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socio-cultural impacts — English
People live in social groups that are hierarchically organised according to their customs and traditions. Their traditions, rituals, religious practices, social interactions, and so forth, reflect their value system and the way they view the world. If political instability erupts into war, a community could be torn apart or they might be forced to leave their habitual area and all the places they regard as sacred, be compelled to learn a different language, or be swamped by a mass of migrants or refugees from somewhere else who suddenly arrive to settle in their area (see “refugee” and “host community”). It will have an enormous impact on the socio-cultural life of the original community. They are then exposed to foreign customs, religions, social and cultural practices, and eventually acculturation or even enculturation might happen (see “acculturation”). The end results of these impacts are intermarriage with the people who are now hardly foreigners anymore and ultimately the loss of the original community’s customary practices, milieu and identity. The dominance of certain cultures might destroy other cultures either forcibly or peacefully. When people are so attracted to another way of life, they might choose to adopt it and abandon their own culture. The American society is an interesting example. When the African-Americans were initially brought to North America as slaves, they were ripped from their own socio-cultural practices and were forced to adopt the practices of the slave-owners. The African slaves were a completely disrupted people. However, over a period of two hundred years and many traumatic events, the different peoples in the USA have blended into one nation which – by and large – shares the same socio-cultural traditions. All the different peoples of the world have experienced socio-cultural impacts at some stage or another, they have influenced one another to greater or lesser degree. But the Europeans, Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, and so forth, are still socio-culturally quite different from one another. The socio-cultural impact of the internet has already been significant and its future effect would be interesting to observe.
