Nowadays, in the era of globalization, the local traditions are pushed away in exchange to the global heritage. On the other side, some people are lobbying the cultures that are near to extinction, and it shows a negative side of the worldwide cultural mixtape.
Neither of this views is the only one truth. These processes around the world are complex phenomena, and incredibly, but they started in the Bronze age. The Babylonians exported and imported a lot of the cultures across their empire. Empire of Alexander the Macedonian mixed out the East and the West, giving us the anomalies like Greco-Bactrian ethnicity in the North-West of the modern India, and over time this cultural pattern expanded more and more globally. At it’s peak it was in the Colonialism and the late Imperialism eras, western civilizations just forced the tribes of the locals to obey their traditions, especially the Christianity. Getting back to our time, the most powerful cultural colonial power became not certain state, but the capitalism itself. Big corporations now are dictating the worldwide trends, and because of this even in Papua New Guinea, the McDonald’s have it’s emporium.
Despite all of the things being said, it’s the people’s and nation’s rights to maintain their authenticity. People start to realize that losing their roots means losing their identity, so the movement of cultural preservation is gaining power. The internet, which was supposed to delete the borders, became a tool for small ethnic groups to share their unique language, music, and crafts with the global audience. This creates a paradox: the same global technologies that threaten the local traditions are now helping to save them from the complete extinction.
In conclusion, the cultural globalization is not a new invention of the 21st century, but a long historical process that goes from the Babylonians to the modern corporations. It is impossible to say that only one side is right, because the world needs the global progress, but it also cannot survive without the unique local colors.