Westernization  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Westernization or occidentalization (from occident, see wiktionary) is a process whereby societies come under or adopt the Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet, religion or values. Westernization has been a pervasive and accelerating influence across the world in the last few centuries. It is usually a two-sided process, in which western influences and interests themselves are joined by a wish of at least parts of the affected society to change towards a more westernized society, in the hope of attaining western life or some aspects of it.

Westernization can also be related to the process of acculturation and/or enculturation. Acculturation refers to the changes that occur within a society or culture when two different groups come into direct continuous contact. After the contact, changes in cultural patterns within either or both cultures are evident. In popular speech, Westernization can also refer to the effects of Western expansion and colonialism on native societies.

For example, natives who have adopted European languages and characteristic Western customs are called acculturated or Westernized. Westernization may be forced or voluntary depending on the situation of the contact.

Different degrees of domination, destruction, resistance, survival, adaptation, and modification of the native culture may follow interethnic contact. In a situation where the native culture experiences destruction as a result of a more powerful outsider, a "shock phase" often is a result from the encounter. This shock phase is especially characteristic during interactions involving expansionist or colonialist eras. During the shock phase, civil repression using military force may lead to a cultural collapse, or ethnocide, which is a culture’s physical extinction. According to Conrad Phillip, the westerners "will attempt to remake the native culture within their own image, ignoring the fact that the models of culture that they have created are inappropriate for settings outside of western civilization" (Phillip, Conrad. (2005). Window on Humanity. New York: McGraw-Hill).

See also

• Acculturation
• Africanisation is the modification of names to better reflect an African identity.
• Americanisation is the influence the United States of America has on other cultures.
• Anglicisation is the process of making something English.
• Anti-Americanism represents a hostility towards the government, culture, or people of the U.S.A.
• Anti-globalisation
• Arabisation transforms an area into one that speaks Arabic and is part of the Arab culture.
• Colonial mentality
• Colonialism
• Colonisation
• Colourism
• Creolisation
• Cultural assimilation
• Cultural cringe (Cultural Alienation)
• Cultural diversity
• Cultural genocide
• Cultural identity
• Cultural imperialism
• Culture of Europe
• Romanisation, the spread of Roman culture and language.
• Culture of the United States
• Datsu-A Ron
• Democratic peace theory is a theory which holds that democracies (almost) never go to war with one another.
• Democratisation
• de-Russification is a process in the post-Soviet countries to reverse the process of Russification.
• Diseases of affluence are diseases thought to be a result of increasing wealth.
• Enculturation
• Ethnocide
• Europeanisation can either mean the process of transforming a society into a more European society or the process of growth towards a European identity in Europe.
• Francisation is the process of giving a French character to something or someone.
• Germanisation is defined as either the spread of the German language and culture, or the adaptation of a word to the German language.
• Globalisation/Mundialisation
• Hellenisation, the spread of Greek culture and language.
• Intercultural competence
• Islamisation the process of a society's conversion to Islam.
• Japanisation is the process in which Japanese culture dominates, assimilates, or influences other cultures.
• Kicking Away the Ladder
• Korenisation or Korenizatsiya was the early Soviet ethnicity policy.
• Language shift
• Magyarisation or Magyarization is spreading the Hungarian language and culture in general.
• McDonaldization
• Melting pot
• Modernization
• Multiculturalism
• Non-Westernized concepts of male sexuality as opposed to Westernized concept of sexual orientations
• North-South divide is the socio-economic division which exists between the wealthy developed "North" and the poorer developing "South"
• Paper Bag Party
• Passing (racial identity)
• Polonisation is the assumption or assimilation of the Polish language or another Polish attribute.
• Race
• Racialism (Racial categorization)
• Racism
• Latinisation is a system for representing a word or language with the Latin alphabet, or the traditions of the Latin Rite into Eastern Catholic Church Liturgies and practices.
• Romanianization is the process of giving Romanian attributes to something non-Romanian.
• Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attribute by non-Russian communities.
• Sinicisation is the process in which Chinese culture dominates or influences other cultures.
• Slovakisation is the policies of Czechoslovakia then Slovakia against the ethnic Hungarians there.
• Social interpretations of race
• Syncretism
• Turkification is a cultural change in which something or someone who is not a Turk becomes one, voluntarily or by force.
• Ukrainisation was the policy conducted by the Bolshevik party and the Government of the Ukrainian SSR during 1920s and 1930s to increase the presence of Ukraine.
• Western culture