...may be contrary to what is normal or acceptable in you culture. The decentering of a culture is examined, as well as the impact on a culture when this happens. China’s Decentering Process “Worldwide, non-Western cultures faced fundamental challenges to their cultural identities-not do much a recentering of culture but a decentering” (Sayre, 2010). What can we gather from this statement. Sayer is stating that Western cultures have begun to loose their original identities that they brought over from their native countries. Every culture that immigrated to the U.S. brought with them some of their own culture. Most brought just the clothes on their back along with hopes and dreams of a better life and ideals from the homeland. Cultures that were ‘non-western’ were caught between two continents, on the one hand, they had the values and views that they grew accustomed to, and on the other hand they were being introduced to a totally new and different way of life and a new set of standards, and as a result they started to adapt to a newer way of life, and in doing so their old way of life began to be replaced by a newer culture which caused their native lands culture to become decentered, and as a result the older culture started to rescind . What is really happening here is not really the decentering of cultures or even the recentering of cultures, but rather a melding of many different cultures in to one. Cultural identities are the faces societies wear to present themselves to...
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...Otherness: Essays and Studies 1.1 October 2010 Haunting Poetry: Trauma, Otherness and Textuality in Michael Cunningham’s Specimen Days Olu Jenzen Early conceptions of trauma are intimately linked not only with modernity but specifically with the height of industrialisation (Micale and Lerner 2001). This is converged in the opening of Specimen Days particularly in the image of an industrial accident at the ironworks where a young man is killed by the stamping machine. His young brother, replacing him at the machine after the funeral, then experiences an apparition of the dead brother still trapped inside the machine, which leads him to believe that all machines house entrapped ghosts of the dead. Writing on the Victorians’ anxieties about internal disruption caused by the advent of the railway, Jill Matus (2001, 415) has pointed out that, Freud himself remarked in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), [that] there is ‘a condition [which] has long been known and described [and] which occurs after severe mechanical concussions, railway disasters and other accidents involving a risk to life; it has been given the name of traumatic neurosis’ (12). Freud’s remark brings to the fore the traumas of the industrial age as both individually and publicly experienced and negotiated. This condition of trauma as private and public, individual yet also societal is held in tension throughout Cunningham’s novel. Reflecting on the otherness of trauma and its vexed relationship to representation...
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...Worldwide, non-Western cultures faced fundamental challenges to their cultural identities: a recentering of culture but a decentering of culture Introduction Recentering of culture is an international process resulting from the socialization of state-society units into the modern global culture which originated some two centuries ago in the West (Bull,1977). Contrary to the assumptions of world-polity and some recentering theorists, however, state socialization to democracy as a constitutive norm is far from assured, and in particular, some states (guardians) resist socialization fiercely while others embrace it. Guardian states such as China and India developed their traditions of resistance as a result of being unable to resolve the ‘‘tiyong crisis’’ in a way that would finesse geopolitical and geo-symbolic decentering[2]. Elites in the pre-modern Siamese state resolved their tying crisis by re-imagining the Thai national essence as consistent with modernity’s basic presuppositions development that eventually helped facilitate Chinese recentering. Once transformed in the 1990s, the Chinese state became an agent of socialization by proselytizing for democracy within Asian[3]. Successful decentering is a complex historical process resulting from, among other things, the socialization of state-society units into an international normative order ‘‘modern’’ and Western in origin. Numerous actors at home and abroad promote decentering in the process of socializing...
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...Non-Western Cultures Unit 4 Individual Project Amanda Waterhouse January 29, 2012 Abstract Interpretation The meaning of, “Worldwide, non-western cultures faced fundamental challenges to their cultural identities-not so much a recentering of culture but a decentering of culture” (Sayre, 2010), Sayre is saying that Western cultures have begun to lose their identities that brought them over from native countries. Almost every culture that migrated to the US brought some kind of their culture with them. Even though some only came with only clothes and nothing else. They came here to hoping to fill their dreams and for a better life. Cultural Identities Culture identity is perception of oneself and they group they ma belong to. This can be influenced or inherited. Culture and belief is a big identity in most culture. There are many identities that identify a culture. Some examples of those identities are clothing, music, food, religion, language etc. (http://www.digitrends.com/crossingcultures/iden.htm) Meaning of “decentering” of a Culture Non-western cultures in the late ninetieth, early twentieth century were influenced by western cultures due to globalization. During the twentieth century, such as technology of music, media, traditions, communication progress the culture felt overwhelmed. Technology had begun growing and modernizes to the times. Music and literature has been passed down from generation to generation. Impact of Western or European Cultures ...
