what is western culture essay

Western Culture – 10 Examples, Characteristics & Values

Sourabh Yadav (MA)

Sourabh Yadav is a freelance writer & filmmaker. He studied English literature at the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University. You can find his work on The Print, Live Wire, and YouTube.

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Chris Drew (PhD)

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Western culture refers to the cultural traditions, societal norms, and values of the Western world, which generally encompasses Europe, the United States, and like-minded regions.

The term “Western” generally refers to Europe and parts of the world heavily shaped by its inhabitants through immigration, colonization, or influence. But it is not a clearly defined geographical area. Instead, a state’s ideology is what usually makes it Western. 

Western culture has roots in ancient Greece and Rome, and later medieval and modern Europe shaped it into its present form. Some of its central values include individualism, consumerism, democracy, etc. Due to colonialism and globalism, the values and practices of western culture have now spread to the entire world. 

The dominance of the Western culture has led to cultural hegemony, but it is now being increasingly challenged by non-European perspectives. Moreover, western values themselves are now questioned.

Western Culture Definition

In his book Culture and Society , David J. Smith defines western culture as:

“the culture of the modern West, which is characterized by a dominant set of values, beliefs, and practices that have their roots in the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the expansion of European imperialism.” (Smith, 2013)

As Smith’s definition highlights, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and European imperialism have played a key role in defining Western culture.

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in Europe around the 17th and 18th centuries. It emphasized reason and individualism with a focus on scientific progress and a belief in the inherent goodness of humanity. By doing so, it challenged traditional values and had a significant impact on Western culture. 

The Industrial Revolution also happened in the 18th century. It was a period of rapid technological development (such as the steam engine & the power loom) that brought significant economic & social change . It led to the creation of capitalist economies, increased urbanization , and the growth of the middle class.

Finally, between the 15th and 20th centuries, European powers (especially Great Britain, France, and Spain) established colonies in many parts of the world, imposing their political system, religion, and culture on the natives. Imperialism had a massive influence on Western culture and shaped our contemporary world. 

Western Culture Examples

• Rationalism : Rationalism emphasizes the importance of reason and logic in understanding the world. Its roots go back to the Enlightenment period, during which it became a way to break from traditions and promote progress. It is a central value of Western culture and continues to guide decision-making in most fields today.
• Christianity: Christianity is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, and it has played a defining role in the moral & ethical values of Western culture. It also shaped the development of Western law, governance, and the way people live. Christianity also significantly impacted Western art, literature, and cultural practices.
• Individualism : Individualism emphasizes the importance of the individual and their freedoms. It also has its roots in the Enlightenment, during which it was seen as a way to promote human achievement & progress. Individualism is a central value of Western culture, although some criticize it for promoting a lack of social cohesion and inequality.
• Democracy : Democracy enables the public’s participation in decision-making and protects the rights of individuals. It originated in Ancient Greece, although the democracies of today are different since they’re representative. Democracy is built on the idea of political equality, and it is widely adopted throughout the world.
• Capitalism : Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership and the pursuit of profit. It developed during the Industrial Revolution when competition between private enterprises played a key role. Despite being criticized for creating social inequality & its instability, capitalism remains a central value in Western culture.
• Natural Rights : Natural rights are the presumed rights people are born with. The concept intends to preserve the fundamental individual freedoms of individuals, irrespective of nationality, race, religion, etc. This idea also originated during the Enlightenment in the works of Jean-Jacques Rosseau and John Locke. They are vital to protecting the dignity & autonomy of individuals . 
• Consumerism: Consumerism encourages the acquisition of goods/services with an emphasis on consumer choice. Growing out of the Industrial Revolution, it developed in the context of 20th-century mass production. Many criticize it for environmental degradation and promoting excess, but it remains central to Western culture.
• Education: Education is a value that highlights the importance of acquiring knowledge for both personal & professional development. Western culture delivers education formally with a focus on structured institutions (such as schools & universities) based on an established & systematic body of knowledge.
• Mass Media : Mass Media disseminates information through media outlets like TV, radio, and the internet. It has its roots in the 20th century when technology revolutionized communication. By providing a platform to exchange ideas, it serves as a key pillar of democracy, and despite criticisms about its bias, it remains a central value.
• Syncretism : Syncretism is a value that encourages incorporating and blending diverse cultural influences . It is based on the idea that different traditions create a more vibrant cultural landscape and promote understanding between groups. Despite the history of imperialism, syncretism is a central value of Western culture.

