Cultural Erosion

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Cultural Erosion and its Impact

Cultural erosion involves a culture being worn away or even lost completely.

Lost traditions

In some locations, cultural erosion is happening and changing the built and natural environment.
This might be through the loss of language, traditional food, music, clothing or social relations.

Damaged natural environments

Cultural erosion has impacts on the natural environment if people start to care less for their local ecosystems because of the rising demand for resources.

Damaged built environment

Cultural erosion has impacts on the built environment if the landscape of the country changes as more TNCs move into an area.
As this happens and local culture is lost in exchange for a more Western culture, it is possible that the local ecosystems suffer as a result.
People’s attitudes may change and they may start to de-value and increasingly exploit their local ecosystems.

Loss of Tribal Lifestyles - Papua New Guinea

Cultural erosion has resulted in the loss of the traditional way of life in Papua New Guinea. This is because people in traditional communities increasingly want to adopt Western ways of life.

Language and culture

There are an estimated 7,000 different cultural groups in Papua New Guinea. Most of them speak their own language.
But a report in 2014 found that 1 in 4 of these languages was at risk of being lost forever.
If traditional communities give up their traditional way of life to go and live in the cities, they stop speaking their local languages.
These traditional communities are also giving up their traditional clothing as tourists introduced the Western t-shirt to these people.

Habitat and environment

There is a direct link between deforestation, disappearing habitats and loss of languages.
People are generally moving to cities and stopping using their traditional languages.

Rising Opposition to Globalisation

As a result of concerns about the impacts of globalisation (the cultural impacts, economic and environmental exploitation), there has been a rise in opposition from anti-globalisation groups.

Against globalisation

Anti-globalisation groups campaign against the worldwide negative impacts of globalisation. They argue that the negatives outweigh the positives.

Against TNCs

Anti-globalisation groups argue against the rise of a global culture and particularly dislike the tax avoidance tactics used by many global TNCs.
- E.g. Companies like Apple make sure lots of their earnings are 'recognised' in Ireland, where they can pay tax rates as low as 0.005%.

Against child labour

Other issues that anti-globalisation groups campaign about include child labour and environmental issues - both of which have arguably increased with globalisation.

Against environmental damage

Some groups also campaign against the environmental impacts of globalisation and argue that these must be reduced in order to combat climate change.
These groups often gather outside major meetings of world leaders, for example, the G20.