What is the difference between cultural diffusion and cultural diversity

Cultural Diffusion: When one culture spreads from one region or country to another region or country. Cultural Diversity is when there are many cultures in one area. The definition of cultural diffusion is the spread of the beliefs and social activities of one culture to different ethnicities, religions, nationalities, etc.

An example of cultural diffusion is the tradition of the German Christmas pickle becoming popular in the United States. Cultural evolutionary theory has led to significant advances in our understanding of the effects of nonrandom mating, revealing that the transmission and dynamics of cultural traits can be sensitive to both phenotypic and environmental assorting Language is one of the most important parts of any culture.

It is the way by which people communicate with one another, build relationships, and create a sense of community. As language began to develop, different cultural communities put together collective understandings through sounds. Culture influences the language that is spoken within its constraints as a society, such as how certain words are used in support of the culture.

Relationship between language and culture. Language and culture are the two systems that attached in human life. If culture as a system that regulates the human interaction in society, the language will be a system that serves as a means of the interaction ongoing.

In the same way, society is conditioned by language, since social communication determines the daily conduct of its members and constitutes the main point of social organization.

Language is therefore a social phenomenon which is the indispensable instrument of society and on which it acts continuously. Language performs various functions in the society and the society does the same way. If one will not exist, the other one will be affected. Language is the primary tool for communication purposes, for establishing peace and order in our society, for showing authority and power, and for attaining goals and objectives.

Languages do not limit our ability to perceive the world or to think about the world, but they focus our perception, attention, and thought on specific aspects of the world. So, different languages focus the attention of their speakers on different aspects of the environment—either physical or cultural.

Moreover, cultural assimilation can be either rapid or gradual, depending on various factors. However, in the modern world, cultural assimilation is mainly associated with immigration. Most of these immigrants integrate into the dominant culture of these developed countries. Most of the times, cultural assimilation may be noticeable in the children of these immigrants. Cultural diffusion is the spreading of cultural traits from one group to another whereas cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture begins to resemble those of a dominant group.

So, this is the key difference between cultural diffusion and cultural assimilation. Moreover, cultural diffusion is a two-way process as it involves two or more cultures coming together and elements of both cultures mixing together. But, cultural assimilation is not a two-way process as only the minority group gets absorbed into the majority group, and not vice versa. Thus, this is a significant difference between cultural diffusion and cultural assimilation.

However, in cultural assimilation, one minority group or culture become a part of a dominant culture by adoption the practices and norms of the new culture and forgetting the original culture.

Thus, this is the key difference between cultural diffusion and cultural assimilation. Cole, Nicki Lisa. Chavan, Akshay. Taylor, Lilly. Culture can be broad, such as Western or Eastern culture, or it can be narrow, such as the company culture of a specific workplace.

Now on to diffusion , or the act of spreading. Diffusion is used in a lot of different academic fields in addition to anthropology, such as physics, meteorology, and cinematography, all to describe the act of spreading, transmitting, or migrating.

Put the two elements together and we see that cultural diffusion is the movement of parts of a unique culture in between individuals, locations, and amongst other cultures. Thanks to the Silk Road, art, ideas, inventions, and religion diffused amongst various countries and cultures.

For example, Buddhism spread from its country of origin, India, by way of the Silk Road, to other countries such as Tibet, China, and Japan, where it is still practiced quite frequently today. The act of cultural diffusion, the actual spreading of ideas and practices, can occur in a few different ways.

Five, to be exact. First, expansion diffusion: this describes ideas that develop in a culture of origin, remain strong there, and also spread outward.

The next three types of diffusion can also be included in the large umbrella category of expansion diffusion. Hierarchical diffusion is something that spreads from larger to smaller areas—think cities to rural areas. Contagious diffusion is something that rapidly spreads from person to person, like viral videos or memes. Stimulus diffusion is the spread of something which gets altered in the process.

For example, yoga in the United States is a form of exercise, but originally in India it was and is considered more a holistic form of meditation. The last type, relocation diffusion, describes something losing popularity after its spread. This spread typically by the physical movement of people makes the cultural aspects less popular or irrelevant in their place of origin, think Puritanism after Puritan settlers left Europe for North America. Cultural diffusion is used in academic spheres, for example, among anthropologists, sociologists, and geographers, to discuss the movement of certain aspects of a culture.

Anthropologists use cultural diffusion to study and explain similarities that may occur in different cultures.