What is Western Cultural Hegemony?

Western cultural hegemony refers to the dominance of the Western world’s values, beliefs, and practices over those of other societies. It can take various forms, such as political, economic, and cultural.

The West’s dominance gave rise to a western theory known as hegemonic stability theory that argues a single powerful hegemony leads to greater global stability and prosperity.

Between the 15th and 20th centuries, European nations like Great Britain, France, and Spain established colonies around the globe. They imposed their politics, religion, and culture on the people, which usually meant the suppression of indigenous culture and the promotion of Western practices & values. We call this cultural imperialism .

By the 19th century, due to the combined impact of the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and imperialism, the Western world had become the wealthiest and most powerful civilization in a phenomenon known as the Great Divergence (Pomeranz, 2000). This economic dominance continues today, as many Western companies and products rule the global market.   

The Great Divergence also led Westerners to believe their society was superior to others. So, they felt justified not just in conquering other nations but also in stating that their culture (including its literature, music, arts, etc.) was the best in the world. 

So, political & economic power led to cultural authority, and even today, Western cultural products dominate the global art industry. It also led to Western values such as individualism and consumerism becoming synonymous with universal values .

This cultural hegemony is now being increasingly challenged through globalization, which has led to a greater cultural exchange and given a voice to non-Western societies. Many of these have also experienced economic & political growth in recent years, becoming more influential. Finally, activism & social movements have also promoted cultural diversity. 

Criticisms of Western Culture

The main criticisms of Western culture stem from its role in imperialism and the attitude of eurocentrism .

Between the 15th and 20th centuries, European powers established their colonies around the globe. Along with economic exploitation, colonialism also led to cultural imperialism: the Westerners imposed their civilizational values and destroyed indigenous cultures (Said, 1978). 

Colonialism was also linked to eurocentrism—the tendency to view the world from a narrow European perspective, even when that lens is inadequate. It often comes with a belief in the superiority of Western culture and its values, leading to a marginalization of non-Western perspectives.

This eurocentrism often leads Western culture to put forward its values as universally applicable. For example, individualism—the belief in the importance of an individual over society—is a central value of Western culture. However, it can lead to a lack of social cohesion and may not be applicable everywhere.

Consumerism, another significant value in the West, is often criticized for focusing solely on material possessions and ignoring other important things such as relationships, community, environment, etc. 

Any cultural value will have its positives and negatives. However, the problem arises when some of these are said to be universally applicable. So, the foundational problem with Western culture stems from eurocentrism, which is also related to the history of imperialism.

Western culture refers to societal norms, cultural traditions, and values of the Western world. We talked about the three significant events—the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and European imperialism—that defined Western culture and heavily influenced the whole world.

We discussed how the West’s immense political, economic, and cultural power led to global Western hegemony. As Appiah rightly argues, this dominance has caused an erosion of cultural diversity and promoted a monolithic worldview (2006). 

So, in today’s context of globalization and increasing interconnectedness, we must find ways to look beyond the dominant Western perspectives. Instead of suppressing non-European voices, we must listen to and provide a platform to them so we can learn from the rich diversity of human life. 

Finally, we also took into account some criticisms of Western culture, which mainly stem from the history of imperialism. While no cultural value can be perfect, their forceful imposition—often due to eurocentrism—deserves to be challenged. 

Appiah, K. A. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers . W. W. Norton & Company.

Pomeranz, K. (2000). The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the making of the modern world economy . Princeton University Press.

Said, E. (1978). Orientalism . Vintage Books. Smith, D. J. (2013). Culture and Society: An Introduction to cultural geography . Routledge.

