A similar thing has happened in the safari parks in Botswana where bushmen where pushed off their lands unfairly to make room for rich upper class tourists who want to hunt ‘big game’. So the Bushmen who lived in peace with the animals were forced to work for the safari park as rangers and guides for the tourists who pushed the natives off their land changing their culture from hunter gatherers to capitalistic workers.
A similar thing has happened to ayers rock in Australia where for sixty thousand years the native aborigines paid their respect to the rock, where they believed that it is where the souls of their ancestors go after they die and the rock has been turned into another world heritage area where many tourists come to see and disrespect the rock by climbing all over it. This has made it increasingly difficult for the aborigine people to pay their respect to their ancestors as there are many people around all the time and disrespecting it often.
The masaai Mara where hired by the mayers to perform their native dances for the mayers regular guests. The Mayers founded the group to show the masaai in their traditional culture, houses, and dress ware, but were severely exploited by the Mayers for their surplus value as they were not paid properly instead were given food and told that the food that they eat and the fact that they live in the Mayers residence was payment enough. The Mayers hired the masaai as the western tourists wanted to see firsthand the cultural beliefs, and also rituals in a traditional manner, even when it was their ancestors who had intentionally destroyed the culture of the masaai. The Mayers residence was closed down as the government thought that the Mayers were exploiting the masaai far too badly and so closed them down. The exploitation of the masaai is imperialism as the masaai people were hired as pretty much slaves and made to work for the people who had taken away their culture in the first place but made the masaai men and women show their traditional dances and lifestyle.
The African sundowner is an example of tourism which is being subjected to a culture however it is not an authentic culture. It is an evening entertainment, which the staff are natives and they set up chairs, tables, bars and wait on the tourists for their food and drink etc, and midway through the night the ‘native’ people would start to dance around the tourists in a traditional manner and would involve the tourists as well so they felt it was universal and they were part of the culture as they were there. However the only reason the night happens is because it is a remake of a Hollywood movie made about the African sundowners in the 20th century. Also the ‘hakuna matata’ phrase was made famous by the Hollywood movie ‘lion king’ in 1995 and so the traditional dancers would say it as it was now a worldwide concept.
Another example cultural unauthenticated tourism is the Vanuatu in the south pacific who perform for their guests. They create a scene where tourists can see for themselves how life before industrialisation takes place. I.e. the men and women would be dressed in authentic clothes. Who would stop the organised tourist group and scare them just like they would have done to travellers passing by their nearby village. The villagers however reinforce their identity by performing the act to the tourists but have lost the culture as they would live completely different lives and would only do it as a job performing for tourists and would be seen wearing jeans and t-shirt in town later that same day.
However possibly the most shocking of examples would be the Australian aborigines who in 1788 were invaded by the British, who turned the culture of aborigines to a British Australian where the aborigines were dominated by force, violence, racial discrimination between 1910 and 1970 aboriginal children were taken from parents to be civilised and raised according to British and western concepts and a white society. And up to one hundred thousand aborigine children were taken from their families at the age of five, and were raised in the church system or in state institutions however some were fostered and some were adopted many of which suffered physical and emotional abuse where living conditions were tragic.
In 1970 a militant movement started to try making an aborigine separate state, however this movement was unsuccessful. 1992 however the law passed called ‘native title’ gave aborigines the right to claim back the land in which they had stolen from them and also their families. In 1995 a national enquiry took place to find out exactly what happened to the stolen generations. And in 1997 the enquiry said that it was a gross violation of rights, and was racially discriminating. They called it a type of genocide. In 2007 Bruce Treverrow became the first aborigine to win a court case in the Supreme Court and won compensation.
in 2008 the prime minister of Australia Kevin Rudd issued an official apology to the stolen generations and also called for public recognition and reconciliation about the way in which the aborigines where treated and how the government had tried to cover up the ‘genocide’ of the aborigine people. This was the worst case of eradication of culture due to globalisation as they tried to completely eradicate the culture and the people of native Australia. As of today only twenty aboriginal languages are spoken regularly whereas before the invasion there were two hundred and fifty. In the figures of the population of Australia aborigine people make up two percent of the entire population in modern Australia today.
In conclusion I think that globalisation is not a cause but definitely without a doubt leads and aids in the process of eradicating cultures. China, Peru, Botswana, Australia, and other countries that have allowed globalisation, their economies and have been taken advantage of, have also seen dramatic increases in inequality within their countries. Globalization is a threat to traditions. Globalization means many cultural changes, the loss of traditional existence, the increased marginalization of indigenous groups, and the problems associated with rapid urbanization and industrialization. Pollution, increased crime rates, dramatic inequalities etc all are things that globalisation brings to the country’s on a micro level. The government or company or even western country’s all benefit from globalisation however refuse to believe that it causes harm and destroys cultures and ways of life in the country they situate in.
by
123roliver (student)
