Cultural dilution involves a weakening of cultural practice, knowledge or meaning, especially when it is no longer passed on.
A family still displays a traditional festival decoration, but its younger members no longer know how to make it or what its symbols mean. The object remains visible while some of the knowledge connected to it has weakened.
Global influences can contribute to dilution when they displace time, attention or resources previously used for local cultural practices. If fewer people learn a language, craft or custom, it can become harder to pass on and may eventually be lost.
Look for evidence of change: fewer practitioners (people who carry out the practice), reduced use, fewer learners or weaker understanding over time. The popularity of foreign entertainment alone does not establish any of these. People can enjoy it while continuing other practices. A short promotional clip shows selected moments, not everything performed. Something absent from it may still appear in the full show, so check what an observer actually saw.
A decline can have several causes, including changes in school, work, family life or the availability of teachers. Explain the particular link to globalisation instead of assuming it caused every change. Neither all young people nor all foreign influences have the same effect.
Worked example: A language used less often
Ten years ago, twelve younger members of an extended family regularly and confidently spoke its heritage language with older relatives. Now only three of those same twelve relatives do so regularly and confidently. Family interviews mention more use of the language heard in overseas programmes, but also changes in school and workplace language use.
- The comparison shows fewer of the same relatives regularly and confidently using the language. It is stronger evidence of dilution than a list of popular foreign programmes.
- Less conversation can reduce opportunities for younger relatives to learn expressions and their meanings.
- The interviews identify overseas media as one influence, alongside school and work. They do not isolate globalisation as the only cause.
- The finding concerns this family and this language practice. It does not prove that the family's entire culture, or the language throughout society, has disappeared.
Watch out for this
A rise in foreign entertainment's popularity proves that local culture is disappearing.
Check what happened to local practices and their transmission. More enjoyment of something new can coexist with continuing local knowledge and participation.
Check your understanding
Which finding gives the strongest direct evidence that a local craft's transmission has weakened?
- Its last two teachers have retired, its classes have stopped, and no younger practitioner can perform the full technique.
- Young residents frequently buy imported decorative objects.
- An overseas television programme is the most watched programme this month.