Cultural diversity are the various aspects that particularly represent the different cultures, such as language, traditions, cuisine, religion, customs, family organization model, politics, among other characteristics of a group of human beings that inhabit a certain territory.
Cultural diversity is a concept created to understand the processes of differentiation between the various cultures that exist around the world. Multiple cultures form the call cultural identity of individuals or a society; a "brand" that personalizes and differentiates the members of a particular place from the rest of the world's population.
diversity means plurality, variety and differentiation, a concept that is considered the total opposite of homogeneity. Currently, due to the process of colonization and cultural miscegenation among most nations on the planet, almost all the countries have their cultural diversity, that is, a "little piece" of the traditions and customs of various cultures many different.
Some people consider the
globalization a danger to the preservation of cultural diversity, as they believe in the loss of traditional and typical customs in each society, giving way to global and "impersonal" characteristics.In order to try to preserve the rich cultural diversity of countries, the Organization of Nations United for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) created the "Universal Declaration on Diversity Cultural".
UNESCO's Declaration on Cultural Diversity recognizes multiple cultures as a "common heritage of humanity", and it is considered the first instrument that promotes and protects cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue among nations.
Cultural diversity in Brazil
Brazil is an incredibly rich country in cultural diversity, due to its territorial extension and plurality of colonizations and influences that it suffered throughout the process of building society Brazilian.
The differences are quite visible even between the different regions of the country: North, Northeast, Midwest, Southeast and South.
In the north and northeast regions, the predominance is of indigenous and African traditions, syncretized with the customs of the European peoples, who colonized the country.
In the Midwest region, where the Pantanal predominates, there is still a large presence of indigenous cultural diversity, with a strong influence from Minas Gerais and São Paulo cuisine.
In the southeast and south, customs of European origin stand out, with Portuguese, German, Italian and Spanish colonies that, even today, maintain the typical culture of their countries of origin.
Indigenous cultural diversity
The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity provides for actions to preserve multiple cultures of indigenous and African, such as the endangered indigenous languages, in addition to the traditional rituals and festivals of the indigenous people and Afro-descendant.
Cultural and religious diversity
Religious diversity is intrinsically related to culture. The call religious syncretism conceptualizes the process of mixing and diversifying various religions united within a society.
In Brazil, for example, religious diversity is in the presence of various beliefs cohabiting in the same territory, such as Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc.
See too:
- Brazil's cultural diversity
- Diversity
- cultural identity
- Culture
- multiculturalism
- Types of culture