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A brief history of Western culture

History has no natural divisions. A woman living in Florence in the fifteenth century did not think of herself as a woman of the Renaissance. Historians divide history into large and small units in order to make characteristics and changes clear to themselves and to students. It’s important to remember that any historical period is a construction and a simplification. Below are some important basics to get you started.

Western culture, the subject of this essay, is a phrase worth thinking about. West of what? West of who? The term is not geographic, and only gained in popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries. This is a concept, a lineage that ties Europe’s long history to the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean and then push back to prehistory. As you read the timeline below, please keep in mind that this is only one of many stories, and that equally momentous developments have occurred in Africa, Asia, the Americas and in the Pacific.

Prehistoric (before c. 3000 B.C.E.)

Nude Woman (Venus of Willendorf) , c. 28,000-25,000 B.C.E., Limestone, 4 1/4″ high (Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna), photo: Steven Zucker (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The term “prehistoric” refers to the time before written history. In the West, writing was invented in ancient Mesopotamia just before 3000 B.C.E., so this period includes visual culture (paintings, sculpture, and architecture) made before that date. The oldest decorative forms we can recognize as art come from Africa and may date back to 100,000 B.C.E. In contrast, the oldest cave paintings known are about 40,800 years old, and although we used to think that only our species, Homo Sapiens, made art—anthropologists now speculate that Neanderthals may have made at least some of these very early images.

The Neolithic revolution, one of the most profound developments in all of human history, occurs during the Prehistoric Era. This is when our ancestors learned to farm and domesticate animals, allowing them to give up their nomadic ways, and settle down to build cities and civilizations.

Ancient (c. 3000 B.C.E. to c. 400 C.E.)

This period includes the great early civilizations of the ancient Near East (think Babylonia), ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, the Etruscans, and the Romans—everything that comes after the invention of writing and before the fall of the Roman Empire. Keep in mind the disintegration of the Roman Empire took centuries, but to simplify, c. 400 will do.

Ancient Greek sculpture of Zeus or Poseidon, c. 460 B.C.E., bronze, 2.09 m high, Early Classical (Severe Style), recovered from a shipwreck off Cape Artemision, Greece in 1928 (National Archaeological Museum, Athens), photo: Steven Zucker (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

It was during this period that the ancient Greeks first applied human reason to their observations of the natural world and created some of the earliest naturalistic images of human beings. This period is often credited with the birth of Western philosophy, mathematics, theater, science, and democracy. The Romans in turn created an empire that extended across most of Europe, and all the lands that surround the Mediterranean Sea. They were expert administrators and engineers and they saw themselves as the inheritors of the great civilizations that came before them, particularly, Greece and Egypt (which they conquered).

It’s important to remember that although history is often presented as a series of discrete stories, in reality narratives often overlap making history both more complex and more interesting. For example, it was also during the Roman Empire that the figure we now call Jesus lived. Jesus and his apostles were Jewish men living in what is today Israel, but which was then part of the Roman Empire.

Middle Ages (c. 400 C.E. to c. 1400 C.E.)

The first half of this thousand-year period witnessed terrible political and economic upheaval in Western Europe, as waves of invasions by migrating peoples destabilized the Roman Empire. The Roman emperor Constantine established Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) as a new capital in the East in 330 C.E. and the Western Roman Empire broke apart soon after. In the Eastern Mediterranean, the Byzantine Empire (with Constantinople as its capital), flourished.

Christ (detail), Deësis (Christ with the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist), c. 1261, mosaic, imperial enclosure, south gallery, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Christianity spread across what had been the Roman Empire—even among migrating invaders (Vandals, Visigoths, etc.). The Christian Church, headed by the Pope, emerged as the most powerful institution in Western Europe, the Orthodox Church dominated in the East.

Byzantine Empire in 650

It was during this period that Islam, one of the three great monotheistic religions, was born. Within little more than a century of the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 C.E., Islam had become an empire that stretched from Spain across North Africa, the Middle and Near East, to India. Medieval Islam was a leader in science and technology and established some of the world’s great centers of learning (Cordoba, for example). Islamic culture played an important role in preserving and translating ancient Greek texts at a time when much of the knowledge created during the ancient world was lost.

