# Is the loss of a culture, language, or cultural practice tragic? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 27, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443 "2014-02-27T19:43:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443/41 "2014-03-05T17:33:15Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Cultures do indeed get out-competed; the culture of England and France 500 years ago was to go to new places and subjugate them. Their culture won, the aboriginal culture lost. I guess I am entering in to this discussion with the assumption that we are generally care about human beings. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443/42 "2014-03-05T17:47:53Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Cultures colliding is rarely fair; we’re all warm and fuzzy about it these days, but our enlightened state is extremely recent. So we are now able to properly recognize atrocities, and use the word “atrocity” for past events that fit the definition, such as most ‘clashes’ during the age of exploration and colonization. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443/43 "2014-03-05T20:10:51Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > So I guess grossly unfair competition is okay? . . . So long as it isn’t at gunpoint or swordpoint then, yeah. The alternative would be suppression of speech, which we also think is bad. I don’t have much respect for missionaries going in to remote places to preach the Bible, but I also don’t have much respect for governments which forbid this and put missionaries in jail. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443/44 "2014-03-05T20:39:49Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I guess I am entering in to this discussion with the assumption that we are generally care about human beings. Helluvan assumption. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443/45 "2014-03-06T16:50:47Z")
No I don’t think loss of a dance or something is tragic, that’s just natural selection at work but it would be awfully depressing if the entire world someday speaks English and is identical to the USA (or China, or Europe etc). ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443/46 "2014-03-06T22:56:37Z")
It’s also worth pointing out that in the past when cultures “competed”, it was often not really a competition of cultures, but a competition of either military might, or immunity-to-smallpox. It’s entirely possible that the random-small-culture people of East Wazooistan had the absolutely positively most well-thought-out culture in human history, with really fantastic systems of family structures, art, small-scale politics, and so forth… but they were not immune to smallpox or rifle fire. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443/47 "2014-03-06T23:03:18Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > No I don’t think loss of a dance or something is tragic, that’s just natural selection at work but it would be awfully depressing if the entire world someday speaks English and is identical to the USA (or China, or Europe etc). One of the saving graces against that possibility is that cultures are constantly being invented, in the embryonic form of sub-cultures. Rockers, golfers, sci-fi fans, hackers, etc. Every special interest is the nucleus of a sub-culture, which can grow to add to the richness and variety of the overall culture. The really good ones become mainstays…and then spin off new variants. Cultures are artificial in the first place: they’re what people make up to be comfortable with. The languages which we (rightfully) regret seeing disappear are, themselves, relatively new, and always evolving. Haitian and Quebecois French are lively variants of classical French. Circle of Life… ---
**Author:** ![Melchior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Melchior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melchior)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443/48 "2014-03-06T23:03:57Z")
Human cultures are born and die. It’s the nature of human existence. Neither good nor bad. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443/49 "2014-03-07T04:04:08Z")
A culture is not a static thing. If Europeans had somehow never discovered America, Aztec culture would still be different from what it was like in the 16th century. The other side of that is that there’s a difference between organic change with some sort of continuity, mingling, assimilation, and conquest/destruction. The last is definitely bad. (Due to my personal interests I think it’s important that languages be retained in cultural memory at the very least … but those evolve too.) ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443/50 "2014-03-07T04:32:30Z")
In the Chinese language families, whole languages/dialects are dying out. Shanghaiese for example will probably not be a majority native language within a generation. This is mirrored across China. Hong Kong probably will not be a majority Cantonese native speaking society in two more generations. Sure, it’s a lot more convenient if all of China speaks Mandarin natively (or even as a second language). I think they will be poorer for it. Hell, as a visitor to China for 30+ years, I am witness to the Mandarization of the entire country. I think they are losing their diversity and probably poorer for it. Of course, that is somewhat akin to the pre-Hollywood English spoken in America. My grandmother from Arkansas and my step mother from Missouri could/can slip into speaking something I as a Californian can’t understand. I think it’s a lot more convenient that we’re pretty mutually intelligible English speakers in the US, but the loss of local cultures is a loss. IMHO of course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-loss-of-a-culture-language-or-cultural-practice-tragic/682443.md?page=2)