Sociology term paper for Ms. Meherin Tamanna's class

1. Cultural diffusion 2011
SOC 101
Introduction to Sociology
Faculty:
Mrs. Meherin Tamanna
Assignment:
Cultural Diffusion in Brac
University
Done by:
Sl. No. Name I.D.
1. Samiul Muntakin 07110003
2. Md. Mashruf 07310002
3. Mashira Khan (Pritoma) 10103020
4. Saikul Islam Joy 10103022
5. Sichan Pal Joy 11103028
6. Samiya Yesmin 11304043
1 SOC 101

2. Cultural diffusion 2011
What is Cultural Diffusion?
Cultural diffusion is the process by which culture traits or complexes of one society
or ethnic group are borrowed by another, resulting in their spread from a center of
origin to other distant, geographical areas. It is, along with independent discovery and
invention, an important process of culture change and is regarded by some
anthropologists as the predominant force behind culture change Not all culture traits
or complexes are easily diffused to other cultures. Certain material traits are
immediately useful and are therefore readily adopted. Often ideas and concepts are
not so easily understood or accepted. Christianity or Islam is examples of intricate
culture complexes that have diffused widely over the Earth, but their diffusion has
resulted from intimate contact between people and deliberate propagation. Some
culture traits, although known to ethnic groups, are rejected because they are
incompatible with the receiving culture. Muslims may know that domesticated pigs
exist, but they may not accept the idea of raising pigs because their religious laws
prohibit the consumption of pork. Nomadic hunters may adopt simple shifting
agriculture, but fail to adopt permanent fields, storehouses, and other accoutrements
of intensive agriculture because to do so would require a complete reorganization of
their way of life. Often it is merely habit and conservatism that cause a people to
reject outright or be slow to adopt available innovations. Borrowed elements, diffused
from one group to another usually undergo change or adaptation over time by the
people in the receiving culture. Many examples of cultural diffusion result from what
is called stimulus diffusion, whereby the idea or principle behind a particular culture
trait is diffused even though the culture trait itself is not adopted.
Stimulus diffusion must have played an important role in the spread of agriculture
and animal domestication throughout the prehistoric world. It is likely that nomadic
Siberian tribes knew of domestic horses and cattle before they domesticated the
reindeer. With today's highly developed communications, innovations spread
throughout the world with remarkable rapidity. Thus it is that bluedenim jeans, once
2 SOC 101

3. Cultural diffusion 2011
worn by American farmers, now clothe youths in South America, Africa, Europe, and
Asia.
For example: Tandoori chicken is a Mughal dish (16th century invaders thought to be
Persian in origin). Many Punjabi dishes especially Mughal recipes have their origins
in Persia (modern day Iran) or have Persian influences. The tandoor (high heat clay
oven) was introduced by the Mughals to India, as well as, many tandoori dishes &
kebabs. The name "tandoor" itself is derived from the Persian "tanūr" (clay oven).
The definition and theoretical work can make the terms seem more complex and
artificial but relating that to normal life can make the effect more solid. In this paper
we are focus on the students of BRAC University and their experience about social
and cultural diffusion. Let’s imagine three characters such as David who came from
England, Habib who came from Khulna and Shaba who belongs to Dhaka
community. If we think about the first day at university of these individuals we can
find the culture diffusion that may occur among the behavior and attitude in these
people.
Real Life examples of Cultural Diffusion:
(through a study of 3 different cases)
David’s first day started with a disaster, he decided to wear a three quarter pant in the
first day of the university as a result he had to go through a series of shocked and
amazed eyes from the student and the teachers. Here we can find the conventional
term of cultural sock which occurred from the dressing sense. Generally an
Englishman with a background of foreign culture will consider wearing a three
quarter pant in a hot summer day appropriate but in Bangladesh the same culture is
known as abuse and unrealistic. If we think this situation in a sociologists view point,
we can easy identify all the diffusion. First David broke the social norm and rule of a
Bangladeshi university. The particular norm of wearing casual but society oriented
clothing in university was broken by David but as he is in a foreign country we don’t
expect him to understand our culture but he should try to follow basic rules. In the
whole situation the students and teacher got a shock out of seeing a grown man
3 SOC 101

