Westernization

About: Westernization is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1154 publications have been published within this topic receiving 15791 citations. The topic is also known as: occidentalization.

Empowerment as a Universal Ethic in Global Journalism

Abstract: Globalization has churned up in its wake a reevaluation of standards in numerous enterprises, including journalism. The search for a universal journalism ethic, however, has often ended with the attempt to import traditional and underlying Western "free press" values, such as objectivity and an adversarial platform, forged in Enlightenment philosophy. This belief of the universal portability of Western values is reflected in the mixed results of several professional initiatives in the early and mid-1990s designed to both install and instill a First Amendment-based free press system in the newly independent former states of the Soviet Union. Scholars admonish that modernization through globalization is not Westernization and warn of the futility of attempting to fit indigenous values into a procrustean bed of Western economic or political design. Multiple models of citizen-press-government relationships grow legitimately out of indigenous value systems and are endurable within the forces of globalization. ...

The Impact of Culture on Group Behavior: A Comparison of Three Ethnic Groups

Abstract: Multicultural counseling has become an important discipline and a primary source for explaining human development and functioning (Lee, 1997; Pedersen, 1991); therefore, cultural differences should be actively considered in mental health interventions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of culture on group behavior and on outcomes. Specifically, the study compared self-disclosure, group interaction, and outcomes in counseling groups for Arab (Moslem and Druze) and Jewish adolescents in Israel. MULTICULTURALISM IN THE ISRAELI CONTEXT Arabs in Israel encompass several ethnic groups, among which Moslems and Druze are examined in the present study. Both groups share a basic Arab culture characterized as collectivist and authoritarian (Dwairy, 1998). Religion, tradition, and family are central components in this culture (Barakat, 1993; Dwairy, 1998; Jackson, 1997). Accordingly, social relationships are built on duty and faithfulness to family and friends rather than on self-needs. The individual is dependent on his or her family at large (Nydell, 1987), and the family's reputation depends on the individual member's behavior. The concepts of self-esteem and respect are interdependent in Arab families, which operate as close units--cohesive, loving, and warm, but at the same time suppressing personal feelings, opinions, experiences, and needs. As a result, the Arab individual typically avoids overt emotional expression (El-Rufaie & Absood, 1993). The need to conform to collective norms has led to "pleasing" as a major coping mechanism (Griefat & Katriel, 1989). Within this common Arab culture, there are cultural variations between groups, depending on their degree of acculturation (Lee, 1997). Dwairy (1998) has identified three major groups among Arabs: traditional, bicultural, and Westernized. Traditional Arab identity is the common cultural identity of Arabs in rural areas, where people live with traditional collectivist values and norms within their extended families and social life. Bicultural identity is common among middle-class, educated Arabs, but even in this category Westernization is evident, mainly in the emphasis on materialistic aspects of living rather than on their social relationships (Al-Sabaie, 1989). The Westernized group is usually composed of Arabs who immigrated to Western countries. The major difference between Moslems and Druze is the level of acculturation. Close to 1 million Moslems live in Israel, and most of them may be considered bicultural. The Druze, in contrast, numbering about 94,000 in Israel, are known as an ethnic group that is furthest removed from the mainstream lifestyle in Israel and considered to have the greatest solidarity in the Middle East. They differ from the Moslems in their religion, ethnicity, geography, and political stands. They are a minority in several Arab countries in the Middle East, including Israel, and believe that keeping up with their tradition is the basis for their survival (Dana, 1998). Therefore, they are very strict in their socialization of the young generation (Phalet & Claeys, 1993). The differences between Arab (Moslem, Druze) and Western cultures are reflected also in Arab attitudes toward counseling. Arabs tend to believe in external natural factors or supernatural factors as causes for pathology (Timimi, 1995). On the whole, only extreme cases of pathology are treated, in an attempt to avoid stigmatizing, and Arabs wait a longer time before seeking help (Dwairy, 1998; Okasha, 1993). When they do pursue counseling, they expect it to be direct, to be short-term, and to offer advice. The traditional focus on verbal exchange and insight is often experienced as intrusive. Therefore, outreach counseling and short-term, goal-oriented, systematic eclecticism is offered for counseling Arabs (Budman, Lipson, & Meleis, 1992; Dwairy, 1998). Yet, owing in part to social oppression, social change, and family transformation, Arabs tend to display high levels of psychosocial disorders (Ibrahim & Ibrahim, 1993; Okasha, 1993). …

