Week 4: My Experiences and Definition of Transculturation

From what I remember, transculturation is the process and point at which cultures exchange and adopt outside cultural elements, negative or positive. For example, in The Secret River, the Natives and settlers experienced transculturation when they were exchanging items they had like hats and food. There is also Dick getting along with the Native children, learning how to throw a spear and start a fire without flint. An example from my own life is in my Spanish class. Not only do I learn about Spanish and Mexican culture (through learning the language and learning about cultural events). Not only that, but one of the activities is speaking with Native Spanish speakers online. We have a specific theme and questions to ask, but between the introductions and the topic, I get to learn a lot about these different places and the worlds they live in. Honestly, most of the learning is the realization of how similar we are despite living in different countries and speaking different languages, but I still think that counts as transculturation. I thought of that term as applying to all exchanges of culture and different cultural backgrounds, regardless of whatever is actually exchanged, but I could be wrong.

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 6, 2023 at 4:11 PM

    Hi Andrew, I like your examples of transculturation from The Secret River and also your modern day example. I believe part of the definition of transculturation is the distinction from assimilation, the traditional concept which has a forceful and disagreeable connotation.

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