Global Babble - Substantive Week 10

Janet Abu-Loghod talks about how wide the concept of globalization is, and uses the concept of a "two-way street," meaning that not only is the west influencing the rest of the world, but the rest of the world is influencing the west. Though I always considered globalization as a mostly American influence on the rest of the world, thinking about it in terms of how Americans are affected makes perfect sense. Just like developing countries today, the United States formed its values and customs based off of what they saw worked for other countries. Developing countries see that America is successful, and therefore want to replicate its culture. The main difference in my mind is that this change occured several generations ago. The interesting thing about the United States is how influenced it has always been by other cultures. For instance, some argue that prohibition was originally intended to target the Germans, who the United States was at war with. Whether or not Americans adopted German culture doesn't necessarily determine whether globalization took affect. In other words, when the United States actively made policy against what German culture was, globalization had influenced policy.