17 technology and, 20–21

cultural variations, 78–79 global trends, 77–78 historical preparation and consumption, 71–73 and leisure, 82–84 modern changes in, 74 Native Americans and, 75–77 formal education, social change and, 52–53 French Revolution, 99 future trends, 98–105

D diet. See food/diet Dinner with the President, 33 diversity policies, 53–54 DNA technology, in historical research, 12–13

E Eastern Orthodox Church, 65 education, social change and, 52–53 English in air transportation, 10–11 as lingua franca, 16, 67–69 ethnic groups political boundaries in division of, 42–43 relocation of Soviet, 38, 39–40 ethnic neighborhoods, 54–55 Europe boundary relocations, 42 natural gas shortage (20082009), 40–44

F Falun Gong, 30 fattening foods, targeted taxation of, 73 fire, early use of, 71–72 firearms regulation, 34 food poisonings, 94–95 food/diet Columbian exchange and, 80–82

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G genetically modified (GM) crops, 91–94 geographic mobility, 102–103 George III, king of England, 11 Georgia, Republic of, 40 Germany, ethnic neighborhoods and, 55 Ghent, Treaty of, 21, 22 global blending, 15–17 global integration, factors working against, 44–45 GM (genetically modified) crops, 91–94 Gorbachev, Mikhail, 38 Green Revolution, 46–51 Guevara, Ernesto “Che,” 89

H happiest places, 90–91 hearth, 71–73 Henry “the Navigator,” 11 historical research, DNA technology in, 12–13 horse meat, 91–92 humans, origins of, 12–13

I illegal immigration, 39 immigrants birth rates among, 58 cultural diversity and, 53–54

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Index ethnic neighborhoods and, 54–55 immigration, opposition to, 57–58 immigration quotas, 39 immigration rates, 53 independent recording, 25–26 India, obesity in, 78–79 indigenous peoples, 28–29 individual effects of cultural interaction, 16–17 individualism collectivism vs., 98 national identity and, 17–19 traditional cultures and, 62, 103–104 in United States, 100–102 innovation, need and, 24–25 Internet information exchange and, 20–21 music recording and, 25–26 interracial marriages, 64 inventions, implementation of, 24–25 iPhone, 20 Iran, leadership of, 66–67 Iraq, Kurds in, 43 Islamic clerics, as political leaders, 66–67

J Jefferson, Thomas, 96, 100

K Kant, Immanuel, 11 Kazakhstan, 40 Kennedy, John F., 86 Kurds, 42–43, 70

L languages, 67–70 Latin America, religious practice in, 65 leisure, 82–84

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Leningrad, 61 Lewis and Clark expedition, 75 lingua franca, 16, 69 linguistic purity, 70 local issues, impact of, 44–45 Louis XIV, king of France, 99

M madrassas, 32 Marco Polo, 13 marketing, social engineering and, 55–56 marriages, interracial, 64 Mediterranean diet, 79 military operations, timedistance decay and, 21–23 moral values, 27 multilingualism, 69 Murphy’s law, 10 music recording, 23–26

N Napoléon Bonaparte, 99 national debt, 37 national identity individual vs. collective solutions and, 17–19 social change and, 56–58 Native Americans health and diet issues among, 75–77 origins of, 13 natural gas shortage, European, 40–44 New Orleans, Battle of, 21–22 New World foods, 80–82

O obesity global trends in, 77–78 lifestyle changes and, 74 in Native Americans, 75–77 targeted taxation and, 73

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One World or Many? P pipelines, natural gas, 40–44 place names changes, 60–61 political boundaries, ethnic group divisions and, 42–43 political rule, religious practice and, 66–67 popular music, spread of, 23–26 Pounds, Norman J., 97 Protestant sects, 63–65

R rain forest, indigenous peoples of, 28–29 reading habits, 50 recording industry, 23–26 religious practice Afghanistan’s constraints on, 31–33 Chinese suppression of, 29–31 growth of Protestant sects, 63–65 and political rule, 66–67 traditional culture vs. urban influences on, 62 relocation of ethnic groups, Soviet, 38, 39–40 republics, Soviet, 38–40 Roman Catholic Church, 65, 100 Rostlund, Erhard, 95 Russia Chechen wars against, 40 European natural gas shortage and, 41–44 religious practice in, 65

S Scandinavia, 91 secularization, 66–67 self-government, desire for, 45 separation of church and state, 96

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social change formal education and, 52–53 Green Revolution and, 46–51 immigrants and, 53–54 national identity and, 56–58 time required for, 52 social engineering, 53–56 social mobility, 102–103 socioeconomic equality, as goal, 46 Soviet Union, collapse of, 37–40 spiritual practices, 30–31. See also religious practice St. Petersburg, 61 Stalin, Joseph, 38 Star Wars trilogy, 9–10 swine flu, 93

T Taliban, 32–33 targeted taxation of fattening foods, 73 technology, and spread of innovation, 20–21 theocracy, 66–67 Tierra del Fuego, 72 time, cultural concepts of, 80–81 time-distance decay, 21–26 toponyms, 60–61 traditional cultures individualism and, 62, 103– 104 norms of behavior in, 97 resistance of change by, 59–60 traditions, collective memory and, 95–97 travel, cultural differences and, 11–15 Treaty of Ghent, 21, 22 tribal cultures. See traditional cultures

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Index tropical rain forest, indigenous peoples of, 28–29 Turkey, Kurds in, 43

U Ukraine, European natural gas shortage and, 41–44 United States agriculture in, 47, 49 ethnic neighborhoods and, 54–55 individualism in, 100–102 urban settings, change in, 59

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V Virgin Records, 23 visual appearance, as criteria for “difference,” 10

W War of 1812, 21–22 witchcraft, 90–91 women Green Revolution and, 48, 51 Iranian, 67

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ABouT THE AuTHoR ZORAN PAvlOviC viC´ is a professional geographer and regular contributor to several Chelsea House Publishing series. His books include Europe for modern World Cultures and more than a half dozen titles for the modern World nations series.

ABouT THE EDIToR CHARlES F. GRiTZNER holds the title Distinguished Professor of Geography at South Dakota State University in Brookings. He is now in his fifth decade of college teaching and research. In addition to teaching, he enjoys travel, writing, working with teachers, and sharing his love for geography with young people. As a senior consulting editor and frequent author for Chelsea House Publishers’ modern World nations, modern World Cultures, e xtreme environments, and Global ConneCtions series, he has a wonderful opportunity to combine each of these “hobbies.” Dr. Gritzner has served as both president and executive director of the National Council for Geographic Education and has received the council’s highest honor, the George J. Miller Award for Distinguished Service to Geographic Education, as well as other honors from the NCGE, the Association of American Geographers, and other organizations.

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