Differences are good. Many different communities coming to together in a society each with different pros and cons
People are afraid of different cultures but the truth is many different people coming together can be a net benefit as they each offer a different solution to the societies problem when they mix. How did this culture solve this problem and develop in this way can give the answer to another’s culture problem.
Now the problem comes when these cultures attempt to absorb others and feel that they are superior or don’t have any cons. They insulate themselves and become isolated and in a state of stagnation which eventually becomes weakness.
They refuse change at all cost because they feel their traditions will be lost. Cultures are meant to evolves culture is the ancestral memory and response to environment. When cultures become fossilized and no longer adapt or respond to their environment, they eventually die.
Cultural exchange is only healthy when it is not coercive. Power and institutions play a huge part in this as well as some cultural exchanges are imposed through force. Institutions provide cultures with continuity mechanisms. Conservatives want to maintain and preserve societal identity. Not all cultural contact is an “exchange” and it’s important to say that not all change is growth. Some cultural differences enrich society while others generate tension that has to be negotiated diplomatically.
People are afraid when these institutional cores morph into values that are expressed through the societies. Cores give a culture long lasting principles that are evolved and refined over time. It’s the identity of the culture beyond the cosmetic appearance.
My analogy about a group of people living in a desert and moving into a jungle is good here. Their habits were created as a response to that environment but when they go into the jungle with the habits learned from the desert and try to live as if they were still in there. What happens is their traditions and customs etc from the jungle that they developed, the cores, evolve to meet the new environment and transforms. But what if they try to remain the exact same instead of adapt? Even wear the same clothes?
“You can take the nigga out the hood, but cannot take the hood out the nigga”
Rings a bell?
Values are formed as byproducts of the cultures.
