Transculturation & Diffusion

Cidette Rice
Mr.Roddy
IHSS
9/10/19
Transculturation & Diffusion
The definition of transculturation, as taken from the glossary of anthropology terms, is ‘what happens to an individual when he or she moves to a new society and adopts their culture.’
A good, real-life example of transculturalism is French colonialism in North Africa from 1865-1960. In 1865, the French founded 8 French colonial territories that continued until 1960, when France allowed members of the French community to change their constitution. As a result, North Africa continues to have a large french-speaking population.
Another excellent example of transculturation is the transfer of online video game players from Fortnite to Team Fortress 2. In 2008, the PC video game ‘Team Fortress 2’ was released as a standalone game after it’s initial package release in 2007. Team Fortress 2 (more commonly known as ‘TF2’) is a first-person shooter that features 9 different classes, each with stable characterization and distinct personalities. Team Fortress 2 was initially praised for it’s rewarding hit-or-miss mechanics, humor, art style and characterization, and over the years it has been known to be one of the most revolutionary games for PC gaming. Enter ‘Fortnite’, a popular first person shooting among children and young adults. Made famous for it’s twitch streams and social media presence, it is playable on mobile, X-Box, PS4, PC and there is a rumor in the gaming community about it possibly being added to Nintendo Switch gameplay. Fortnite is a common way for children to get into PC gaming, and as a result, their interest in video games expands and there’s a need for variety. Enter TF2 (again). As being renowned as one of the PC’s best first person shooting, many new players are joining 12 years after its release. When they play TF2, they bring a lot of Fortnite slang with them. Since they are two seperate games, the words they use don’t make sense to the gameplay but because they were introduced to the terminology through the first game they played (Fortnite) they assume the slang is used for every first person shooter. 
The definition of diffusion, as taken from the glossary of anthropology term, is ‘the movement of cultural traits and ideas from one society or ethnic group to another.  While the form of a trait may be transmitted to another society, the original meaning may not.’

An example of diffusion is the movement of private and public school kids alike into POHS. While in others schools, they call physical fitness, P.E. I’ve been to 5 different schools and Post Oak is the only one where we call P.E, P.F. When I first made the switch, I thought from just the name, P.F was an additional non-traditional class similar to design technology or success skills. For a solid year I continuously called it P.E, and it took until middle school (I transferred in 6th grade) for the name P.F to start catching on. I alternate between the two, and I’ve noticed that students who haven’t gone to this school for all that long do the same.

Another example of diffusion is the diversity of food we have in Houston. Houston is an immigrant hub, and is praised for its diversity in citizens and culture. With Texas being home to 164 different languages, Houston hosts 145 of those. I once had a friend come in from Dallas and comment on how lively the food was, and how many options of cuisine we had. From our Italian, to French, to Vietnamese, to our huge selection of Chinese food from Chinatown. Wherever people go, food is to follow.

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