Speaking of cultural diffusion, take coffee as an example. It was the drink of preference in the Middle East from time immemorial (that and mint tea), and has spread all over the world. I am miserable without it. Much more universal than Coca-Cola.
Those entertainers playing guitars are playing a variation on stringed instruments which we also adopted after contact with the Middle East.
And my family greatly prefers kufta to hamburger.
I think it's you who doesn't understand cultural diffusion.
It's not the things that change us, it's the memes. You see people adopting both memes and things, and confuse causality.
In the West, we use coffee to help us work harder. In the Middle East, they use it to relax.
I remember, during hippie days, people dressing up like they were from the Middle East, India, you name it, eating different foods, listening to the music, the whole bit, and now they're indistinguishable from the rest of us. Adopted the things, didn't adopt the memes. |