Petrarch (a writer who lived in the 1300s) described the early Medieval period as the “Dark Ages” because to him it seemed to be a period of declining human achievement, especially when he compared it to the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The “Middle Ages” got its name because Renaissance scholars saw it as a long barbaric period that separated them from the great civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome that they both celebrated and emulated.

Young nobles in procession in the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry , (painted by the Limbourg Brothers), folio 5, verso: May, 1412-16, manuscript illumination on vellum, 22.5 x 13.6 cm (Musée Condé)

Medieval society was organized into clearly defined strata. At the top was the king. Below were lesser nobles. These lords in turn, ruled over peasants and serfs (the vast majority of the population). Serfs were laborers who were permanently bound to work the land owned by their lord. The basic unit of this system, known as Feudalism, was the lord/vassal relationship. The vassal would provide labor (in the fields or in battle) to the lord in exchange for land and protection. Mobility between strata was very rare.

Of course, the thousand years of the Middle Ages saw the creation of many great works of art and literature, but they were different from what Petrarch valued. The works of art created in the Middle Ages were largely focused on the teachings of the Church.

It is important to remember that during the Middle Ages it was rare that anyone except members of the clergy (monks, priests, etc.) could read and write. Despite expectations that the world would end in the year 1,000, Western Europe became increasingly stable, and this period is sometimes referred to as the Late (or High) Middle Ages. This period saw the renewal of large scale building and the re-establishment of sizable towns. Monasteries, such as Cluny, became wealthy and important centers of learning.

Within the Middle Ages, there are subdivisions in art history, including Early Christian, Byzantine, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque and Gothic. When we look closely at much of the art and politics of the 1,000 years of the Middle Ages, we find a complex and ongoing relationship with the memory and legacy of the ancient Roman empire and this is the foundation for the Renaissance.

Renaissance (c. 1400 to 1600)

In part, the Renaissance was a rebirth of interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture. It was also a period of economic prosperity in Europe—particularly in Italy and in Northern Europe. In art history, we study both the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance. We talk about a way of looking at the world called Humanism, which—at its most basic—placed renewed value on human knowledge, and the experience of this world (as opposed to focusing largely on the heavenly realm), using ancient Greek and Roman literature and art as a model.

Plato, Aristotle and other ancient philosophers and mathematicians depicted in Raphael’s School of Athens, fresco, 1509-1511 (Stanza della Segnatura, Papal Palace, Vatican)

There are only a handful of moments in history that we can point to that changed everything. The invention and adoption of the printing press was certainly one. As a result of the wider availability of books, literacy rates in Europe dramatically increased. Readers were empowered and in many ways we can trace the origin of our own information revolution to 15th-century Germany and Gutenberg’s first printing press.

In 1517 a German theologian and monk, Martin Luther, challenged the authority of the Pope and sparked the Protestant Reformation. His ideas spread quickly, thanks in part to the printing press. By challenging the power of the Church, and asserting the authority of individual conscience (it was increasingly possible for people to read the bible in the language that they spoke), the Reformation laid the foundation for the value that modern culture places on the individual.

It is also during this period that the Scientific Revolution began and observation replaced religious doctrine as the source of our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Copernicus up-ended the ancient Greek model of the heavens by suggesting that the sun was at the center of the solar system and that the planets orbited in circles around it. However, there were still problems with getting this theory to match observation. At the beginning of the 17th century, Kepler theorized (correctly!) that the planets moved in elliptical orbits (not circular ones) and that the speed of the orbits varied according to the planets’ distance from the sun. So much for the ideal geometries of the Greeks!

Early Modern (c. 1600–1800)

It might seem strange to date the beginning of the “modern era” to so long ago, but in many ways it was the scientific, political and economic revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that have most shaped our own society.

