Globalization and its Effects on the Myths and Cultural Variations among African Communities (Essay Sample)

GLOBALIZATION AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE MYTHS AND CULTURAL VARIATIONS AMONG AFRICAN COMMUNITIES
Student Name:
Institution:
Course Code:
Date Due
Abstract
African mythological stories passed from one generation to the other through oral literature. This put doubt on the authenticity of the African stories, however the traditional African societies used the myths to guide and entrench the order among the people who conformed to the myths. African epistemology of myths served as the way of obtaining and transferring knowledge. It enabled Africans to recollect past events of man and the society which make it easier for community to align themselves in a certain dimension. This study seeks to understand how "modernization" of the Africa through globalization changed the way through which they now perceive cultures. The information will be obtained through extensive and expansive desktop research that will entail analysis of the ancient African set up with the modern day alignment.
Introduction
Through eras and dissection of varied cultural orientations, myths have had specific functionality to aid in understanding the world with respect to the targets, actions of gods and man. Myths rely upon the fundamental function of the anthropogenic mind, i.e. the inclination to infers meaning and at the same time attribute the meaning to a purely natural phenomenon, thus creating a link between the action of gods and man (Falola, 2013). Mythology is a collection of myths specific to a particular religious or cultural alignment. Their collections of tales seek to explore certain aspect of nature, history and customs. The main functionality of myth as the creation of a link that connect nature, divinity and man in that it assists man to find solutions to complex situation and foster a better relationship with the earth (Ogbonnaya, 2014).
The concept of globalization refers to the compression of the world and the anchorage of the consciousness of the welfare of the people around the globe. In other words globalization is social metamorphosis in which geographical obstacles to the social and cultural orientations is deemed insignificant (Vasiliev, 2015). Also, globalization is a geographical process that require humanity to consider the way space and time are configured and recognized as a results of drastic changes in the technological, social, economic and political scopes (Falola, 2013).
How the Myths were affected by Globalization
The myths of classical times are captured through the works done by the romantic writer Edgar Allan Poe. In his quest to comprehend it’s rather complex relationships across the varied cultural and religious divides he used the Greek’s Deucalion, Pyrrha and Prometheus, Mesopotamian flood myth and the biblical Noah’s ark to connect the similarities of the various views that man had to certain natural occurrences (Ogbonnaya, 2014).
The myths explain the reality of the universe and all its composition. In Africa, they explore the contexts of diverse cultures, great anthropogenic connection with realities such as mortality, creation and evolution stories. Myths in African context have so many values in the societal setup in that they act as socializing agents, they teach the young generations of meaning of the universe and the role that man has to play in it (Falola, 2013). A myth is a story which is believed to be true with its origin in the ancient history and its common to people who believe in certain ideologies or cultural norms. Myths are historical information communicated orally by processes peculiar to each community (Vasiliev, 2015).
In the traditional African set up, myths and the varied cultural variations had guided the community long before Christianity and other modern religious orientations were introduced. Colonization and demarcation of Africa brought an everlasting alteration to the cultural and mythical orientation of the African set up (Ogbonnaya, 2014). Unlike the Egyptian mythology, widespread the lack of civilization in the other parts of ancient Africa where most of the mythical stories were passed through oral literature from generation to the generation as has led to the doubts on the authenticity of the African mythologies (Falola, 2013).
The African mythology is filled with spirits, invisible beings with the powers of good or evil. Spirits are less powerful like humans than gods who often have weakness and emotions. The spirits are associated with physical features such as mountains, wells, trees, and springs. Like the Greek mythology, Africans also believed in pantheons i.e. all gods of a particular culture (Falola, 2013). The Baganda of the East Africa region have the highest number of pantheons, with more than 20 deities. The table below gives a summary of the different pantheons among the vast African cultures (Vasiliev, 2015).
Just like the varied gods that the African cultures believed in to change their fortunes, the myths had very important roles to put the society in order. The world at the time lacked a governance system and the ancient people had to device means through which the people can respect the ideals the community. The numerous gods played a key role in shaping the community (Ogbonnaya, 2014).
Globalization is the process of breaking different cultures and producing a seamless global system of socio-economic values. From castle school of thought, it’s worth noting that the African society paid the price for globalization by leaving almost all their ancient cultural and mythical believes to adopt the western cultures. Globalization can also refer to a process of harmonizing different cultural beliefs (Falola, 2013). Academic understanding of culture varies based on the orientation of the people. Culture is an aspect considered in an attempt to analyses and integrate events in the wider community (Vasiliev, 2015).
Africa is one of the six world’s continents with over 300 different traditional languages. In terms of size, it’s the second largest both in acreage and population. It covers an area of 11,699 square miles more than thrice the size of the United states. The continent is home for 54 sovereign nations. According to the world population review (2015) the continent is the second most populous in the world with her human population standing as a staggering 1.66billion. For quite a long time, the rest of the world viewed Africa as a "dark continent" due to the myriad of challenges that the continent has faced ranging from Absolute poverty, HIV-AIDS epidemic, ethnic violence, corruption, lack of the rule of law among others. However, the continent is rich is cultural diversity, human resources, ecological and economic potential (Ogbonnaya, 2014).
Problems of globalization
Globalization is likewise communicated through associations, for example, the United Nations and the World Health Organization that assist the nation voice their worries and also connect with the International Community for help if necessary (Vasiliev, 2015). However, through the United Nations, as expressed in the United Nations Charter and the United Nations assertion of Human Rights, ensures the power of individual states to a vast degree despite the fact that the entire idea of globalization undermines it. However this idea might be dangerous in many cases (Falola, 2013). For instance, there is as of now an exertion by numerous "western" associations and people to end Female Genital Circumcision in Africa, which has, during the time been rehearsed as an image of womanhood. These protestors condemn the age old custom, regarding it as an infringement of ladies' rights.
Through globalization, the meaning of African culture, for this situation ladies' rights, are turning out to be progressively seen as being all inclusive rather than it being socially relative. The estimation of custom in Africa is step by step getting to be neglected, for a more homogeneo...