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...Non-Western Culture Kerry Pemberton HUMA215-1104B-11 Topics in Cultural Studies Professor Kelly Dormady AIU December 3, 2011 Abstract This paper will explore the decentering of culture by the Europeans. Also, this paper will give examples of the effects of decentering of culture by the Europeans in Africa. Introduction As the western world began strengthening its military, communication, and developing naval technology, its new focus was conquering civilizations in the New World and decentering their culture. The Europeans were determined to pose their will on the weaker civilizations and claim these territories as part of their own. Analyze and interpret the following quotation: “Worldwide, non-Western cultures faced fundamental challenges to their cultural identities—not so much a recentering of culture but a decentering of culture. The late 19th and early 20th century produced western cultures that inherited modern technology, communication, and a strong military presence. The growth of these western cultures both politically and economically influenced other cultures. As the western cultures continued to strengthen, other cultures began to fear the power the western cultures were gaining. The non-Western cultures did not want to circum to these Western cultures because they had their own values and own way of thinking. The non-Western cultures were not ready for a decentering of their own culture...
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...Different Cultures “Worldwide, non-Western cultures faced fundamental challenges to their cultural identities-not so much a recentering of culture but a decentering of culture.” (Sayre, 2010, p. 419) This quote is saying that many of these cultures are becoming influenced by Western cultures, namely that of America. For instance, in many Asian and African nations McDonalds and other American culture influence like Starbucks and clothing stores are coming to their countries. They are influenced by Western cultures. The non-Western cultures will face challenges to their cultural identities because they have to try and change to get modernized with everyone else. Non-Western cultures face decentering due to the challenges of globalization from the nineteenth century to the twentieth and the present. By the nineteenth and twentieth century, most cultures are trying to get modernized to fit in with all the changes of that time. As the century began, movies, music, and the media had a major influence on fashion and trends in all aspects of life. On contrast to early centuries, one of the most prominent traits of the world during the twentieth century was the drastic growth of technology. More technological advances had been made by the end of the twentieth century. Communications and information technology, transportation technology and medical advances had radically altered daily lives. (www.wvculture.org) As far as the Native Americans and the Europeans, the Native Americans...
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...Cultural Decentering Aaron Walsh HUMA215-1202A-17 04/15/2012 Professor Reed Abstract Imperial expansion changed the aspect of many cultures. What was considered everyday life and tradition began to change dramatically or destroyed. The European influence on non-western society began a cultural shift to the European culture in more of a decentering, rather than reclamation to its own culture. Keywords: Culture, decentering, westernization. Introduction The non-western cultures faced many changes through the beginning of the twentieth century. Slavery and Christianity was a huge part in those changes. Centering of culture results in a change in one’s own culture. As the world began to modernize, cultures began to become part of the civilization that was thrust upon them. “Worldwide, non-Western cultures faced fundamental challenges to their cultural identities—not so much a recentering of culture but a decentering of culture.” The word westernization equates to transformation to the modern ways of the world, or modernization. One must be able to distinguish the two terms. Modernization is an overhaul of the current society. Prior to the Europeans, the only other contibutors to the modernization of Africa were the Arabs. The Arab nations introduced Islam to the African culture ("Westernization - Africa,"n.d.). Through the late nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, Western Cultures began to modernize technology, communication and expand their armed...
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...ABSTRACT "Worldwide, non-Western cultures faced fundamental challenges to their cultural identities-not so much a recentering of culture but a decentering of culture.” This quotation may be taken to mean something different for both cultures; namely, the United States and Japan. Much of this has been influenced by worldwide events that happened following the 19th century in both countries. Both nations have since prospered, and we are currently seeing a joining of both cultures. In fact, neither the West nor the Eastern country of Japan may be distinguished one from the other any longer. They have truly made the most of this new global environment where we find ourselves today. Almost all non-Western cultures have been influenced by the mores of the West, including countries in Asia. In general, this means that many of these cultures are becoming influenced by Western cultures, namely that of America. For example, in many Asian nations McDonalds and other American influences like Starbucks and clothing stores are coming to their countries. They are being influenced by Western culture, hence the "decentering of culture." What’s more, I spent some time in Japan a few years ago and was surprised to see such a preponderance of Western society in an area that was so far from home. However, the decentralization of Asian culture may go both ways, meaning that although we in the U.S. have influenced Japan greatly, so have they made significant gains on our shores...
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...Native Americans, in the seventh century. The area, in which it was mostly confined to, was in the eastern part of the continent. They accelerated westward, during the aftermath, of Louisiana Purchase, and the Revolutionary war. The non-western cultural groups, which were listed in the assignment text, were; African, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Native American. I was asked to choose one of these groups, and discuss the impact, that the Western, or European cultures, had on the group. .(Sayre, 2008)). The non-western group, which I decided to research on, is the Native American group. Unit 4 Europeans had their first encounters, with Native Americans, in the seventh century. The area, in which it was mostly confined to, was in the eastern part of the continent. They accelerated westward, during the aftermath, of Louisiana Purchase, and the Revolutionary war. The non-western cultural groups, which were listed in the assignment text, were; African, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Native American. I was asked to choose one of these groups, and discuss the impact, that the Western, or European cultures, had on the group. . (Sayre, 2008)). The non-western group, which I decided to research on, is the Native American group. The Western nations, in the last part of the nineteenth century, were revitalized by the effectiveness of the new military, the communications, and by their naval technology. (Sayre, 2010, p.419). With this new revitalization, they looked to...
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