Art historians study the Baroque style of the seventeenth century. This was a time of extended and often violent conflict between Catholics and Protestants made all the more complex because of the growing power of Europe’s great monarchies. It was a time when nations grew in size, wealth and autonomy and when national boundaries were hardened, prefiguring the countries we know today (France, Spain and England for example). This was also a period of colonization, when European powers divided and exploited the world’s natural resources and people for their own benefit (think especially of the African slave trade, or the subjugation and forced conversion of the indigenous peoples of the Americas).

Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom, The Return to Amsterdam of the Second Expedition to the East Indies , 1599, oil on canvas (Rijksmuseum)

The 1700s is often called the Enlightenment. In many ways, it furthers the interest in the individual seen in the Italian Renaissance and more widely during the Protestant Reformation. Thinkers such as Rousseau, Voltaire and Diderot asserted our ability to reason for ourselves instead of relying on the teachings of established institutions, such as the Church. In art history we study the Rococo and Neoclassical styles.

The American and French Revolutions date to this period. The emerging middle classes (and later the working-classes) began a centuries-long campaign to gain political power, challenging the control of the aristocracy and monarchy. Successive reform movements (in this period and the nineteenth century) and revolutions gradually extended the franchise (the right to vote). Previously suffrage had been limited to males who owned land or who paid a certain amount in taxes. It was only in the second half of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries that universal suffrage became the norm in Europe and North America.

Modern (after c. 1800)

Capitalism became the dominant economic system during this period (though it had its roots in the Renaissance). Individuals risked capital to produce goods in a currency-based market which depended on inexpensive, waged labor. Labor eventually organized into unions (latter-day guilds) and in this way, asserted considerable influence. More broadly shared political power was bolstered by overall increases in the standard of living and the first experiments in public education.

Steam-powered machines and unskilled laborers in factories began to replace skilled artisans. London, Paris, and New York led the unprecedented population growth of cities during this period, as people moved from the countryside or emigrated to find a higher standard of living.

Pablo Picasso, Guernica , 1937, oil on canvas, 349 × 776 cm (Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid)

The twentieth century was the most violent in history. It included two world wars, the Cold War, the dismantling of colonialism and the invention of the Totalitarian state. Dictators (Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, the successive leaders of North Korea, etc.) imposed extreme political systems that caused mass starvation, mass dislocations and genocide. At the same time, the twentieth century was marked by the struggle for human rights and the rise of global capitalism.

Where artists had previously worked under the instructions of wealthy patrons associated with the church or state, in this period, art became part of the market economy, and art itself came to be seen as personal self-expression. The high value placed on the individual, which emerged in ancient Greece and Rome and then again in the Renaissance, became the primary value of Western culture. Where artistic styles (for example, Baroque) had once covered numerous artists working over broad regions and periods of time, in the late nineteenth and through the twentieth century, successive styles of art change with increasing speed and fracture into a kaleidoscope of individual artistic practices.

Where do we fit in?

We are immersed in our own time and it can be difficult to see the world around us objectively. One of the modern definitions of an artist, in fact, is someone who is particularly insightful about their own cultural moment. Thanks to global capitalism, social media and the internet, we are more interconnected and interdependent than at any other time in history. Some see this as a utopian moment. With internet access, we can all contribute to and benefit from what is being called the Information Revolution. For others, the prevalence of technology in our lives threatens our individuality and privacy, and reduces us to a data point that can be monetized by corporations like Facebook, Google, and Apple. One thing is certain, throughout the time periods sketched above, art has meant different things, and it is likely to be differently defined in the future.

The history of humanity is recorded in our visual culture. Like the fate of previous civilizations, time will eventually destroy much of the visual culture that we are familiar with today. Future art historians will seek to reconstruct the world we now live in, to better understand the nuanced meanings that are so familiar to us. Perhaps someday an art historian will puzzle over an internet meme, a Torqued Ellipse by Richard Serra, or school-yard graffiti.

Bibliography

Kwame Anthony Appiah, “ There is no such thing as western civilisation ,” The Guardian , November 9, 2016.

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“Western culture” is a vague term often seen in academic environments. However, it is difficult even amongst scholars to identify which cultures and peoples are included within the distinction of “western.” 

