Faculté Des lettre et Des Humaines
De Mohammedia
Université Hassan ll De Casablanca
Department of English Studies
Semester 4 - AY - 2022/2023
Prof. ZRIZI HASSAN
Course - Intro to cultural studies
April 05th, 2023 - Youssef JAMAL - Assignment
Cultural Imperialism
Imperialism refers to the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between
civilizations, favoring the more powerful ones. Cultural imperialism can be defined as the
practice of promoting and imposing a culture, usually of politically powerful nations over less
potent societies. It is the cultural hegemony of those industrialized or economically influential
countries, which determines general cultural values and standardizes civilizations throughout
the world.
Many of today’s academics that employ the term, cultural imperialism, are heavily informed by
the work Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Edward Said, and other
poststructuralist and postcolonialist theorists. Within the realm of postcolonial discourse, cultural
imperialism can be seen as the cultural legacy of colonialism, or forms of social action
contributing to the continuation of Western hegemony.
When dealing with cultural imperialism, the focus is often put on the proliferation of Western
moral concepts, products, and beliefs around the globe. The United States are now currently the
only cultural imperialist, but, today, as a global economic and political superpower, the spread of
American values in the entire world is at the leading stage of the wave of spread of Western
goods and consumerist culture.
Others, on the contrary, consider this American cultural hegemony as a threat. Indeed, they may
be positively helping countries, but these benefits inevitably come at the cost of hurting local
markets and local cultures. While traditional cultural values are progressively being wiped away,
critics argue, the world, is increasingly stepping towards a process of cultural synchronization in
which a common global culture based on imperialist societies is becoming more evident.
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This cultural uniformity would predictably lead to the extinction of cultures and make the world
less culturally rich and diverse.
Of all the areas of the world that scholars have claimed to be adversely affected by imperialism,
Africa is probably the most notable. In the expansive « age of imperialism » of the nineteenth
century, scholars have argued that European colonization in Africa has led to the elimination of
many various cultures, worldviews, and epistemologies. This arguably has led to uneven
development, and further informal forms of social control having to do with culture and
imperialism. A variety of factors, scholars argue, led to the elimination of cultures, worldviews,
and epistemologies, such as « de-linguicization » (replacing native African languages with
European ones) and devaluing ontologies that are not explicitly individualistic. One scholar, A.
A. Odbi, claims that imperialism inherently « involve(s) extensively interactive regimes and
heavy contexts of identity formation, misrecognition, loss of self-esteem, and individual and
social doubt in self-efficacy ».
Cultural Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own culture is superior to that of other cultures. It is a form
of reductionism that reduces the « other way » of life to a distorted version of one’s own. This is
particularly important in case of global dealings when a company or an individual is imbued with
the idea that methods, materials, or ideas that worked in the home country, will also work
abroad. Environmental differences are, therefore, ignored.
Cultural Relativism
Different cultural groups think, feel and act differently. There are no scientific standards for
considering one group as intrinsically superior or inferior to another. Studying differences in
culture among groups and societies presupposes a position of cultural relativism. It does not
imply normalcy for oneself, nor for one’s society. It, however, calls for judgment when dealing
with groups or societies different from one’s own. Information about the nature of cultural
differences between societies, their roots, and their consequences should precede judgment
and action. Negotiation is more likely to succeed when the parties concerned understand the
reasons for the differences in viewpoints.
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Discussion: After reading this piece, I would like you to reflect on the following points.
1- What is cultural imperialism?
Cultural imperialism refers most widely to an abstract regime imposed by powerful ones on the
non-dominant groups in cultural relationships and exercise of domination in which values,
traditions, beliefs…etc are taken over by foreign culture and imposed upon native culture out of
their will.
2- What are the motivations behind cultural domination?
The motivations behind cultural domination are economical and political to drive the market for
the proliferation of Western moral concepts, such as consumer behavior, products, and beliefs
around the globe.
3- What makes a culture more powerful?
The cultural commodity is a very powerful tool in today’s economy that makes culture more
powerful. For instance, the language is spoken and the mass production of produced products
that are sold worldwide, such as fast food, cars, movies, music, televisions, education, services
…etc are the main core for cultural power. The bottom-line dominant groups that weaponized
globalization are in favor of culture powerful.
4- How could local cultures promote their originality and difference in relation to foreign
ones?
I believe here multiculturalism is a very crucial element to promote cultural diversity for both
sides without any imperialistic power imposed by a local or foreign culture. For instance, when
promoting the originality of local cultures, it is better to reduce our cultural ethnocentrism that
disregards foreign ones. For instance, by promoting local culture in relation to foreign ones we
should take into consideration four pairs of actions such as "beliefs and behaviors," "recognizes
and respects," "acknowledges and values," "encourages and enables," and a fifth one,
"empowers." these four pairs of actions are very important when promoting local and foreign
cultures.
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5- Feel free to express your opinion, attitude, criticism concerning any point related to
the text.
Research
Using the dictionary on Cultural studies or any other source, I would like you to write and
develop definitions of the following terms related to the text :
- Imperialism → Domination of dictatorship by an emperor.
- Colonialism → invasion
- Ethnocentrism → Being egoistic of your own culture rather than the foreign one.
- Orientalism → is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world
- Hegemony → Leadership & Cultural Domination of democracy
- Hybridity → cultural synchronization
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