CULTURAL CREOLIZATION
CULTURAL CREOLIZATION

Summary/Abstract: The central effect of globalization is cultural convergence. The notion of “cultural creolization,” amplified from creole linguistics, offers a model wherewith to understand the cultural convergences of Europe and the rest of the postmodern world. Creolization, like diaspora, is a word with a history that is relevant to cultural analysis. Despite the claims of other terms like acculturation, transculturation, mixing, and hybridization, I advocate creolization to remind ethnologists of the decisive power differences that are always present when cultures converge. Creolization also denotes the creation of something discontinuous and new, which could not have been predicted from its origins. I sketch the relation of this concept to history, sociolinguistics, communication theory, anthropology, and religious studies, in the light of definitive linguistic research.

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