While much of it is explainable via the rigid reality of academia, the distinction of “western” culture does speak to a greater understanding of world culture. What it ultimately speaks to are the origins of philosophies which dictate diverse ways of life across the planet.

Thousands of years ago, “the West” was born in Greece with all of its advancements in culture and science. Greek plays and myths, the architecture of the great temples, and even the basic schools of thought all survived long past the fall of the ancient Greek city-states. They moved westward with the next great civilization, the Romans, and, after Rome fell, continued to move even further west until they reached America.

“The West” is vague, but purposefully so. It’s impossible for a single word or term to prove description enough for content as broad as culture, architecture, basic thinking, storytelling practices, rules for law and governance, and so on and so forth. By being vague, “the West” is able to serve as the blanket term used for all of it, and provides easy distinction from the other main school of thought in the world, “the East.”

Both schools of thought have drastically different ideas on how the world and society should be governed. “The East” is far more communal, and far more reverent of the elderly. “The West,” on the other hand, is wildly individualistic, pushing for each person to carve out their own mark. Family names became less important in the west because of this. 

Thus, “western culture” seems to be a somewhat arbitrary distinction used across academics to describe ideological, cultural, and ethnic uniformity amongst European and derivative nations. 

Of course, this distinction does not account for the entire picture of typically “western” nations, namely the problem of Eastern European countries, who often can be seen as outliers. They are excluded from the engagements of Western Europe, and also have endured much cultural assimilation from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern states. 

So, we can acknowledge the shortcomings of the term pragmatically. What was also previously pointed out is its use in separating “the East” from “the West” — a separation almost solely based on historical development of technologies and differences in major philosophical schools which govern political and cultural mentalities. Eastern philosophies focus significantly on collective good, whereas Western philosophies are centered on good for the individual. 

These fundamental philosophies ultimately guided variant cultural development. For instance, it would seem that the advent of the American dream is a result of “the West’s” tendency towards individualism. Similarly, cultures of vanity, celebrity, and social media spun from the same self-interested nature of Western thought.

Western culture does not describe any specific group or belief, but instead it describes tendencies within cultural thought and practices, tendencies which favor the plight of the individual rather than the collective. It is a distinction which should not be given more depth than it is worth — an academic dichotomy. It speaks to greater separations in the development of world culture.

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Westernization of the World Essay

Westernization is a phrase used to describe the process by which other cultures adopt the culture practiced by people from the West. Consequently, those who assimilate the western culture convert and shift to customs and practices of the western civilization. Moreover, this social process involves absorbing one culture and harmonizing it with another. Westernization is vital for development and progress as it incorporates various values and introduction of additional resources into the economy. For instance, some researchers believe that westernization shuns discrimination as it is concerned with the welfare of all human beings irrespective of their age, religion, economic status, or even sex. The incorporation of humanitarianism includes observation of secularization and equalitarianism where all human beings are treated as equals. In the political sector, westernization brings about nationalism, which is a concept that may not exist in the local way of government. However, western civilization is taking place at all places around the globe, hence raising the fear that almost all cultures might be eroded and consequently forgotten.

Paul Harrison’s article “Westernization of the World” highlights how western culture is spreading and overtaking other cultures around the globe. The author begins by an illustration based on the culture of Singapore. The author stipulates a description of the day-to-day life in Singapore for the natives. Particularly, the author emphasizes on a theatre performance that attracted old and sham children as the audience. On interviewing one of the participants, he claims that young people have been carried away by the western culture. The interviewee, being a middle-aged man, argues hat the audience comprises of old fashioned, whereas the young people prefer the high quality western show. This aspect shows the extent to which the western culture has been accepted among the youths. The author also highlights other changes that include modes of dressing and the behavior mode of some people in certain careers especially the banking sector. The author asserts that mimicry of the western culture could be observed in several sectors that included the architecture, health care, education, housing and industrial technology.

