Cultural hegemony is when one culture has a dominant position and influences other cultures’ values and aspirations. The US is interested in this concept due to its multinational expansion and media industry. However, smaller cultures often choose to adopt foreign ideas and products, and local culture can also influence the dominant culture. An example is the modification of an American dessert mix in India to fit local tastes and traditions.
Cultural hegemony is the idea or concept that one nation or culture, either by direct intent or simply by its dominant position in the world, exerts inordinate influence over how other cultures should behave, either in terms of values or political and economic aspirations. The idea of cultural hegemony was promoted by the writings of Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but did not originate the concept. A ruling class social structure has existed throughout human history in many regions. Examples can be seen in the dominance of Roman values over five centuries of rule of the Roman Empire, the dominance of Chinese culture over its smaller Asian neighbors which continued to exist into the modern era, the dominance of European cultural values over of Native Americans since North America was largely settled by European immigrants in the 19th, and so on.
The United States is uniquely interested in the idea of cultural hegemony, largely because the promotion of its social structure to the world is an inevitable by-product of US multinationals’ expansion into emerging markets and their large-scale willingness to intervene militarily in the affairs of the been bankrupt or bankrupt. American culture is also centered around a thriving and diverse media industry. Through film, television, music, and print entertainment, as well as the marketing of products through extensive advertising, American culture has an inordinate influence on the values of many nations where people aspire to a more consumer-based lifestyle. This influence is often viewed in a negative light, as it has the potential to suppress local cultural expression to the point of losing diversity in many forms.
A major argument against cultural hegemony in many forms throughout history, and which offers a singular defense of the diffusion of American culture, is that it is wrong to assume that smaller cultures are forced to assume the identity of more dominant ones . They do so by choice and often make extraordinary efforts to gain access to foreign ideas and cultural products, despite an attempt by their own governments to suppress it. Another main argument against the concept of cultural hegemony is that, while dominant cultures may spread their influence across different regions, these regions tend not to abandon their own values and interests, but merely incorporate new ones into a vision wider than the good life.
The philosophical concept of one dominant ideology supplanting others sometimes does not take into account what is happening on the contrary. As a dominant culture introduces its products and values into the lifestyles of others, these products are often modified to fit local tastes and interests. At the same time, local culture is embedded in the dominant social structure, making both groups more culturally diverse.
A simple example of the amalgamation of cultural interests can be seen in the introduction into the Indian market of a popular American devil’s food cake dessert mix by a major US corporation. Indians not only widely accepted the product, but modified both its content and advertising to fit their local values, replacing the company’s traditional cake mix with one that used rice instead of ordinary wheat flour. The mix was also modified so that it could be used to make products other than the traditional American pie, such as dosas, idlis and vadas, which are fermented Indian crepes, quiches and donuts, some of which date back more than a thousand years to the 920 AD in Indian cuisine.
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