Westernization of the Asian Eyelid

Abstract: • Westernization of the Asian eyelid has become a topic of considerable interest in the Western world in recent years due to the increasing number of surgeons being consulted to perform this procedure. This demand is attributable to the great influx of Asian immigrants who are influenced by Western culture, design, and esthetics. After performing over 2,000 cases of westernizing Asian eyelids, I have developed a method of surgically creating a "double eyelid" as well as a method for removing the epicanthal web. The techniques result in a marked improvement of the narrow, puffy Asian eye and greater patient satisfaction. With these two separate techniques, improved cosmetic results can be achieved over those techniques that are commonly performed today, either in the Western world or in the Orient. (Arch Otolaryngol1985;111:149-153)

‘National Essence’ vs ‘Science’: Chinese Native Physicians' Fight for Legitimacy, 1912–37

Abstract: The medical profession in modern China comprised two radically different schools—modern (Western) medicine and native medicine. The difference in philosophy, theory, and technique made a conflict between the two schools almost inevitable, and the conflict was intensified by the modernization process that was quickened during the Republican period. Western-trained or modern doctors advocated national salvation through science and denounced native medicine as superstitious, unscientific, and an impediment to the development of medical science in China. On the other hand, native medical practitioners insisted that what they learned and practiced was part of the national essence (guocui) and should be protected against the cultural invasion of imperialism (diguo zhuyi wenhua qinlue) including Western medicine. To be sure, both sides used such rhetoric to camouflage the business competition between them, but this rivalry and its implications did point to a profound cultural conflict between Chinese tradition and Western influence in China's modernization. It epitomized a burning issue of the day: whether or not China's modernization meant Westernization and whether a respectable position for China in the modern world was to be achieved through Westernization or preservation of what was regarded or claimed as national heritage.

Writing, Shamanism and Identity or Voices from Abya-Yala

Abstract: In the debate over the range of possible meanings that can be attributed to the quincentenary of the European invasion of the Indies, Carmen Bernand-Mufioz has recently argued that a 'serene' historiography should not take sides on behalf of either protagonist. Could a modern Frenchman, she asks, sensibly choose to lament the Roman invasion of Gaul?' Sixteenth-century Spain was after all the vanguard of European modernity: she invented new techniques for policing the body and controlling sexuality; she promoted ecological transformation through the trans-Atlantic 'exchange' of domesticated plants and animals; and she introduced 'rational' methods of urbanization. It could be added that she also laid the foundations for the development of the modern discipline of anthropology. In this scenario, the 'indian' is the product of an irreversible process of Westernization. lThe 'scholarly task', therefore, is not to emit anachronistic judgements on the rights and wrongs of the invasion, but to examine the circumstances and conditions of the 'cultural and biological mestizaje' set in train from the first moments of the Spanish arrival in the New World. Only in this way will 'Latin America' be able to revindicate its distinctive identity in relation to its powerful northern neighbour and the other 'Anglo-Saxon countries'. Apart from its insistence on old imperial rivalries between European nations in the Americas, there is something to recommend Bernand-Mufioz' view. If the idea of 'Latin America' was originally the result of French in(ter)vention in Mexico during the 1860s, it has nevertheless provoked one of the most successful examples of ethnogenesis in modern times. Today it provides a patria grande for many Americans who suffer from the clumsy racism and military-economic heavy-handedness issuing from the US Government. To seek the 'roots' of a nineteenth-century creation in the sixteenth century may smack of the very anachronism that Bernand-Mufioz