Paul Harrison believes that westernization can play a significant role in initiating more harm than good among some societies in third word countries. The author argues that the third world cannot be in order if westernization is to be adopted fully. Internal colonization is taking place in the third world countries and it is contaminating the different cultures and traditions. He upholds the importance of retaining old traditions and cultures. The author goes ahead and likes the change to flinging a baby out of the bath water. In addition, the author also ascertains that westernization is quite an unpleasant cultural diversity and diffusion that is occurring in the history of human beings. The negative altitude towards westernization directly links to colonial experience that most countries underwent while under the colonial rule by western countries.

Moreover, some colonizers were full of prejudice, hence discriminating against the natives. From this review, it is clear that the author links westernization to colonization, which means that adoption and practice of western culture by third world countries is similar to colonization. Although these countries are no longer under the colonial rule, westernization imposes some stringent measures in a way that is hard to discover. For instance, the abandonment of some cultural practices and adopting foreign cultures may lead to discrimination amongst the natives, which is referred to as the insider colonization that may be based on variances in say religious practices.

The western culture first appeared in the third world countries courtesy of the colonizers, which brought about several changes in all sectors ranging from economic, social, and political sectors. For instance, the whites had a decent way of dressing and socialized among themselves based on their social status. The author points out that this same aspect is occurring contemporarily; for instance, in Singapore, the author points out that employees socialize with those they share similar status quo. During the era of colonization, several other changes were introduced like Christianity as the religion practiced by the Whites. Consequently, the natives adopted this practice and abandoned their traditional religions.

Currently, the same scenario is unfolding where Christianity is widespread across the world, which creates a rift between Christianity and traditional religions. Moreover, the young people who work for the banks wear clothes similar to those of the White; in addition, some drive home to watch televisions. This scenario contradicts the culture practiced among most societies in the third world countries where at the end of work, men would gather and play games as opposed to doing things individually. Probably, this element could be attributable to a change in the status quo. Another aspect of colonization as pointed out by historians is the aspect of racial humiliation, which robs people of their individuality, hence their pride and worth. The author points out that some leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana realized this challenge and implemented some measures to deal with the menace.

With all the challenges of westernization pointed out in the article, there is a need to come up with suitable measures to address this menace of westernization. Although change is inevitable, not all changes can be acceptable, especially if they are negative. However, the world runs on change and thus people cannot always do things the same way day in day out. Due to acceptable changes that have already taken place, monotony may not arise as it happened in the past. Various reasons interlink with acceptance of change that will bring about positive results. With changes and improvements in technology as experienced in the modern world, all parts of the world can interact with ease as opposed to hundreds of years ago. This element underscores the globalization that has taken grasp of the entire world, which makes it difficult for a country to operate independently in a region. Moreover, globalization has also brought about standardization among countries in different regions due to sharing of information. For instance, China and Japan tried to resist westernization to no success despite being the two top countries with super technology.

Nevertheless, westernization should not happen at once as it may lead to a complete overhaul of some native positive cultures practices. Westernization should take place at a slow pace and the change should be gradual to ensure harmony and compatibility of the involved cultures, and thus avoid conflicts. In addition, individuals should not be forced into adopting western cultures. For instance, Ataturk forced every individual in his country to avoid wearing the Fez after people made fun of him for wearing it, and thus he took drastic and extreme measures to ban this hat and do what other people were doing.

The author tackles realistic and important points, but the fact that he uses a strong tone makes his arguments weaker. Some cultures are valuable, but they are not as logical as they seemed to be years ago. In addition, the author gives many details, but a little evidence of his own, which does not strengthen his points as expected, which could be misleading. The author does make the reader think about the fact that cultures are dying and slowly becoming all the same, which makes me think about how the world is going to be in the future. It makes the reader raise many questions that he or she cannot answer.

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IvyPanda. (2020, May 20). Westernization of the World. https://ivypanda.com/essays/westernization-of-the-world/

"Westernization of the World." IvyPanda , 20 May 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/westernization-of-the-world/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Westernization of the World'. 20 May.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Westernization of the World." May 20, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/westernization-of-the-world/.

1. IvyPanda . "Westernization of the World." May 20, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/westernization-of-the-world/.

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IvyPanda . "Westernization of the World." May 20, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/westernization-of-the-world/.

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