When Cultures Colide

When cultures change, collide, converge and connect, a variety of things could happen. It could be from peaceful connections and or links, or very violent fight and struggles. As we see from history, many cultures have met each other. If the cultures were peaceful, they lived together and intermixed. But if they were violent towards each other, the cultures clashed and usually the dominant people took authority over the recessive.



Such examples could be seen 500,000 to 750,000 years ago in southern Europe. The Neanderthal species was living peacefully when another group, the Cro-Magnon (of the Homo sapiens group or wise human), came and settled to live. They lived side by side for many years, not really trusting each other when finally they became at odds with each other. The Cro-Magnon, the more dominant species, outsmarted the Neanderthal, hence the name, ‘wise human’. The Neanderthal eventually died out and the dominant species still lives today as Homo Sapiens Sapiens or ‘wise wise human’.



Still other examples occurred in early British history with the natives of the island and the Vikings. When the Vikings came, the native Saxons didn’t welcome them and they clashed with each other over the years. But eventually, they put their differences aside, intermixed their cultures and lived peacefully together.



But I think the most amazing and astonishing mix of cultures is the United States, the “Great Melting Pot”.   Not since the “Pax Romana” has more cultures lived under “one roof”.   However, unlike Rome, which used force to keep its empire together, this country contains a mix of more cultures than any other country in the world. For over 200 years, cultures of every kind were drawn here because of the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness assured by the writers of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Even though many cultures came to live side-by-side in this great country, they set aside...