Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to monoculture, as in the global monoculture, or a homogenization of cultures, akin to cultural decay. For example, before Hawaii was conquered, the culturally diverse Hawaiian culture existed in the world, and contributed to the world's cultural diversity. Now Hawaii has been westernized; the vast majority of its culture has been replaced with Western or American culture. The phrase cultural diversity can also refer to having different cultures respect each other's differences. The phrase cultural diversity is sometimes misused to mean the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole; but these phenomena are multiculturalism rather than cultural diversity. The culturally destructive action of globalization is often said to have a negative effect on the world's cultural diversity.
Read more about Cultural Diversity: Overview, Opposition and Support, Quantification, Cultural Heritage, Ocean Model of One Human Civilization, Cultural Vigor, Defense
Famous quotes containing the words cultural and/or diversity:
“Somehow we have been taught to believe that the experiences of girls and women are not important in the study and understanding of human behavior. If we know men, then we know all of humankind. These prevalent cultural attitudes totally deny the uniqueness of the female experience, limiting the development of girls and women and depriving a needy world of the gifts, talents, and resources our daughters have to offer.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)
“The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)