Cultural hybridisation combines elements from different cultures into an adapted or new form.
A percussion group combines rhythms taught by local elders with electronic arrangements learned from musicians abroad. Its new piece brings the influences together instead of simply copying one of them.
This blending is cultural hybridisation. People select, reinterpret and combine elements to fit their tastes, circumstances or purposes. The resulting form can become meaningful in its own local setting.
Hybridisation differs from two traditions existing side by side without being combined. It also differs from simply adopting the same unchanged product everywhere. A new form may appeal to new audiences while keeping some existing skills or meanings in use.
Blending does not automatically preserve everything or destroy the original practice. Check what changes, what remains and whether people continue learning the relevant knowledge. Communities can also disagree about which changes they value.
Worked example: A new arrangement of an older rhythm
A local group learns electronic production from an overseas musician. It uses those techniques in a piece built around a rhythm taught by a community elder. New members learn to play the rhythm and explain its place in community celebrations.
- The overseas production technique and the local rhythm are identifiable influences.
- Combining them within one piece creates an adapted form, so this is hybridisation.
- Teaching the rhythm and its meaning provides evidence that some cultural knowledge continues to be passed on.
- The example does not prove that every older musical practice is secure. It shows continuity in this particular skill alongside change.
Watch out for this
Any change to a traditional practice means that the culture has been lost.
Cultures have histories of change and exchange. Examine the skills, meanings and practices involved. An adapted form can retain important knowledge, while an unchanged-looking product may be made without that knowledge.
Check your understanding
A designer learns a folding technique from an overseas craftsperson and combines it with a local decorative pattern to make a new type of lantern. Why is this hybridisation?
- Any object sold abroad is automatically a blend of cultures.
- The lantern combines identifiable influences from different cultures in one new form.
- The local pattern must have disappeared because an overseas technique was used.