DEBATE: CULTURAL HERITAGE V/S GLOBALIZATION

INTRODUCTION Nowadays Cultural Heritage and Globalization are two

important facts, which were born at the hand of societys history and also have
been discussed in worldwide debate. Consequently, peoples opinion is divided.
Some of them (referring to people) affirm that have not good results being
interrelated; however, for other people these aspects (referring to CH and G)
have been translated into a mixture with good effects around the world. That is
why we are going to argue in favor or pro of CH as an element to preserve and
to make do by oneself, and our opponent party will claim about the cons,
defending the G as a good issue to progress as humanity.
On the one hand, my classmate our party is going to expose a brief definition
of the term Cultural Heritage and a description of the main negative effects
caused by globalization on Cultural Heritage.
On the other hand our opponents Mauricio and Aracely are going to
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1. According to NSW of Australian Government (New South Wales) in its

Office of Environment and Heritage, Culture and Heritage are defined

as (direct quote) the way of understanding and living in the world and
the environment, objects and places that we inherit from the past and
pass on to future generations to use, learn from and be inspired by.
Together these set our understanding of the past and influence the
decisions we make about what is worth keeping.
2. Regarding to Uni Nebraska (Mercy U. Nwegbu Cyril C. Eze Brendan E.
Asogwa) Globalization is a result of the evolution of imperialism (as imperialism is
a result of colonization). Taking as example the western explorations (Columbus,
De Valdivia, De Almagro, etc). Furthermore, cultural imperialism left the colonized
in a state of cultural disorientation which is vulnerable to cultural invasion
3. According to World Trade Organization Globalization has a number of negative a
effects involving the well-being of people. The negatives facts of Globalization on
Cultural Heritage include:
a. Gap between rich and poor
b. Environmental pollution
c. Susceptibility of all parts of the world suffering with recession in other countries
d. Commercialization of Culture: Production distribution and consumption of
cultural goods and services have become commodities along with the
essentials of life. Music, food, clothes, fashion, art, sports images, etc are now
sold in the market, imported and exported.
For example, what was once an element of Nigerias cultural way of life has
become a product, rather than something unique which they have made to suit
their specific needs and circumstances. The impact is that the familiar and the old
artefacts are being discarded, they are not valued by global markets. This
undermining of the peoples existing values and cultures has a corrosive impact on
the sense of who we are, what we want and what we respect. The cumulative
effect in Akandes (2000) words is a crisis of cultural confidence, combined with
economic uncertainty and crime which global integration often brings.

e. Major corporations overruling foreign policy decisions (William Haviland, The

essence of Antropology, 2012): Common people are not be able to trust

these major corporations in the decision of making a globalized world

when their intentions are mainly in producing more profits for their
corporation. In fact, the top 100 companies own 33 percent of the worlds
assets, but employ only one percent of the worlds workforce.
Globalization has allowed these corporations to grow to such an insane

level, producing power that allows them to stand above the demands of
national governments or international government such as the United
Nations, Red Cross, etc.
f.

Giving us as result a Reduction in individual sovereignty of a nation. In fact,

the rise of these power house corporations have helped destroy the U.S.
economy by creating a incredibly high trade deficit, which shifted the
dominant power of the United States economy to China. As of 2011,
China is on track to take over the United States by 2025.