4. Cultural diffusion 2011
wearing a three quarter pant and walking in a public place. So we can understand the
two way shock of the different culture oriented people.
Shaba has been bought up in Dhaka by her parents and studied in English medium
school. Her first day at university was exciting. She and her group joined a few clubs
had fun and bunked all the classes. She started making new friends but in her surprise
she saw a lot of Bangle medium student in her campus. At the beginning she was
confused of the negative behavior of the Bangle medium students. She was unaware
of the negative portrayal of the English medium student in BRAC University. For
Shaba it was a society’s unusual term were she is being the victim of a situation
which we can call the part of a direct cultural diffusion. It is also notable that how she
represents a new kind of value and society which in class variation is known as the
high society or the upper class.
Habib came from the rural area of Bangladesh, he was born in Khulna and had done
his H.S.C from Khulna. First day was very different for him, he spend a lot of time
trying to understand the ways of BRAC University. He never expected to see girls
and boys mingling together and talking about heir day. To his surprise he saw a lot of
girls singing and dancing in the tunes. All this experience was new for Habib and he
saw the higher key of society and the modern culture of Dhaka. A small group of
people was singing in the beginning and then all of the student joined in and enjoyed.
This was new for Habib and he had a good time humming the tunes of songs. To his
dispute he came up with the situation where he had to face the issue of English
medium is better than the Bangle medium but as a new comer it didn’t affect him that
much. The conflict also reflects the conventional upper and middle class feuds.
David, Shaba and Habib joined the same club called the Cultural Club in BRAC
University. They were asked to come to the orientation program where for the first
time they spoke each other. David was excited to be friends with Bangladeshi
students and in his surprise both of them where friendly with him. Shaba was excited
to know about England and had first time talked to a Bangle medium student. Habib
never went anywhere except Dhaka was fascinated to know about the British culture.
He was pleased to meet Shaba who was really nice to him. They came from different
background and corner of the world culture and influenced each other in many ways.
4 SOC 101

5. Cultural diffusion 2011
Now if we see all the outcome of this international friendship and understand the
cultural diversity of the situation we will understand the importance of culture
diffusion. The two types of society middle class and the high class came together
through Shaba and Habib in the story and the natural conception changed into a solid
opinion. In this particular story the indirect culture diffusion happened as David,
Shaba and Habib worked as a middle man to represent the culture of different type of
society. By this process each individual will require the good effect and bad effect of
the culture for example if we consider the story we wrote, we can wonder by knowing
the class difference David may not look at our country as a racism free nation and the
positive effect can be the warmth of the people can make him understand the
Bangladeshi spirit. In the same way Habib can get mixed reaction and finally
understand the variation, knowing a different background person can change the
mentality about certain classes.
Conclusion:
Basically cultural diffusion is exchange of culture between one group to another group
of people. There are variety of culture exists in our world. People move from one place
to another and experiences multiple culture gradually learn it and start practicing those
in their day to day life, this is the process how cultural diffusion started. Many of our
gesture are basically product of cultural diffusion, we celebrate New Year eve,
Valentine’s Day which are basically not our culture, we got it from other culture. Our
habit of drinking tea, coffee or eating pizza, burger etc are also example of cultural
diffusion. Even our religion such as Christian, Islam is also spread widely over the
earth through cultural diffusion. So it is very clear that cultural diffusion plays a very
important role for our society. It is not necessary that cultural diffusion will always has
positive impact, sometime it may have some negative impact too. Our new “Djuice
Youth” can be an example of negative impact of cultural diffusion. In our story we
gave an example of cultural diffusion in Brac University. We discussed about three
people named David, Shaba and Habib. All of them came from different parts of the
5 SOC 101

6. Cultural diffusion 2011
world and met together in Brac University, on their very first day at university they
faced cultural shock. But because of their personal interest they came to know each
other and gradually David, Shaba and Habib started to understand each other’s feeling.
David started to learn about Bangladeshi culture, on the other hand Shaba and habib
started to learn the English culture. Even free mixing with girls was also a cultural
shock for him but as time flows Habib became comfortable about this. This story gives
us a real example of cultural diffusion. In our story we only showed the positive part of
cultural diffusion, but in the same story if we consider David as a drug addicted student
who convinces Shaba and Habib to be drug addicted than it will be an example of
negative impact of cultural diffusion. Because of satellites and internet facility, Now a
day’s communication has become very easy in our modern society. Now we can easily
know what others are doing and this is creating cultural diffusion. But we should
always remember that cultural diffusion has both positive and negative impact. So we
all have to be careful about cultural diffusion. If our young generation starts to bring the
negative side of other culture in them, it will be devastating. I support that cultural
diffusion is very important for us but we should be careful about what we are bringing
to our culture.
6 SOC 101

7. Cultural diffusion 2011
world and met together in Brac University, on their very first day at university they
faced cultural shock. But because of their personal interest they came to know each
other and gradually David, Shaba and Habib started to understand each other’s feeling.
David started to learn about Bangladeshi culture, on the other hand Shaba and habib
started to learn the English culture. Even free mixing with girls was also a cultural
shock for him but as time flows Habib became comfortable about this. This story gives
us a real example of cultural diffusion. In our story we only showed the positive part of
cultural diffusion, but in the same story if we consider David as a drug addicted student
who convinces Shaba and Habib to be drug addicted than it will be an example of
negative impact of cultural diffusion. Because of satellites and internet facility, Now a
day’s communication has become very easy in our modern society. Now we can easily
know what others are doing and this is creating cultural diffusion. But we should
always remember that cultural diffusion has both positive and negative impact. So we
all have to be careful about cultural diffusion. If our young generation starts to bring the
negative side of other culture in them, it will be devastating. I support that cultural
diffusion is very important for us but we should be careful about what we are bringing
to our culture.
6 SOC 101